Friday, September 27, 2013

Paranormal Asylum: The Revenge of Typhoid Mary (2013)

Mark travels to New York to reunite with old college roommate Andy. The two are going to make a documentary about Typhoid Mary, the woman who was blamed for the outbreak of typhoid in New York.

While Mark waits for Andy to pick him up, he does some filming and a teenage girl asks to be in his film.  After turning to greet Andy, Mark turns back and she's  disappeared. Spooky foreshadowing?  Nope, she is never mentioned again.

Andy's fiance Michelle joins them as they head out to the asylum. (She became part of the team when she discovered he'd used their money to finance this project.) Although the outside of the building is boarded up and some windows are missing, the inside looks like a new facility with motorized beds, computer monitors,  medical equipment, new wheelchairs, no dust or dirt anywhere, and a super clean snazzy locker room.  Inexplicably the power is still active, which is lucky since if it wasn't their project would be done.

Mark and Andy decide where to put the cameras and Michelle wanders off and gets trapped in the locker room, her hair moving as if there is a wind.  Isn't it scary? Well it might be until they show it from another angle and there's a huge floor model fan at the end of the locker room. Not so spooky now, is it.

With the cameras set up, they head to their home base, which is literally at their home.  This begs the question, how could they leave all this equipment alone since the homeless, criminals, and urban explorers are bound to venture into abandoned buildings? Also it means they guessed what they were getting on camera since the monitors are at home.

What's super annoying in these movies is that there's always a scene where someone sees something, has a camera and never looks at what they shot.  Early in the film, Mark sees a woman in the ruins while shooting photos or video (can't remember which).  He asks Andy if he saw the old woman. Andy just laughs and dismisses it, which seems weird considering they're researching a haunted asylum.  But Mark never looks at what's on his camera. Geez, if you think you saw her, look at what you shot.

So get ready to be annoyed by a seance, possession, Mark getting attacked during an interview, suicide, more interviews, and a payoff that isn't worth it.





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