Stonehearst Asylum
Millennium Films | Release Date: October 24, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
6
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
EmpireKim NewmanApr 20, 2015
A spirited gothic tale, played with welcome black humour. Read full review
80
The DissolveCharles BramescoOct 23, 2014
Between its distinctly modern intelligence and razor-sharp plotting, Anderson’s clever contraption matches the heights of Gothic grandeur that keep Poe held in esteem today. Read full review
80
Village VoiceRob StaegerOct 21, 2014
With Stonehearst Asylum, director Brad Anderson doles out a vintage Halloween treat — a straightforward Poe adaptation of the sort that Vincent Price used to star in — and gives it a freshness and complexity that make it a delight. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 23, 2014
The presence of Kingsley — as well as all the ornate cabinetry and shadowy atmosphere — might suggest "Shutter Island," but the real referent appears to be Tod Browning’s "Freaks," with its complicated mixture of fear and sympathy. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 22, 2014
Based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe, directed with style and imagination by Brad Anderson (The Machinist), filmed in the creepy darkness of Bulgaria (you hardly get this kind of movie anymore), and starring an illustrious cast solid and dedicated enough to craft to make you believe they’re in a depraved version of Hamlet staged in Elsinore Castle, this is a movie that is several cuts above your usual straitjacket thriller. Enter at your own risk. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithApr 20, 2015
This is not, we’d wager, the film its director intended. Yet it’s worth watching, if only to see Caine and Kingsley together for the first time in 25 years. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 23, 2014
Stonehearst Asylum, Brad Anderson’s adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story, is undeniably preposterous. But if you accept the grandly Gothic insanity here, there’s a lot of fun to be had. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 24, 2014
It may not be his worst film overall, but Stonehearst is Anderson’s flattest film, a disappointingly shallow affair that wastes an opportunity to breathe life into a timeless Edgar Allen Poe short story. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanOct 23, 2014
Despite its cast and convincing backdrop, Stonehearst Asylum is a tame entry in today’s roster of horror films. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 23, 2014
On the surface, Anderson seems to have all the necessary pieces for a surreal psycho pop. But the fear factor eludes him, leaving Stonehearst Asylum more insipid than insane. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 23, 2014
Like Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," Stonehearst Asylum starts with the hysteria knob set at 11 and goes up from there. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayOct 21, 2014
In the wake of the ostentatious atmospherics summoned by the likes of Shutter Island and American Horror Story: Asylum, the film feels unnecessarily restrained. Read full review
30
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 23, 2014
This shockingly flabby effort from Mr. Anderson — who, in features like “The Machinist” (2004) and “Session 9” (2001), showed a much surer hand with oppressive atmospheres and troubled psyches — feels as nutty as its characters. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterClarence TsuiOct 22, 2014
Brad Anderson has basically thrown everything into the film's furnace so as to keep its wobbly narrative running — to no avail, sadly: as the leaps between genre tropes and divergent threads exposes ever wider plot holes, this incoherent adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe attempts endless twists and turns culminating in a supposedly cathartic denouement drenched in sap. Read full review
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