After five years in Hollywood, failed screenwriter Mark (Aaron Mathias)
returns to New York to help his friend Andy (Nathan Spiteri) make a
documentary about the long-abandoned Hudson River Hospital, basically an
asylum with an especially disturbing history - and the reputation of being
haunted. The most disturbing story about the asylum is the one about
Typhoid Mary (Jenny Lee Mitchell), a girl who was "donated" to
the asylum about 100 years ago after having been raped repeatedly by a
typhoid pedophile, and who then was subjected to experiments with
psychotropic drugs that might have caused ... yeah, what exactly?
Somewhere, her trail got lost but it's rumoured she's buried somewhere
beneath the asylum. Mark feels uneasy about the documentary from day one,
also because he starts seeing "things" at the asylum, but Andy
just pushes on and on and on ... because he sees the project as his
opportunity to shake the shackles of his fiancée Michelle's (Laura
Gilreath) rich family once and for all. Thus he tried to keep the film a
secret even from Michelle, but when she finds out about it, she doesn't
only not complain, she wants to be a part of it, too - especially since
her grandmother was a psychic, and she feels the talent in herself as
well. Thing is, when Michelle actually does a seance to summon Typhoid
Mary, it does strange things to her (she's possibly possessed, but who's
to tell), and when Mark goes out of his way to find a way to get her back
to normal, his sources turn up dead ... while Andy will be deterred by
nothing to finish his film, even if it means risking Michelle's life - and if you think it cannot possibly get any
worse, well, you're wrong ... One of the very few paranormal
investigation-films of late that actually gets it right: It's neither a
big and pointless special effects fest à la big budget Hollywood, nor is
it yet another crappy "found footage" exercise (even if my
synopsis might suggest just that) - instead, Paranormal Asylum:
The Revenge of Typhoid Mary tells a proper, engaging story with plenty
of interesting and unexpected plottwists, carried by
fleshed-out characters and atmospheric images - and you simply can't
ignore the perfectly creepy locations, either ... Recommended, actually!
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