Doom Asylum

Doom Asylum (1987)
Dir: Richard Friedman
Starring: Kristin Davis (Sex and The City)

Doom Asylum is another one of those films that stuck out in the huge selection of VHS tapes that crowded my local Video rental stores when I was growing up. I don't know what it is about the covers from back then but they still to this day just seem to stick with me as I grow older. During the 1980's into the early 1990's Before the internet and Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos took over the market, Little independent Video stores always had an over abundance of horror flicks to choose from and some just seemed to beg to be rented. Many of them were blatant cash in's on more popular slasher/Horror series' that were out at the time and to an extent this is no different.
               The film opens with a slimy attorney Mitch Hansen and Judy Larue as they are driving down the highway celebrating a successful divorce case where Mitch managed to get Judy all of her husbands cash and they planned to take off and live together and send her daughter Kiki to a boarding school so the new couple could live the high life. As they speed down the road drinking and making out behind the wheel they get in a fatal crash that apparently kills both involved. During Mitch's autopsy Mitch wakes up after having his face skin removed and after realizing that Judy is dead and he has been disfigured , Mitch kills both doctors and goes into hiding in a local closed down asylum. Flash forward 10 years and we meet Judy's daughter (Played by the same actress) and her friends as they are heading to the site of her mothers accident before going to the abandoned Asylum to party. While at the crash sight Kiki finds her mothers old mirror, then while Sunbathing and having some drinks outside the building the group hears some music coming from inside as a local Punk band lead by Tina are playing in the empty building. The two groups have issues with each other as The punks see Kiki and her friends as yuppies and they try to get them to flee so they can have the place to themselves. Darnell , Kiki's  token black friend see's Godiva ,Tina's token black friend and they immediately have an attraction for each other. As Darnell leaves the group to enter the building to meet up with Godiva he is killed by Mitch with some surgical clamps after raping , the Mitch spews a few corny jokes about not liking rap music.

Tina and Rapunzel are on the rooftop when Rapunzel decides to go spray painting the wall while Godiva waits up top in hopes of Darnell showing up. As Rapunzel vandalizes the property, Mitch is watching "Sweeney Todd" and then takes a break to hid in a bathroom stall as Rapunzel enters and gets her face plunged into some acid in a decent kill scene. After some time Kiki's boyfriend Mike,Whom she refers to as "Mom" decides to go looking for Darnell , Shortly afterwards Dennis , Kiki's Sports nerd friend loses a Wade Boggs card in the wind and he goes chasing it and gets caught by Mitch who then drills through his skull in another nicely done gore scene.

Mike arrives on the rooftop and questions Tina and Godiva on the whereabouts of Darnell when Tina attack Mike and nearly tosses him from the rooftop. At this point Godiva goes looking for Darnell as Kiki and Jane enter in attempt to help Mike from falling to his death.Mike manages to pull his self to safety after hearing a woman scream when Godiva finds Rapunzel's head hanging in the restroom. Mitch sneaks up behind her and strangles her to death. As Jane is wandering the halls, Mitch finds her and gets her with a bone saw to the face, Tina shows up and see's Mitch  in the act and he escapes as Mike shows up across the hall. Mike believes Tina is responsible for murdering Jane but she tries to explain the fleeing killer in the bloody doctor scrubs. Before Mike goes to apprehend Tina another scream is heard in the distance and Mike goes running to find Kiki, who has just found Rapunzel's and Godiva's remains.

As Kiki and Mike go searching for Denis, Tina decides to go hunting down Mitch armed with a steel pipe. While wandering a hall Mike is drugged by Mitch and Kiki is taken hostage and bound in a operating room of sorts. Mitch begins torturing Mike by cutting off his toes, When Tina makes the save and beats Mitch down allowing her to free Kiki. While untying Kiki, Mitch springs back to action and stuffs Tina in a compactor of sorts.Now with everyone dead the final show down occurs and leads Kiki and Mitch outside the Asylum where Mitch confesses his love for Kiki believing she is her mother. At first it appears that Kiki is going to fall for his emotional speech until she remembers her mothers plot to send her to boarding school and she stabs Mitch in the face with her mothers old mirror and walks off into the sunset.

Doom Asylum is a fun little film if you enjoy some cheese with your gore, I said before that it was a cash in on the more popular slasher series' of sorts and by that I mean Mitch seems to spew out corny one liners and jokes after each kill which was somewhat popular during the late 80's and early 90's in horror films such as the Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, 976 Evil and some lesser known one's like nail Gun Massacre. The gore affects are pretty good in this one but nothing spectacular, and if you are a fan of the era and the genre this one is a nice little hidden treasure. I remember this film fondly from my childhood and it does still carry that sort of nostalgia for me today so I would have to say that although the characters and dialogue are a bit dated it is still goofy enough to be funny nowadays. I would recommend this for all fans of slasher films and if you can track it down it is relatively cheap (at least when I found it about a year or two ago) so this one is definitely worth a look, This is no classic by any means but I am surprised it has not garnered a small cult following like so many other films of this ilk.One thing I did enjoy is that the cast of characters although not spectacular were not the typical teens you would find in these kinds of movies as each one had their own unique twist on the genre, Like Mike being comically indecisive all the time, Kiki being ditsy and calling her boyfriend mom because she missed her so much, Darnell and Godiva were standard for the course, Tina being the overly macho role despite  being a female , Rapunzel the political poser punk rocker , Dennis the sports nerd which was a twist on the role and Jane being a wannabe psychologist and a hot one played by a very young Kristin Davis of Sex and The City fame.Mitch on the other hand spanned from legitimately funny to absolutely annoying at times. Either way, A fun watch and you should check this hidden gem out.

Gore: 6
Nudity:1
Characters:6
Story:6
Overall 6 out of 10