Stonehearst Asylum: Some Fright, Mostly Fair.

Director Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) is a master of the subtle, languid stench of terror, slowly seducing his audiences rather than shocking them. No different, if a bit weaker, is his latest film, a fair adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story by Joe Gangemi.

Premise: A young doctor takes a position at a mental facility but soon finds that something very wrong has taken place there. Result: A mediocre representation of a good Poe story, suffering from some overly ponderous delivery and a bizarre resolution.

Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess) arrives at Stonehearst Asylum, a remote hospital for the mentally ill, long ago when mental illness was as much a mystery as a crime. He is a doctor, come to learn about this human condition from one of the more renowned thinkers on the subject, the head of the facility, a Dr. Salt.

But, of course, in this facility, and in the heart of a Poe story, nothing is what it seems. Soon, Newgate comes to realize that Dr. Salt is not Dr. Salt at all, but Silas Lamb (Ben Kingsley), an inmate that with a rebel force, has taken over the Asylum from the real Dr. Salt (Michael Caine), locking the real staff in the basement.