The Story: Max, a down on his luck television producer, brainstorms a new show. Taking advantage of the reality tv trend, his idea is a show called "The Chill Challenge". The show will consist of daring five babes to spend the night in a haunted house where they will have their fears tested. He offers a one million dollar prize (that he actually doesn't have) and begins casting his five girls... First we have Stacey, the naive, pretty, young blond. Then we have the goth chick, Rainbow (her parents were hippies). Amber the smart sexpot. Marty the abrasive, gutsy athlete. And, finally, Paige the stuck-up, crabby rich girl... Little do the girls and Max know, that the location, the Mason House, is actually haunted, and the spirits within don't want to be disturbed. As soon as the show begins, the spirits begin to pick off the girls and Max's crew one by one.

The Film:It was sort of inevitable that the direct to video, no-budget, no- brainier horror industry would jump on the reality tv and Blair Witch bandwagon. Hell Asylum (2001, aka Prison of the Dead 2) is a fair enough, Z grade horror. Its certainly not going to light the industry on fire and breathe new life into horror films.

As to be expected, its got a hack budget, hack acting, and a hack script. It logs in at a mere one hour and twelve minutes (and thats with about four mins of credits), so it isn't a colossal time waster if you are into the genre. Things move briskly and the plotting is simple enough that it could be shown to classroom of mentally handicapped people, who, upon filling out comment cards after the movie, would probably all agree it was "trite and predictable". Its script just uses "Fear Factor, Big Brother" and "MTVs Fear" as launching points for its idea (the house is rigged with cameras, the girls wear camera gear), but doesn't try to make any grand statement about the reality tv genre. Basically its just, get the girls in the house, explain why its haunted, and begin to kill them off. The girls are all basic clichés and never go beyond that, they are just fodder to be killed, and any one of the actresses could be another girls characters, just shove them into a different wardrobe.

But none of that really matters- bad budget- groan inducing, dinner theater acting- fourth grade scriptwriting- when it comes to no-budget horror, all that counts is if it is entertaining. Granted, for a film, written, cast, and filmed over the course of just a few weeks, you aren't going to expect much. Director/cinematographer/editor Danny Draven manages better than most (this is his second film), but even on an entertainment level the movie is still flawed. As far as scares, there are none to be had. A shot of a hallway with a blue filter on the camera doesn't make a scene scary. The actual ghosts, or specter's, that kill off the show contestants and crew are just guys (and a cameo by scream queen Brinke Stevens) in black druid outfits. I kept on expecting "Stonehenge" to play when they appeared. Oh, and likewise the soundtrack is typical 90's bands playing 80's head banging thrash metal. There is a constant editing trick, in which the screen flashes to a static/snowy picture, like your television losing its reception. Its a trick that would have been fine used a couple of times, but after awhile it becomes extremely annoying. The gore is in fair amount, lots of chicken guts and cooked spaghetti caked in fake blood. A real shame is that for some reason the film has no nudity. It used to be as essential as gore in horror films, but for some reason there was no bared flesh in the film (a fact oddly addressed in the commentary- no nudity because of ratings worries?, yet they have buckets of guts and hearts getting ripped out?)... Still, its not like anyone picking the movie up should be expecting The Magnificent Ambersons.

The DVD: Tempe Entertainment DVD. Fist off, Tempe Entertianment has a great teaser. The actual navigation was pretty slow (slow in the digital age means pressing your remote and having to wait 3-5 seconds). After viewing both the still gallery and the last trailer, the DVD forced the movie to play and I couldn't return to the menu without reloading the disc. Not a huge problem, but a flaw nonetheless.

Picture- Widescreen, 16X9, 1:85:1. It is evident as soon as the film was finished shooting it was all transferred and mastered digitally, so it is clean- or should I say, as clean as a low budget production can be. Any real problems with the image (grain, contrast, sharpness, color) come from the actual production itself and general bad lighting/camera set up choices. Typical picture for an ultra low budget, direct to video horror.

Sound- Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. Most of the problems with the audio come from the actual on set sound recording. One assumes they just didn't the best they could in post production, you can tell a big differance between the post track voice overs and the actual film dialogue. But overall it is okay, it is just with these kind of films there are quite a few scenes where the actors weren't adequately miked.

Extras- 30 Chapters --- DVD Credits --- Tempe Video/Full Moon Trailers: Hell Asylum (teaser and trailer), Wichhouse 3: Demon Fire, Dead and Rotting, Skinned Alive, Ozone, Eddie Presley, Bloodletting, and Vengeance of the Dead. --- Behind the Scenes Material: Directors Diary (18 min) Nice feature, at the end of every days shooting Draven recounts how the day went, difficulties, and such. --- Cup O' Joe (3 ½ mins) Casual interview with character actor and famous brother/uncle Joe Estevez, who cameos in the film as the television studio head. --- Interviews (14 mins) Behind the scenes video with the cast and crew, showing the great bond everyone has, sticking together in this small scale production. --- Bloopers and Outtakes (10 ½ mins) --- Still Gallery, 50 stills including promo material and candid behind the scenes shots. --- Commentary by director Danny Draven and composer Josephine Soegijanty. Draven goes into all the particulars, how he got the job, those that helped make the film, finding the location, casting the actors and such. What is most amusing is Draven's attitude, definitely showing his lackadaze, lowbrow, ethic like using the word "sh*thole" numerous times to describe the location. While talking with Soegijanty about the scoring of one scene, he observes, roughly " I wanted that low piano... that classical sh*t." It is a pretty good track, probably of interest to do-it-yourself filmmakers. Technically there is a bit of empty air on the track, but Draven and Soegijanty's comments are still audible--- Bonus Short Film: Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker (45 mins) with accompanied commentary. Well, if I thought Hell Asylum was cheap... Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker is a $2000 home video movie made by a bunch of guys who have their own little do-it-yourself horror company. They are the kind of guys you see at conventions hawking their movies. Basically the movie follows around Mulva, the Steve Urkel of horror heroines, who makes the SNL Pat character look understated. The brainless splatter film is rife with comic book, horror, comedy (Mr Show, MST3k), anime, and general pop culture references. It is lame...intentionally lame... but still lame. While I think it is probably fun entertainment only for those people who made it, I realize there is an underground community that likes these home tapes. The commentary has director Chris Seaver and some of his cohorts who helped make it goofing off, self promoting, and breaking into their stupid characters. Lyod Kaufman makes a cameo with some Troma characters at the end of the film.

Conclusion- If you are into these no-budget horrors, it is a fine DVD, plenty of extras, okay transfer, modestly priced. But, be forewarned of the genre before you buy it, its not the sort of thing everyone can get into, even your most die-hard horror fans.