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The Asylum

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The Asylum is an American film studio. They primarily focus on low-budget horror films, but have also released films in other genres, such as action, comedy, sci-fi, and thriller. It was started in 1997 by David Michael Latt, David Rimawi, and Sherri Strain. Currently, it has three managing partners, Rexfillian Sutch, David Michael Latt and David Rimawi. Its headquarters is in Hollywood, California. The Asylum can be called a modern-day B-movie company, producing several films made on low budgets and short shooting schedules each year.

Although The Asylum has released a large number of original movies, they are best known for a series of films (dubbed 'Mockbusters' by Empire Magazine) which appear to have been heavily influenced by major Hollywood movies released around the same time. The Asylum's efforts, however, are usually made for much less money and go straight to DVD. Nevertheless they are clearly profitable as the company has now made over a dozen such films and have more in the pipeline.

The Asylum also maintains a webpage dedicated to saving rare files of the internet. This site is mainly a blog, although it is also a place to find rare files.

Units

The Asylum has three divisions: The Global Asylum (film distribution worldwide), The Asylum Home Entertainment (distribution within the United States), and The Asylum Studios (production company).

Films

The Asylum particularly produces and releases horror movies, with titles that are confusingly similar to major blockbusters, shot very quickly and filmed on low budgets. Also, certain actors, directors and writers are used repeatedly for different films. Those involved in this group are referred to as "Asylumites".

The Asylum has garnered some criticism because of unoriginal movies.[citation needed] For example, they produced a film version of the H.G. Wells' novella The War of the Worlds that was released on DVD in 2005 just a day before the Steven Spielberg version premiered in the U.S. on June 29th. This capitalizes on the fact that movies usually debut on weekends while DVDs are released in many areas earlier in the week such as Tuesday. A general consensus is that these tactics are employed to capitalize on those who ask for films that have just gone to theatres for the DVD out of confusion from the commercials, causing them to pick up these similar movies instead. These Mockbusters by Asylum tend to be far more graphic than their original counterparts, and are poorly received by critics. Films that have been produced and released direct-to-video by The Asylum to capitalize on the releases or successes of other films include:

This practice has only been recently adopted by The Asylum. Before 2005, almost all of their films were based on original story ideas with original scripts, and were not reliant upon theatrical releases with similar names or story ideas. However, despite their more derivative productions, The Asylum continues to produce original content, primarily in the horror genre.

The Asylum's practice of producing so-called "rip-off" movies was brought to light in July of 2006 on The Today Show on NBC, featuring perspectives on the matter by The Asylum co-founder David Michael Latt, a consumer advocate, and some people in a video store. Latt contended that he is running a business and is merely trying to get the largest audience possible to see his films (as most all filmmakers attempt to do), but also says his company puts their own spin on the tales. He also noted that The Asylum had released over 200 films, and claimed that only six were "studio tie-ins". The consumer advocate noted that, while it is very misleading and unfair to customers, it is perfectly legal and, from a business standpoint, very clever. Customers at the video store expressed bewilderment, as one who picked up a copy of Pirates of Treasure Island was prompted to ask, "Is Johnny Depp even in this?"

Director Leigh Scott (Dracula's Curse, Beast of Bray Road, Dragon, The 9/11 Commission Report) defended The Asylum's practice of doing cash-in films during the commentary for his film The Hitchhiker, stating that numerous books and TV specials come out around the same time as much-publicized films (such as The Da Vinci Code and Pirates of the Caribbean) covering the topics or eras covered in those films. Scott defends The Asylum, saying that it is also just doing what numerous other people are doing, but they are the only ones making feature length films.

Despite their reputation for making low budget, straight-to-DVD movies, The Asylum has enlisted the talents of several 'name' actors. Lance Henriksen has appeared in a number of major movies (including, ironically, Alien Vs. Predator, later the recipient of one of The Asylum's 'homages') as well as starring in Chris Carter's cult TV series Millennium and has appeared in several Asylum projects. Other well known actors include C. Thomas Howell, Bruce Boxleitner, Steve Railsback, Edward Furlong, Cerina Vincent, Greg Evigan, Judd Nelson, Mark Dacascos, Udo Kier, William Katt, Michael Gross, and Lorenzo Lamas.

Forums

The Asylum's website maintains an active forum section, where fans can talk about upcoming releases and films in production. There is also a section titled "Ask David", in which The Asylum's David Michael Latt will answer questions about film production, and also offer information for aspiring filmmakers and actors, such as what producers look for in a script, what to consider in writing a script, and what actors should do to survive an audition. To that end, The Asylum (or Latt at least) has been viewed as "fan friendly" for its willingness to inform people about the film industry.

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