Stonehearst Asylum

Tonight's horror was Stonehearst Asylum, a film that pretty much takes the saying "the lunatics have taken over the asylum" and makes a movie out of it. I can see the pitch meeting now: "So, you know that saying, 'the lunatics have taken over the asylum?' I wanna do that... but as a movie!" Or the pitch was inspired by this song, I dunno:

Who am I kidding: it was definitely inspired by this song.

All joking aside, it's a pretty cool concept: a young doctor arrives to train at an asylum, and slowly finds out that the inmates are the ones running the asylum. Chaos, as mentally deranged folks relegated to an asylum are wont to do, ensues. The cinematography is great, the acting by superb actors (Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kate Beckinsale, the guys who play Mad Eye Moody and Remus Lupin, etc) is, unsurprisingly superb, and the whole thing is... somehow underwhelming? I don't know what it is about creators of period horror veering into melodrama territory (I'm looking at you, Crimson Peak), but what keeps this movie from being great is just that: melodrama. The movie tends to dovetail into melodrama at random points throughout and then jump right back to seriousness. It's jarring and pulls away from what is a solid, well-conceived film. 

Overall though, I enjoyed Stonehearst Asylum even if it has it's fair share of melodramatic schlock. 

7.5/10