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steve-2795
Reviews
Stonehearst Asylum (2014)
More hammer than Hammer
I'd forgotten how much pop scares got on my tits until I watched Stonehearst Asylum. Because it doesn't have a single one. And it's a fine film.
I think it's somewhat miss-sold as a horror, though it's hard to know how else it should have been marketed. There's plenty of jeopardy but scarcely any gore. I guess its most accurately described as a Gothic romance.
It's a loose riff off Poe's "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" with a few canny twists.
The cast is stellar: Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, Kate Beckinsale, Sinead Cusak.
I tend to define films in terms of whether or not I would enjoy watching them with my undoubtedly better half. in this case, yes. It's a cracking film with a rattling storyline, The odd proto- feminist moment and no horror cheap shots. What's not to like?