ASYLUM BLACKOUT (aka THE INCIDENT, 2011)

Directed by Alexandre Courtès
Written by S. Craig Zahler, Jérôme Fansten
Starring Rupert Evans, Kenny Doughty, Joseph Kennedy, Dave Legeno, Marcus Garvey, Anna Skellern, Richard Brake

ASYLUM BLACKOUT is Walter Hill reincarnated (though I am aware the filmmaker isn’t dead). A fledgling rock band pay their bills by working in the kitchen at an insane asylum. As the band struggles with egos, insecurity, and temptations to leave the music behind and find a real job, they serve food in a dank prison-like environment to the inmates of the asylum behind a protective glass shield. As fate would have it (and without it, there would be no story here) a storm knocks out the power in the asylum and the inmates take over. Trapped in the kitchen with vicious madmen trying to break in, the band must work together to survive.

It’s a premise that reeks of hardcore action and for the most part ASYLUM BLACKOUT has got it. Though one might expect Bruce Willis or maybe Jason Statham as the somber and quiet cook, the danger level is intensified because the everymen in peril are normal guys. An almost unrecognizable Rupert Evans who I last saw as the squeaky cleaner agent in HELLBOY leads the cast as George, a slacker-esque member of a band who is all about the mellow vibes and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Evans is great in this role. He even shows his sensitive side by having brief interactions with some of the inmates as he spoons out the slop in line. Director Alexandre Courtès does a good job of fleshing out George’s character by showing his more altruistic side. George is a thinker, which helps him out later when the batshit hits the fan.

The asylum itself is an important character in this story. The stark blank walls and dim lighting makes the place nightmarish even before the lights go out, but it is all the more frightening when things go black. Having worked in mental health facilities before, little by way of Hollywood creativity was put into this asylum. I’ve seen places like this and they are scary. The dark landscape that is the asylum in this film feels all too real.

Alexandre Courtès does a great job with ratcheting up the tension as the story goes on. As the band members try to get away from the rampaging lunatics, the pace never slows and even when it does, as with a scene where George encounters one of the lunatics he thought he shared a bond with, these slower moments are all the more chilling—a scene involving a crazy shaving away the skin of an arm still gives me the shivers.

If there is a fault to ASYLUM BLACKOUT is that I feel the focus was almost too much on George and a lot of the other band members seemed underdeveloped. This led to me shrugging when they fell into peril, but at the same time, the scenes where George makes his final confrontation with an inmate that has been creeping him out from day one is absolutely grueling to watch. The climax of this film most definitely resonates hard.

More of a gory adventure than a horror film, ASYLUM BLACKOUT is the type of smaller scale adventures that you don’t see too much of anymore. It isn’t afraid to pour on the red stuff but never loses sight of its main character and pulls you along kicking and screaming as his life is turned absolutely insane when the lights go out.