[yasr_overall_rating]
Trapped in an abandoned insane asylum, five college students and the rogue scientists who abducted them must band together when a supernatural threat appears.
“The Control Group” is not “Citizen Kane.” It doesn’t have to be. It’s not that type of film. Directed by first-timer, Peter Hurd (who also produced and co-wrote the film with Logan Gion), “The Control Group” is a campy horror movie. There is some real cheese here, but some genuinely good moments and some truly horrifying scenes. Also, before I continue forward in this review, I have to say that the exterior shots of the hospital herein are gorgeous. So beautiful that I began to wish “American Horror Story: Asylum” was shot there.
The film opens with main character Jack (Ross Destiche) waking up. Destiche is born to be in horror/sci-fi movies and looks like the child of Bruce Campbell and Kyle MacLachlan. Jack soon finds his friends Corey (Shane Phillip) and Vanessa (Jenna Enemy). Stuck in a hospital, the friends must band together in order to way a find out. Jack has some flashbacks where he recalls how he might have ended up waking up trapped in the building.
At this point, “The Control Group” amalgamates a lot of ideas from different horror films: hallucinations, escaping the fun house, cults, and ghosts in the machinery are just the most obvious. Some people might find this a quick grab to throw everything into the movie but I like this style in the film because it helps keep the audience from getting bored.
There are also some particularly gruesome scenes throughout: at one point a character (Corey) dies by walking into barbed wire and in another sequence, a character reminiscent of the ankle slashing in “Pet Semetary,” or the nail in the foot from “Home Alone.” There’s also a less gruesome electrocution.
Chased by Corey, the group teams up with the medical staff that placed them there in order to fight off monsters. So in a way, there’s a “Resident Evil” quality to this film too.
There’s a ghost named Anne (Emily Soto) who helps the good guys escape the hospital. Anne appears in black and white and I’m still not sure if that was actually Soto’s speaking voice or if the film editor slowed down Soto’s recorded dialogue. This is a tacked-on character to the film’s plot, but Soto tries valiantly to make it work and mostly does. The ghost will eventually sacrifice herself to save the group.
I don’t dislike this film in the least. I actually re-watched it twice. If you aren’t a friend of low-grade horror, I doubt this will be your cup of tea. But for those of you who like your horror gruesome and a little goofy, I’d highly recommend “The Control Group.”
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