{"id":3570,"date":"2014-10-23T20:55:44","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T03:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=3570"},"modified":"2014-10-23T20:55:45","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T03:55:45","slug":"review-stonehearst-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=3570","title":{"rendered":"Review: STONEHEARST ASYLUM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?attachment_id=3572\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3572\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-23-at-11.41.59-PM-199x300.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"Screen Shot 2014-10-23 at 11.41.59 PM\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3572\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-23-at-11.41.59-PM-199x300.png 199w, https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-23-at-11.41.59-PM-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-23-at-11.41.59-PM-400x601.png 400w, https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-23-at-11.41.59-PM-449x675.png 449w, https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-23-at-11.41.59-PM.png 476w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?attachment_id=3449\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3449\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/fixbutton3.gif\" alt=\"\" title=\"fixbutton\" width=\"100\" height=\"112\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3449\" \/><\/a>An attempted old school creeper with an A-List cast, Brad Anderson\u2019s \u201cStonehearst Asylum\u201d is an entertaining cross between \u201cAmerican Horror Story\u201d and \u201cDownton Abbey.\u201d  Set in Victorian England, this gothic tale has newly minted doctor Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess) taking up residency in the title asylum where he becomes smitten with Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale).  Soon Edward learns that the head doctor, Silas Lamb (Ben Kingsley), isn\u2019t all he\u2019s cracked up to be.  Sure, I\u2019m being intentionally cheeky\u2014Kingsley\u2019s secret is revealed in fairly short order.<\/p>\n<p>When Edward meets Dr. Salt (Michael Caine) locked in a basement dungeon, he sets out to free the prisoners that have been suffering under Silas\u2019 sadistic rule.  No doubt that the PG-13 rating limits the edge necessary to properly tell the gruesome \u201cStonehearst\u201d tale, but, as is, the film proves to be more interesting that truly chilling.  Beckinsale is the marquee name, despite the presence of Caine, Kingsley, David Thewlis, and Brendan Gleeson.  Adapted from a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, it is surprising that the production was able to assemble such an impressive cast.  While the visuals are sufficiently unnerving and the performances right for the material, \u201cStonehearst Asylum\u201d just isn\u2019t the film it could have been.  And one wonders whether director Brad Anderson, who frightened us with \u201cSession 9\u201d and fascinated us with \u201cThe Machinist\u201d was just cashing a paycheck here.  Nonetheless, his direction is tight even if the material is a little lacking in identity.  <\/p>\n<p>Not a horror movie per se, but still containing horror elements, \u201cStonehearst Asylum\u201d is a well-made, well-acted tale that could find an audience among viewers looking for a spooky story that doesn\u2019t deliver a pile of dead teenagers.  Perhaps, this was the point, your mom needs a horror film as much as anyone and this might be just what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Halloween counter-programming: Victorian horror aimed at an older audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3574,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions\/3574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}