Horror Movie Review: Asylum: The Lost Footage (2013)

The found footage sub-genre of horror throws up way more bad then good. However, in a new development many amateur film makers are turning to a documentary style to compliment it. What we get is a mashup of talking heads analysing the footage we’re watching and offering their ‘expert’ opinions. Often a pointless exercise as we see the same footage and come to the obvious conclusions ourselves.

The documentary/found-footage combo isn’t an inherently bad idea. It has been done well a few times but when it’s this lazy, few will want to bother again.

The biggest problem with Asylum: The Lost Footage is that it has no use for subtly at all. From the moment the group of paranormal investigators step into the Asylum it’s clearly haunted. This makes the analysis/explanations by the talking heads utterly pointless. Why have someone try to disprove such obvious ghostly goings-on?

One of the big issues with documentary/found-footage combinations is how the narrative can be interrupted. In a movie with a coherent plot that can be a problem but here it makes it nearly unwatchable. It is literally cut together scenes with no sensible reason for anything to be happening.

The faceless and characterless cast fail to ignite on screen with no chemistry or any kind of development to make you care one bit about them. They are the base of all pointless characters, here just to be killed off.

All reasons to avoid this movie but the biggest reason is how laughably bad the ‘scares’ are.

As mentioned above, Asylum: The Lost Footage has no time subtly. Almost immediately we’re getting ghost voices talking about death and staying away. Once the ghosts do show up, the film really shows just how amateurish it is. Unnecessary closeups, filters and loud screeching noises. The worst kind of scare attempts.

Asylum: The Lost Footage is just a pointless horror. One that walks the same path as many movies before it but tries even less. The best thing about it, is that it only lasts a little over an hour.