The film has an impressive cast and was quite entertaining to watch, although it wasn’t too suspenseful until the very end.

| Feb 22, 2023

Far-fetched but entertaining, Stonehearst Ayslum is an enjoyable gothic thriller with a wonderful eerie tone which is assuredly directed by Brad Anderson.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 21, 2021

[A]bounds with twists and turns set against a richly textured and lush, stylized Victorian-era visual palette.

| Dec 14, 2019

Anderson can be a director of excitingly high concept, offbeat material, but Stonehearst is too glossy and too lugubrious to consider seriously.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 9, 2019

A twisty-turny labyrinth of ideas that always knows the way out (even if we don't), and ensures there is a whole lot of fun in getting there.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 10, 2019

Saturated in a penny dreadful aesthetic, Stonehearst Asylum teeters on the edge of camp horror hijinks.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 22, 2018

This is a faithful adaptation of the obscure Edgar Allan Poe tale "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether", a story short enough to, as with the Sixties Roger Corman Poe cycle, leave its adapters ample room to extrapolate as they please.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2017

An interesting mlange of dark humour, creepy episodes, Sir Ben Kingsley as the doctor and Kate Beckinsale as the manic eye candy explains why Newgate stays longer than any sane man would.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 22, 2017

The best way to enjoy the film is to know as little about it as possible and let Anderson take you on a dark and Gothic thrill ride.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 13, 2016

Sadly, this film seeks to expand the basic story - based on an Edgar Allen Poe tale - in a ridiculous fashion that lurches awkwardly from childish fantasy to sick violence.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 11, 2015

Stonehearst Asylum sets itself apart thanks to its source material -- it draws heavily from an Edgar Allan Poe short story -- and its embracing of the Hammer horror aesthetic in all its schlocky glory.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 26, 2015

Tom Yatsko's beautifully flexible cinematography, together with strong set design, helps to capture the transient character of the era, adding depth and energy to Joe Gangemi's script.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 25, 2015

This fin-de-sicle tale reveals the nastinesses of Victorian pseudo-sciences and psychiatry, devilishly dwelling on the distinctions between safehouse and jail, cure and torment. It also unveils the era's jittery repression of women and their sexuality.

| May 25, 2015

Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and a host of other Brit thesps ham it up, Hammer-style, but Brad Anderson's baggy direction hampers any enjoyment.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2015

At best it's hammy, Hammer-ish fun, although it has none of the tension of Brad Anderson's underappreciated potboiler The Call, and none of the wit of The Ninth Configuration, which remains the best screen tale of lunatics taking over an asylum.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2015

A weary, half-hearted adaptation of a familiar Edgar Allan Poe short story that is largely devoid of chills or suspense.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 24, 2015

Anderson has a good eye for a murky mystery. With its unhurried yet purposeful pace and moody underlighting, Stonehearst also owes much to his work on Boardwalk Empire.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 23, 2015

The tone is uneven and the various plot twists aren't as effective as they need to be, resulting in an underwhelming experience that fails to live up to its early promise.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2015

The only way to enjoy the thing is as a comedy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2015

This Victorian-set horror film can't help but seem a missed opportunity. It has the ingredients for a lurid and entertaining trip to the dark side.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2015