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Asylum
Theatrical poster
Directed by	David R. Ellis
Written by	Ethan Lawrence
Starring	Sarah Roemer
Music by	David Hamilton
Cinematography	Gary Capo
Editing by	Howard E. Smith
Release date(s)	July 15, 2008
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11 million

Asylum is a horror film from 20th Century Fox released on DVD in 2008. David R. Ellis, of the sequel to Final Destination, directed. Parts of the movie were filmed on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC.

Plot

A college student discovers her dorm was once a notorious asylum.^[1] According to Winthrop's campus newspaper, The Johnsonian, a group of college freshmen with troubled pasts and nightmares are at Richard Miller University for orientation a couple of weeks prior to the beginning of classes. They stumble into an old restricted area and awaken the spirit of a mad doctor, who then proceeds to torture and torment the students in the same way he tortured the patients in 1939 at Burke Asylum.^[2]

Characters

• Madison—witnessed her father's suicide alongside her brother as a child. She attends Richard Miller University in hopes of getting closure with her brother's death.
• Maya—subjected to her boyfriend's abusive beatings.
• Ivy—her father took advantage of her as a child.
• Tommy—his mother, who in his childhood forced him to eat and become obese.
• Holt—a former drug addict who was too late in saving his little brother, who drowned in their backyard swimming pool. Holt is also a love interest of Madison's.
• String—a 16-year-old internet hacker who gets the group into the Asylum the first time. His mother neglected him as a child, only encouraging him to "play" with his computer and learn more. He has a string obsession when he gets nervous. He is hanged by the string when Dr. Burke pays him a visit.
• Brandon—Madison's brother who attended Richard Miller University a few years prior. He committed suicide at the college.

Cast

• Sarah Roemer as Madison
• Carolina Garcia as Maya
• Ellen Hollman as Ivy
• Randall Sims as Rez
• Travis Van Winkle as Tommy
• Jake Muxworthy as Holt
• Cody Kasch as String
• Ben Daniele as Brandon
• Caroline Kent as "young Madison"
• Crystal McLaurin-Coney as College Ambassador

University set changes

Entrance to Winthrop University as seen during filming

• Main Winthrop University name changed to Richard Miller University at entrance to campus.
• Tillman Hall changed to Tagert Hall.
• Tillman Hall changed to Burke Asylum, Public Institute for the Young for flashbacks.
• Winthrop Police car decals were covered with "Richard Miller University" decals.
• However, they kept Winthrop's colors - garnet and gold.

Critical response

The film was not received well by critics. A review in The Herald of Rock Hill, where much of the movie was filmed, called the film "unoriginal, tiresome and unintentionally funny."

"There's no intelligence shown in the script for 'Asylum,' no original ideas and nothing to separate this film from dozens of others that've come and gone since Wes Craven's clever 'Scream' reinvigorated the genre more than a decade ago," the review continued. The paper gave the film a D-.

References

External links

• Asylum at the Internet Movie Database
• Asylum at Allmovie