I am afraid to say, that although I watched the film this evening, my brain found it hard to comprehend the dullness that was thrust upon it, and so images of the film are already leaking away as I type this so sorry for lack of info. I am a huge fan of found footage films, which is the reason I got this. I was hoping for at least Grave Encounters level of film but instead got college student attempt at horror film... My main problems with this film is that nothing much happens, they keep shouting at each other over naff all, and you can't see a bloody thing a lot of the time! I paid 8 quid to look at darkness while people shout. I could get the same effect by hiding in an alley at night and occasionally jumping out at people while screaming boo, for free! I am being rather nice with a 2, but if I gave it a 1 I would feel even more depressed about paying the amount I did for it...
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doodle_child11 September 2012
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As much as I dislike these shoddy shot movies with their questionable camera work and their supposedly "found footage" concept, then "Greystone Park" (aka "The Asylum Tapes") is definitely in the top five of the more boring and pointless movies in the genre that I have had the misfortune to stumble upon.
The story here, is as in so many other low budget movies, about a group of people venturing into a run-down, old, abandoned mental institution (or asylum, if you will) to investigate some alleged rumors about it being haunted.
Right, that is perhaps one of the most used and generic of story lines in the history of horror movies. And you'd think with so many movies with the same storyline that there would be a bigger chance for someone to actually get the recipe just right. You would, wouldn't you? Indeed, but "Greystone Park" swung and missed widely.
The movie is mostly just questionable camera work that was all over the place, and randomly interrupted by static noise to make the atmosphere seem all the more ghastly and scary. But it just didn't work. The movie came off as horribly rushed and forcefully pushed together in what seemed like an array of random clips.
I will say that the setting of the movie was actually what worked out the best for the movie. Although you'd think that a run-down and closed down mental institution would have its equipment and gear long looted and gone. But oddly enough, a lot of things were still there. Which just didn't really seem all that believable.
As for the acting, well people actually did good enough jobs with their given roles, although they were struggling hard having no proper storyline to work with.
If you enjoy these types of movies, perhaps you can find something enjoyable here, as I failed to. If you, like me, want to be properly entertained by a movie with proper camera work, then you are better off looking elsewhere. -
sstetsko17 June 2014Most of the other reviews already hit this one pretty well... quite bad acting, bad effects and no plot (both par for the course for most found footage movies), and really quite dull. It tries to make it more interesting with artsy splices of chaotic montage which are supposed to reflect the decay of the psyches of the characters (I suppose) but these invasive montages are more just annoying noise than mood altering (I suppose being annoyed IS a mood though). To give the director some credit, at least they tried. They do capture a claustrophobic feel quite well, and the flashing lights and darkness, generic though they may be and even bothersome, are not completely without value in furthering this mood. All that said I obviously feel that the movie fails, and even worse, it tries too hard to be a couple of different genres at once and thus fails at several things simultaneously. It is nothing more than a ghost tale, but has an awkwardly overlapping demonic theme that is very strained and culminates in a kind of high level of stupidity, and also seems to be suggesting an other dimension quality that just does not carry itself out. The set is very good though, and someone with a budget and a lot of talent could really do something with it. Unfortunately it is wasted on this movie. Not THE worst movie I have ever watched, but I am content to see it at a 2 and no higher.
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Greystone Park has to be one of the least engaging films I've ever seen. Immediatly from the outset I was drawn to it as much as I am fire, acid or something really really pointy.
It's yet another found footage-esque film where a group of folks interested in documenting supernatural activity break into an asylum and.......serious dejavu.
This cost over half a million dollars to make and I'd love someone to explain to me where the money went. Was everyone overpaid? Did they have fantastic catering? Were all the cast put up in 5* hotels with travel covered and a personal masseuse? Maybe champagne and caviar for everyone in between takes? Because it sure as hell didn't go on the production.
I've seen some real stinkers in this genre, and let's be honest most of them are the same movie recycled over and over again. But this is right up there! Again it's un-engaging, it's boring, it's stupidly dark, it has pathetic character development and as is commonly the case nothing ruddy happens!
Pitiful, embarassing and yet another carbon copy movie just done worse than even usual.
The Good:
Nope
The Bad:
Seen it all before, all of it
Annoyingly dark
Poorly made from start to finish
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
Maybe the budget was spent on silk toilet roll? -
This will sound harsh but "Greystone Park" (or "The Asylum Tapes" if you're outside the US) is comfortably among the worst movies I have ever seen.
No real plot, no thrills, no frights, no nothing.
Bad acting (I mean really, really bad), bad sound, bad camera work and even worse editing. I fully appreciate that the film is supposed to be a "found tapes" film - but that is no excuse to produce a 90+ minute film of which most of it you can't actually see what's going on. Adding loud bangs to the footage you can't see doesn't scare anybody above the age of four - not in the year 2012 anyway.
Sean Stone's father Oliver is a talented movie maker and one of the more important directors of the 20th century. This piece of garbage might be Stone Jr's first, last and only contribution to the annals of cinematic history. -
dark_scionproductions10 September 2012I had to give a 1 because of IMDb but seriously, this movie shouldn't even have that, everything about this movie could have made it a great one, but sadly the idiot who wrote it (sean stone) didn't seem to either understand how to make a decent horror movie, or it was constantly played for $h!its and giggles, which it failed at-abysmally. When watching I constantly got the feel that it was supposed to be the "spirits" or whatever it was, was attempting to drive them insane, and if the movie had been played like that, the whole spiritual power thing was both messing with their minds and the camera as a sort of "its trying to drag the audience in as well" that would have worked out perfectly well, especially with the scenes at the end with 'crazy Kate' (again, as portrayed, doesn't make sense) but we're just supposed to believe that a story told to them at the start just happened to appear at the end? No, it doesn't work like that in storytelling, even if its supposed to be 'inspired by real events' it wouldn't work like that. Ah, getting off topic, this thing just feels draining, you don't like the characters and it never pays off with creepy moments or jump scares, so when you've had the built up feeling of adrenaline in your system flow out of you, you'll feel tired and bored, is that what you want in a movie experience? I just wish people wouldn't make things like this, its insulting, tired, lazy and trotted out, but most of all - a complete waste of money that you could spend on anything else to give you a better experience than this movie will give you.
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Kazombie25 July 2012I am an aspiring filmmaker and a fan of 'found footage' films such as 'Chronicle, Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project'. I went to see this film in Dubai with zero or no expectations at all having not heard any negative or positive reviews.
If I were to give the review in a nutshell, it would be "Nothing". The film makers dwell in to a mental hospital with a hand-held shaky cam trying to film the supernatural in the supposed 'Haunted Hospital'. What we are shown during the length of the film are poorly lit and edited clips coupled with awful sound bytes that do nothing for the film.
I wish Sean Stone the best of luck for the future but in my opinion, this film should have been a short 20 minute submission to perhaps an indie film festival. -
I tend to try to find something to enjoy and appreciate in every single horror movie I watch no matter how mediocre it may be and yet I found this obscure film to be very boring most of the time and very frustrating when not boring. It has a somewhat interesting premise, director Sean Stone plays the lead character named Sean and the other cast members also play characters named after themselves; in other words, they all seem to play themselves. Even Oliver Stone also appears as Oliver, Sean's father. The movie starts with a dinner talk about ghosts and then three youths set out to explore an abandoned insane asylum and film their exploit. For about an hour, basically nothing worthwhile happens as they walk around inside the asylum. The setting is actually quite wonderful in itself and yet it simply serves the function of being a background for the three characters to argue among themselves, the line "let's get the hell out of here" is uttered periodically! Some false and some real scares occur in the last 20 minutes or so and yet they are quite mild.
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cygnusx1759 September 2012I'd call this "movie" crap, but its closer to the twice baked crap you get from crap eating flies. The "movie" starts out slow and gets even slower.The dialogue in this film goes nowhere and explains nothing and jumps from stupid to lame.If you want to get a headache and or have those wonderful seizures Hollywood insists on inflicting upon moviegoers nowadays, watch this film. If you like it when the film is a first person shooter viewpoint, in a darkened asylum, interspersed with a faulty camera, then this movie is for you. There is no real ending to this film. We are left clueless as to the fate of many of the characters. OK wait, maybe the ending of Mr Stone smiling at the camera, with a look that says, "You viewers thought this was going to be good didn't you? Suckers! Cha-ching" In conclusion, I've heard it said that if you have ghosts in your home, then play this on a continuous loop, because ghosties wont even hang in a room with this film playing, it's insulting to any self respecting ghost.
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wadechurton9 February 2013It has been said before, but there comes a moment in everyone's personal 'mapping out' of a genre when one has to put their foot down and say 'here be the bad stuff'. Note the curious non-found footage intro bit with the director's more famous dad Oliver talking around a full dinner table and languidly huffing pot. Eh? Anyway, three unlikeable ADD-afflicted idiots (they can't keep a torch trained on something for less than a split second) break into a 'haunted' asylum to look for ghosts. Here's the sort of incomprehensible, tedious item full of improbably filmed content in conditions of poor visual clarity (honestly, this movie has the worst lighting I have ever seen) which gives the 'found footage' genre a bad name. Camera and torches flick and dart in non-stop headache-inducing spurts, rarely synchronising for longer than a second or so, and of course if we had a video camera and there was a serial killer or vengeful spirit (or both, as seems to be the case here) on our tail, we would take care to do our 'panicked running' with the camera carefully pointing ahead. And so it goes, until the thoroughly mystifying finale, which although frustratingly unsatisfying, nevertheless brings a welcome 'cool side of the pillow' relief that the ordeal is over. Over for the viewer, that is.
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silencedhell663 April 2013I had watched the movie for the first time today, and normally i am not easily scared when watching movies like this, but about 45 minutes to an hour into the movie i wanted to stop watching but i couldn't. Some parts you like what? and scratching your head, most parts your like wheres the controller/remote and wanting to change it because your all scared then you get to a new part and your like no i have to keep watching. i just say make sure you have someone with you if your not really that big of a scary movie fan, but if your a scary movie fan grab some food and hunker down, your stuck for a while. Hope this helps anybody, enjoy!
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Booster777 September 2012Let me start with the fact that i'm a complete addict of the 'found footage' genre. I love the atmosphere it sets and the feeling of 'reality' it brings in these times of silly CGI. In my opinion (check my history) the scariest thing still is the fact that you can't see what is scaring you. I believe in this as a major 'rule' of making a truly scary movie.
Having said that, these days I have the tendency to invert IMDb ratings. Because on so many occasions, I have loved a movie that had extremely low ratings and vice versa. So I never skip a movie simply because of low ratings.
This movie was fun to watch! The camera was shaky but it is a found footage movie! Like my title says... What did you expect?! A steadycam operator joining the investigation team?
Take a movie for what is is. Do not over analyze it, just enjoy it.
I think that the only reason this movie got such low ratings so far is that Sean Stone included his dad Oliver, and that somehow made viewers expect another full metal jacket or platoon.
Don't worry Sean! Real movie lovers respect the genre and you did a great job on my opinion. -
Saiph902 September 2012This is the winner, the worst film I have seen on Sky, I have had more horror, suspense when choosing between a pastie and a sausage roll at Greggs. Appalling 'film', I could go to a disused building with my mobile phone camera and recreate this rubbish. In the UK it masquerades as The Asylum Tapes, if I made a film this bad I would change my name as well, I am stunned that this cost over 3 million, the catering on set must have been world class. So what is the film about, well some people go to an abandoned asylum with the compulsory, 'found footage' has this idea been absolutely flogged to death, people run around in the dark, most of the footage you can barely make out. The dialogue is incomprehensible, and then the film ends. Please, please avoid.
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peach_hat12 May 2013I wish I could vote this movie zero. I wish I could go a step further and vote it into the negatives. The only problem there would remain that there aren't enough negative numbers to properly describe how bad this movie is. It's not scary, it's not artsy, it's not smart. It just hates you.
This movie hates you.
Got epilepsy? Have problems with vertigo? Are you a human being with eyeballs? This movie hates you.
The 'found footage' aspect of it was done in the worst way possible. And this is a pretty terrible aspect to start with. But when someone in the background is saying fervently, "See this? Oh man oh...oh my jeez man look at this!" and all I'm seeing is black and some flashes of unbearably bright light right in my eyeballs while the camera spins drunkenly around so badly I'm wondering if they didn't strap it to a cat on Ecstasy, kick the poor beast into traffic and say "Cut, print, beautiful!"? AWFUL.
Jesus, even in the simple walking-around scenes I was praying that they'd hold the goddamn camera still for half a second so I could empty the puke bucket. I had to close my eyes for a good ten minutes and try to follow the narrative by sound cues just so I didn't hurl my sandwich onto the carpet.
Which brings up the near total lack of narrative. I'm not going to spoil anything, because there's nothing -to- spoil. Hack film-makers with hack writers cooked up a half-baked concept with a bunch of meaningless 'twists' that M. Night Shyamalanadingdong would be embarrassed by that don't mean anything and looks like barfed up cat food on film.
Fellow Horror fans...do NOT watch this movie. This movie hates you. Because that's the only conceivable excuse I can think of for it even to exist. -
Piceased20 January 2013Normally, I wouldn't write a bad review (I try to be a nice person) but this needed a warning label for others planning to watch. Honestly, I do NOT like "found footage" movies, they're annoying and hard to focus on. When I rented this, I had no clue that's what it was but when I popped it in to the player, I decided to give it a chance anyhow. Bad move. In the beginning, the guy used night vision to see in the cemetery and, as the inside of the building became darker, I began to wonder why they weren't using it in there? I understand effect and all but, really, there comes a point where watching a black screen with nothing but screaming and breathing is just...pathetic. The effect where they distort the camera when something just slightly good is happening (and by good I mean the characters getting attacked) just kept pissing me off. There were a few scenes, I will not specify, where I felt it had been ripped off from other movies. In the end, I shut this off and sat in place just plain confused. So, I was wondering, can anybody tell me what happened? Summary: Bad acting, bad filming, BAD MOVIE. I'm glad I only had to pay a dollar to rent this.
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chandanshivaramu13 September 2012Greystone Park aka The Asylum Tapes.. starts with the master director and his prodigal son (?) discussing about ghosts and spooky things in a dim lit dinner table along with few other guys and gals.. And,, some of them head to film the Greystone park and the mental asylum which is there.. The horror starts..Should i say horror or utter confusion.. ??
What goes next is a serious rehashed scenes taken from well known found footage movies.. and its so disgusting and comedy filled direction less scenes.. you would actually destroy your beloved DVD player or bluray player or the TV in which you are watching this nth grade noobish movie..
If you are a true horror fan.. just give it a go.. and fast forward all the way and finish the movie watching in 3-4 minutes. Thats it. The so called great Oliver Stone is appearing in few frames .. for reasons unknown even to the smartest Sherlock Holmes alive ... maybe MiB3 would appreciate better.. ;-) -
Greystone Park (2012) think is also know as The Asylum Tapes (UK title)
I don't normal mind these Hand-Held Camera/Documentary Horror.
I seat thought a number of them, Yeah some movies are good and some are really bad and boring.
None of them have given me headache like this movie did.
I found everything to be very annoying from the start.
firstly the movie is too dark, that you can't seem to see what the hell is going on.
For a few moments, I thought I sat on the remote and turned the tv off by mistake. I didn't.
That wasn't even the only issues, as there were very annoying fizzing pictures that come on, way too often. , that your head will start to hurt.
I found it very boring and predictable, The last two minutes were decent.
The acting was not the worst, it is watchable.
Quote from the movie Anyone who goes into this building ends up going mad!
1 out of 10 -
view_and_review11 January 2016I'm thinking about changing my user name to "Bad movie watcher" because of my incredible and uncanny ability to watch bad movies through to completion. There have been the occasional stinkers that I couldn't bear and turned off midway, but by and large I gut it out.
This bad movie is a found footage film taking place in an abandoned mental hospital. To use a baseball term, the movie starts off in the hole with an 0-2 count.
Although found footage films have significantly improved over the years, this one is of the type I can't stand. This is the single camera, POV, amateur video. So, what do you get with that? Quick scans, out of focus, and shaky. Then, whoever edited it made it more unwatchable with constant cuts from shot to shot. It's enough to give you a headache. There were plenty of times when I didn't know who was holding the camera because different people would be in the shot when they weren't before. And tell me, how does a found footage video have a musical overlay for intensity? Granted it was subtle and brief but it still detracts from the overall principle.
The movie took too long to get going and offered very little in the scare department. Ultimately, you had three ghost seeking youngsters that found just that and paid the price. It was all rather cliché. At one point, at the beginning of the movie, someone even said: "This is how all horror movies start," when commenting on a ominous shot of some old homes--almost as if the movie was making fun of itself. Really poor taste.
There's nothing cutting edge, nothing original, nothing redeemable about this movie. I'll stay away from the overused: "That's (x amount of my time) of my life I can't get back," because I made the choice to watch it. But what baffles me is: what is cool as a stunt isn't always cool as a movie. Why did they think this could make a good film? "Greystone Park" could've done a lot better as a 15 minute YouTube clip. -
DonJohn8018 October 2018The son of Oliver Stone watched Blair Witch Project and Session 9 and incorrectly assumed he could do that. The worst horror film of the decade.
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chhavimohaley26 March 2020Pathetic. All you see is walls with loads of shaking camera. Not gripping or interesting. Poor direction. Predictable, irritating, boring. Sheer waste of time. :-(
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kenkct22 June 2021Definitely not spoilers. Just a few details that give nothing away.
It never ceases to amaze me on EVERY found footage movie you get reviews from ppl who falt out say how much they hate found footage movies. Yet they watch the movie anyway and are somehow suprised at how much they hated it. Pretty much poisoning the reviews for those you do like them and just want to see if one is worth watching.
Greystone park absolutely is. I liked the beginning with director juggernaut Oliver Stone and thought it was cool how he told his personal ghost story as a kid of crazy Kate and tied it into the movie. If I had to compare it to anything I guess I would say Grave Encounters which is an awesome found footage film in its own right. Greystone is more of a realistic take. The office of the "witch". The creepy dolls. The psychic driving. Crazy Kate. The terrifying drawings that adorn the walls. Billy Lasher. On top of that it is expertly acted by its three stars. Especially Alex, who genuinely sold his first encounter at greystone with an unfriendly spirit. Rewind this part by the way and look at what flashes on the screen for just a second. You have to look closely. There is also a part where sean stone legit looks possesed. Like something absolutely demonic has got a hold on him. The dreanged look in his eyes make it look like he is trying with his life to fight it and hold on to his sanity.
My only gripe and the reason I held off from 10 is that just when it gets bone chilling as this is happening the movie starts to get a little convoluted and confusing. For a bit it becomes hard to follow what exactly is going on. It definitely makes up for it with and absolutely terrifying ending in the church. Like grave encounters its a fate worse than death. Luckily unlike grave encounters their isnt a terrible sequel.
If you like found footage give it a look. I was pleasantly surprised given its reviews. I think if this is your kind of movie then you will be too. -
ferloinvinnie14 September 2012I can't seem to get away from these "found footage" films. One after another, they just keep rolling in and are obviously a trend of the decade. Typically, I can't say I find quality in these types of films, they're usually extremely shaky (reference V/H/S or Crowsnest) and unwatchable just based on that alone. This movie didn't bother me as much as others, in that aspect.
The storyline is good. I won't go into it much, but it's better than movies like it (reference Grave Encounters or Episode 50). Don't expect to see a straight up and down horror movie here, it's more of a psychological horror movie and yes...there's a difference. But it works, it's a movie that gets under your skin. On that note I MUST mention how much I loved the subliminal images in this movie. If you watch this, which you should, look for the picture within the picture. Don't just watch the actors, indulge in their surroundings and take it in and you'll be surprised at what you find. This movie was very skillfully made in that aspect.
Overall, don't just look at the "3/10" rating this movie was given. Whoever rated this movie low was expecting all the wrong things out of it or just didn't give it a chance. I personally don't usually watch movies rated less than a 5.5 but I decided to give it a chance. I don't know exactly why I did, but I'm glad I did and I think you would be too. -
nogodnomasters3 March 2019This film is the "teens explore an abandoned mental institution" coupled with the hand held found footage genre. The first three chapters of the film is talking about ghosts over the family water pipe, along with a history of mental institution torture with the same lame historical black and white film plus a little Greek Mythology.
Chapter 4 (in case you want to skip all that stuff and miss the mild character build up) starts the meat of the film as our threesome enter Greystone and start filming in a most annoying fashion. U-tube videos of people making love in a small row boat during a storm while tossing their camera into the air does not have as much jerking motion as this filming. When you add the fact of the lights flashing on and off, it is a wonder that you can make it through it without developing some weird epileptic motion sickness.
Sean "Shaky" Stone is the main character. He is accompanied by Antonella Lentini and Alexander "Shakes" Wraith. The film is a clever descent into madness either through the power of suggestion of something supernatural. Unfortunately they chose a genre that ruined any script genius. Lights going out. People screaming. Shadows, quick movements. These cheap effects have all been done before and better.
Parental Guidance: F-bombs, no sex or nudity. -
aesgaard413 April 2013Thanks to movies likes "Paranormal Activity," ghost and haunted house movies are making a comeback. You could say what "Scream" did for slasher movies, "Paranormal Activity" does for haunted house movies, and within the stream of terrifying and top-notch haunted houses movies to emerge is "Greystone Park." Filmed in a sort of mockumentary style or pseudo-documentary form, the movie stars Sean Stone, son of Oliver Stone of "JFK." Sean meets Alex Wraith, an urban explorer at one of his father's dinner parties and hears about paranormal encounters Alex has had visiting abandoned mental hospitals, of which there are a lot on this country. Along for the trip is Antonella Lentini, a "hauntingly" attractive student from NYC University with a similar interest in insane asylums, and they travel out to explore the abandoned and derelict Greystone Park Mental Hospital in New Jersey for a short film. The best part of the movie is that the location is the real star of the movie. Pieced together from footage shot at Letchworth Village, Creedmore Asylum and Linda Vista Hospital, the setting floats between uneven states of neglect from being completely decimated and ruined to almost preserved as they wander the location looking for activity, getting scared by shadows, unnerved by props and settings or just scaring each other a long the way. Some of what they encounter are shadows set aside for just the audience to see to establish the notion that maybe the ghosts aren't real, and maybe someone else could be in the location trying to scare them. However, a few weak spots come up here and there. One, while the movie is both terrifying and psychological, the conversations of the trio border on the inane as they over-theorize and debate on why ghosts exist and why people are drawn to visiting these locations. Another problem with the movie are the intense blackouts and camera problems that occur throughout. After a while, they get kind of a little annoying. It is hard enough the travel through the setting with the characters without having to also experience their hallucinations and breakdowns with them, especially since the movie frequently goes pitch black and completely unlit at times. At one time or another, each of the main characters gets "possessed" and zones out without any memories of what they did while they were in character. The location alone even dressed up with the odd props and disturbing mutilated dolls is disturbing enough without having to endure the seven glimpses of images compressed down to under two seconds. Another problem I have is there are two many sub-plots with the discussions of Billy Lasher as one of the ghosts, the talks of someone else being in the location, whether or not Alex is trying to scare them, the worries of devil worshippers on the site, the struggles with being lost inside the structure (Alex always claims to know where he is, but he never does) and every other thought that gets passed around in the movie. Bottom line: it's an excellent movie with an intense location, but the "Twilight Zone" ending where it ends up doesn't measure up with the rest of the film or the journey it took getting there.
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airsnob28 August 2015I was inspired to write this review because frankly, the bad ones that are attacking the acting , mainly, are just fiction. The acting is good, and in fact better than most Indy films. This is not a bad movie. It was a treat to see Oliver Stones cameo. This was a good movie, not great, but not bad. The problems with this film is just that it has been done so many times before. The genre and subject matter Is getting boring. The acting is great, the scares are great, very realistic which is refreshing. I enjoyed it. It did make me afraid to go downstairs to use the restroom alone. I am a bit of a scary cat though . Mostly I wanted to applaud the acting, it quite upset me when I saw all the "bad acting" reviews. Ever watch " Continuem"? That's bad acting that affected a show. The acting here is top notch for the material. I was shocked people blamed the acting which was one of the good things about this film. I'm not sure people actually know what " acting" is.