Doom Asylum — Doom Asylum(Blu Ray)
Appearing in 1987 at the very end of the Slasher craze Doom Asylum was the third film from director Richard Friedman, and it saw him teaming up with prolific screenwriter Rick Marx. And really how much you enjoy it is down to what your expecting- if you're after a classic no-nonsense example of the genre you’ll be disappointed & possible somewhat annoyed by Doom Asylum. But if you're prepared for campy 80-ness, gory-if-more-fun-than- shocking kills, a wisecracking killer, and lots of satirizing of the genre clichés- then you’ll probably enjoy much of what’s here.
The film opens with a flash-back to a couple in car celebrating wining of some money- the pair kiss & embrace while the man still drives, and fairly soon they crash- the women has lost her hand, and half dead, and the man is somewhat upset. Next, we switch to a morgue, and the man from the car crash is now a lot worse state, with his face skinned & his brain pulsing…and just as the pair of bumbling morticians are going to cut him up, he comes back to live killing them both. Then we fast forward to ten years later, and a group of teens are on their way to an abandoned mental asylum for some fun- when they arrive they find also there is a three-piece female noise band, and of course the killer.
Seemingly the killer is the man from the accident- and he’s like a less funny cousin of Freddy Kruger- wearing a doctors coat, having a flesh stripped face, and killing the teens with a variety of tools- we get a very effective head drilling, a worthy head & jar sawing, along with a few slightly less impressive kills. The film is completely set in sunny daylight, and the asylum was apparently located in New Jersey- it’s certainly a neat setting, though due to the tone of the film it’s far from moody or scary.
The whole thing has a relatively short runtime of seventy-nine minutes- so it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and on the whole if you after a late 80’s slasher- with more of a mocking & deliberately campy feel I think you’ll get a kick out of Doom Asylum- just don’t expect a lost classic.
Moving on to the extras- and first up we have the two new commentaries for the film- ones from Screenwriter Rick Marx, and the second from four-piece slasher podcast The Hysteria Continues. The Marx one sees him talking about not just Doom Asylum, but his whole career including his early work writing Hardcore films- this has its moments of interest, but for the most part it’s a little dry & plodding, really lacking any of the fun of the film it’s self. By complete contrast The Hysteria Continues track is much better- it’s funny, highly informative, and varied in its scope- discussing everything from the cast, the location(which was meant to haunted), the film's production, as well as when/ where the team first saw the film and their personal & honest takes on the film- these guys really are the gold standard for horror commentaries, as they put so much care, humour & info into each of their tracks.
Other extras include three new stand-alone interviews- each of these last around 15/20 minutes. We get one with one of the female leads, one with the director of photograph, and one with the effects man- all three have interesting tit-bits of info, but the most worthy is with actress Ruth Collins- as she has a load of amusing stories, and has worked on more than a few B-movies, moving from soft-core onto more horror & general exploitation fare. You also get around ten minutes of interviews from when the film was released, as well as the cursory trailer & stills gallery.
It’s always great to see another reissue of a long-lost slasher, as it’s always been one of my fav horror sub-genres. And while the films far from a lost masterpiece, it’s good trashy late 80’s fun with some effective gore, campy cast, and a wisecracking killer.