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Post by fenris on Nov 11, 2007 14:12:59 GMT
For anyone who's unfamiliar with their work, The Asylum is an American independent film production company that specialises in low budget direct-to-DVD movies. They actually started out in the early Nineties as distributors, and only seem to have branched out into producing their own films a few years ago. Initially they made various horror movies that received fair-to-middling reviews, and it seemed they would fill the position in the marketplace once occupied by Charles Band's Full Moon Productions (Way of the Vampire is probably The Asylum's best-known film from this early period).
However, in 2005 they made their own version of War of the Worlds starring C. Thomas Howell, to cash in on that year's Spielberg/Cruise blockbuster. The result was The Asylum's most financially successful film to date, and they apparently decided that producing rip-offs of much-hyped studio movies was the way forward.
Since then, The Asylum have almost exclusively churned out blatant copies of upcoming big budget pictures, usually rushing them through production and getting them onto DVD store shelves a few days or even weeks before the studio movies that inspired them are released into cinemas. A phrase has actually been coined to describe The Asylum's output: 'mockbusters'.
Here's a list of some of the films that The Asylum have produced since 2005, with the big budget originals in brackets; King of the Lost World - based on the novel The Lost World, which is in the public domain. The DVD box art features a huge gorilla (Peter Jackson's King Kong). When a Killer Calls (the When a Stranger Calls remake). Exorcism: The Possession of Gail Bowers (The Exorcism of Emily Rose). Hillside Cannibals (the Hills Have Eyes remake). The Da Vinci Treasure (The De Vinci Code). Pirates of Treasure Island - based on another public domain novel, Treasure Island (Pirates of the Caribbean). Snakes on a Train - perhaps the ultimate Asylum title (Snakes on a Plane). The 9/11 Commission Report (seemingly intended to cash in on United 93, this movie reportedly manages to include a gratuitous sex scene!) Dragon (Eragon). 666 - The Child (The Omen remake). The Hitchhiker (The Hitcher remake). Transmorphers (the Transformers movie). Halloween Night (the Halloween remake). Invasion of the Pod People (The Invasion). Universal Soldiers (too easy). I Am Omega (I Am Legend). AVH: Alien vs Hunter (guess).
And The Asylum's movies are actually spawning. Amongst their upcoming titles are 666 - The Beast and War of the Worlds: The Next Wave, sequels to 666 - The Child and their version of War of the Worlds respectively.
However, their rushed production schedules and resulting cost-cutting is apparently catching up with them. According to many reviews, the sound on Transmorphers and Universal Soldiers is awful, with the soundtrack often drowning out the actors and the dialogue out of synch.
The Asylum's movies sometimes turn up on the Zone Horror channel, and can occasionally be found amongst the budget DVDs in Woolworths, selling for £4 or less.
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Post by fenris on Nov 13, 2007 21:25:25 GMT
Hillside Cannibals (the Hills Have Eyes remake). The Asylum's movies sometimes turn up on the Zone Horror channel. Speak of the devil... Hillside Cannibals is debuting on Zone Horror on 17/11/07 at 22:55.
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Post by fenris on Nov 21, 2007 20:28:02 GMT
Transmorphers (the Transformers movie). The Asylum's movies can occasionally be found amongst the budget DVDs in Woolworths, selling for £4 or less. Wandered into my local Woolworths today, and they've got Transmorphers for only £2.97. Considering that's less than you'd pay for the average magazine or a decent sandwich, I was almost tempted to buy it, just so I could see for myself how bad it is.
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Post by fenris on Dec 4, 2007 19:00:59 GMT
There's actually an article about The Asylum and their 'mockbusters' in the current issue of Empire magazine. And two of their films are being screened on satellite channels this coming Friday (07/12/07): King of the Lost World (their knock-off of King Kong) is on the Sci-Fi channel at 21:00, while Dracula's Curse - one of the few recent Asylum movies that isn't a direct copy of somebody else's - is on Zone Horror at 22:55.
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Post by fenris on May 6, 2008 19:11:53 GMT
Transmorphers is being screened on Zone Horror at 15:30 on Friday 16/05/08.
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Post by fenris on May 17, 2008 14:24:53 GMT
Zone Horror are screening two of The Asylum's mockbusters tomorrow (18/05/08): Transmorphers at 11:30 and Dragon at 15:30. Dragon is also being repeated on Monday (19/05/08) at 11:30.
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Post by fenris on Jun 3, 2008 18:15:27 GMT
On the IMDB message board for the Asylum movie 2012 Doomsday there are several threads in which people are complaining that they illegally downloaded it in the mistaken belief that it was Neil Marshall's Doomsday. Serves 'em right.
Incidentally, 2012 Doomsday is actually a Christian End-Times movie, which uses as it's main plot device the fact that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012. The Asylum have merely slapped 'Doomsday' in the title in the hope that it would be confused with Marshall's film.
Actually, it's intriguing to think what a genuine Asylum version of Doomsday would be like...
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Post by fenris on Jun 17, 2008 18:13:11 GMT
Snakes on a Train - probably the ultimate Asylum movie - is being screened on the Zone Horror channel on 24/06/08 at 21:00.
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Post by fenris on Oct 28, 2008 15:05:54 GMT
Blimey. Not content with churning out films ripping off major Hollywood movies *, The Asylum have started producing films based on TV shows. With the Shine/BBC series Merlin having been bought by a major American network (can't recall which one) while still in production, it gave The Asylum enough time to put together Merlin and The War Of The Dragons, featuring the adventures of 'apprentice wizard Merlin'. Here's a link; www.theasylum.cc/product.php?id=149Actually, judging by the trailer, for an Asylum production this doesn't look half-bad. And it has the always-watchable Jurgen Prochnow in the mentor role. Expect to see it on sale for under a fiver in Woolworths in a few months' time. *Death Racers, The Day The Earth Stopped and Sunday School Musical are amongst their recent/upcoming releases.
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Post by fenris on May 16, 2009 13:20:51 GMT
The Asylum appear to have accidently struck gold with their latest movie. It isn't being released on Region 1 DVD until this coming Monday (18/05/09), but the trailer (link below) has generated a massive amount of internet buzz, and like Snakes on a Plane a couple of years ago, it's become a cult film despite the fact that nobody's seen it yet! '80s pop princess Debbie Gibson saves the world in... Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa7ck5mcd1oAm I the only one who thinks that Ms Gibson still looks might fine? I wonder if we'll see Britney Spears in Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus XI in twenty years time. Considering that the major Hollywood studios have transformed themselves into one vast recycling machine, endlessly churning out movies that are either sequels, remakes, or based on comic books, TV series, '80s toy lines and '90s computer games, the series of shameless, cheap & cheerful rip-offs and blatant cash-ins produced by The Asylum somehow seem more honest, in a bizarre kind of way. Next up from The Asylum, a Transmorphers prequel (I actually enjoyed Transmorphers much more than the Transformers movie) and The Terminators!
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Post by fenris on Jun 10, 2009 21:57:59 GMT
There's wall-to-wall Asylum movies on Zone Horror this coming weekend. On Saturday (13/06/09) Transmorphers is being broadcast at 16:00, with the premiere screening of Merlin and the War of the Dragons at 22:55. Sunday (14/06/09) has the Eragon-inspired Dragon being shown at 16:00, with Merlin and the War of the Dragons repeated at 21:00. And finally, Dragon is screened again at 12:00 on Monday (15/06/09).
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Post by fenris on Jun 17, 2009 21:46:28 GMT
Clearly inspired by Shine’s TV show Merlin (there’s even an opening voice-over by a John Hurt sound-alike) which has become the first British series to be sold to one of the major American networks for several years, Merlin and the War of the Dragons (strangely retitled Merlin and the War of the Dragon Empire on it’s Region 2 release) is one of the better efforts from shameless rip-off merchants The Asylum. Fittingly, apart from the American financing this is very much a British film - it was shot entirely on location in Wales in just two weeks, with a cast of almost entirely Welsh and English actors. In fact, the only non-British thespian involved is legendary German character actor Jurgen Prochnow (always welcome), playing the mage who is the young Merlin’s mentor and surrogate father.
The script throws in various elements from the Arthurian myths: Merlin’s first meeting with Uther Pendragon and Ingraine, who will become Arthur’s parents; Uther’s ascent to the throne; and not one, but two Ladies of the Lake – Nimue and her sister Vivianne. Excalibur also makes an appearance, but despite everyone treating the sword as though it’s of major importance, within the story of this film it’s just a MacGuffin. And some body-painted Pict warriors turn up in one scene, for no apparent reason other than the producers having clearly seen King Arthur (2004). There’s also one key aspect of the Arthurian legends that the Shine series has (so far) ignored, but which this movie openly embraces – the notion that Merlin is the Devil’s son.
Merlin and the War of the Dragons was made with a budget that wouldn’t pay for the catering on an average Hollywood production, but it’s still a good-looking film, provided you realistically lower your expectations. The Welsh landscapes give the movie an atmosphere of both gritty realism and majestic mysticism, with constantly overcast and forbidding-looking skies. The CGI dragons are actually very impressive when seen in the air, although less so when they land and we get a better look at them. And unfortunately, when Uther gives his soldiers a blatant copied-from-Braveheart battlefield speech, despite the clever camera angles used by the director there’s no hiding the fact that Uther’s mighty army consists of just over a dozen men.
But despite these limitations, this is still a highly watchable film. Prochnow is his usual reliable self, while the rest of the cast – a collection of newcomers and unknowns – don’t disgrace themselves, and give solid performances. Special mention must go to Nia Ann and Carys Eleri who play Nimue and Vivianne respectively, and succeed in giving the characters an unsettling, otherworldly quality. The sight of Nimue tending to a wounded and unconscious Merlin by trickling blood from her mouth into his is genuinely unnerving.
The last scene of the film raises the possibility of a sequel. Provided the same quality can be maintained, that’s a very welcome prospect.
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Post by fenris on Jun 29, 2009 13:49:05 GMT
It's getting to the stage where The Asylum's films are just as worthwhile - or even more enjoyable - than the big-budgeted studio movies that they're blatantly copying. The Asylum's The Day The Earth Stopped may be cheap and lightweight, but it passes muster on a technical level and is not as ponderous, pretentious and self-important as the official The Day The Earth Stood Still remake starring Keanu Reeves.
And last night on Zone Horror I watched Death Racers, The Asylum's take on Paul Anderson's Death Race, itself a remake of cult favourite Death Race 2000 (1976). While Anderson is clearly a talented director, with a keen visual eye and the ability to craft decent action sequences. I find the majority of his films to be empty, mechanical and instantly forgettable. Death Race was no exception.
Ironically, Death Racers is more of a legitimate remake of the original Death Race 2000 than Anderson's effort, with a large chunk of Escape from New York also thrown in. The film's premise is in a few years time, extremist armed militias - disillusioned and angered by the actions of the U.S. government - will try to seize control of the country by force, resulting in a civil war. The military crack down hard and swiftly end the uprising, whereupon a vast wall is constructed around a large un-named city in mid-America, which is re-christened 'The Redzone', and hundreds of thousands of insurgents are deposited inside. The Redzone quickly becomes an open-air prison for the entire United States, with hundreds of normal criminals also being dumped within it's walls to fend for themselves. Fast forward to 2033. A terrorist mastermind known only as 'the Reaper', the unofficial ruler of the Redzone (played by professional wrestler Scott Levy), has manufactured large quantities of the extremely lethal toxin sarin and is planning to dump it into the crumbling & leaking sewers underneath the city, where it will seep into the bedrock, spread further, and subsequently poison the natural water supply of the state and eventually most of the country. Having the military deal with the situation isn't an option - they're fully occupied fighting numerous wars overseas - so the state Governor has the idea of using other Redzone inmates to neutralize the Reaper. Now, the logical thing to do would be to covertly contact the most formidable criminals in the city and secretly offer them their freedom in return for killing the Reaper. However, the Governor instead organises a 'Death Race' through the Redzone, with points gained by how many people the competitors kill, and the points system rigged so that the contenders have to kill the Reaper - who's worth 400 points by himself - in order to collect enough points to gain their freedom. The event is heavily publicised, even receiving live television coverage... which of course means that the Reaper knows what's happening and can prepare traps and ambushes for those taking part. I'd like to think that such a contrived plotline is the scriptwriter satirizing modern-day politicians' constant use of publicity stunts and their need to be seen as doing something about society's problems, regardless of whether they're actually doing anything. But it's more likely that a Death Race only exists in this film because otherwise it can't cash in on Anderson's Death Race. As for the title characters, the Death Racers themselves, they consist of a pair of gangbangers, two war criminals (one of them an Oliver North-type, who successfully convinced a Congressional committee that America should declare war on France), a female serial-killing duo with the team name 'Vaginamite', and lastly the rap metal group Insane Clown Posse, who - despite the fact that the movie's set almost a quarter of a century from now - play themselves, with no explanation for how they haven't aged (we're told that the ICP were imprisoned because their music - which forms the movie's soundtrack - incited people to commit murder, leading to them being dubbed 'the Charlie Mansons of the 21st Century').
Aside from it's nonsensical plot, Death Racers has (barely) two dimensional characterisation, clumsy action scenes and two dollar special effects. The dialogue in particular is truly woeful, and consists of little more than lame puns, crude comebacks, unimaginative threats and unfunny wisecracks. The lines given to gang member Steve the Hammer are so dreadful that I actually felt sorry for the actor. The movie is also often over-lit or over-exposed, clearly deliberately, and it's a look that swiftly grows tiresome.
Yet despite all these shortcomings, Death Racers actually succeeds despite itself. The movie has been made with unapologetic glee, and contains moments of sly wit, such as Steve the Hammer admitting sheepishly that the severed head he's using as a hood ornament is a prop ("The warden won't let me use a real one" he explains), and another character suffering a serious & near-fatal axe wound that ultimately and unexpectedly saves their life.
Levy and the ICP are clearly seen as the star attractions and get quite a large amount of screen-time. Levy is barely adequate as the thuggish Reaper, and doesn't bring any villainous charisma to the role, while the ICP are so plastered in their stage make-up that it's impossible to see any facial expressions, and you can't tell if they're giving good performances or not. As a result, it's the girls of Vaginamite who steal the show by default.
In conclusion, Death Racers isn't big and it's not clever. In fact it's silly, messy, juvenile, and as dumb as a bag of rocks. But it's still more entertaining than Paul Anderson's bloated and stagnant studio product.
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Post by fenris on Apr 17, 2010 21:17:06 GMT
Following the international cult success of Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus, starring '80s popstar Debbie Gibson, The Asylum have come up with a semi-sequel in which the lead actress is none other than Gibson's '80s rival - Canadian songstress Tiffany! (For those too young to remember, she was the Christina to Gibson's Britney.) Here's the trailer for the completely bonkers - but played with a totally straight face - Mega Piranha!! And it looks brilliant. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFhSogGnu4I
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Post by fenris on Jun 4, 2010 9:34:37 GMT
For a couple of years, I honestly thought that Snakes On A Train would always be the ultimate Asylum movie, but they proved me wrong by releasing Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus last year. And although that monster mash was gloriously bonkers, it soon turned out that they'd merely been warming up for the jaw-dropping epic that is Mega Piranha (see above post). And if that wasn't enough, The Asylum (whose motto must surely be " What? Us? Sleep?") have now truly surpassed themselves; www.theasylum.cc/product.php?id=174 Words fail me completely. There's genius at work there. Insane, opportunist, shameless genius, but genius none the less.
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