No scenery is left unchewed in this overripe Poe-inspired bughouse chiller. Arriving at the titular remote sanatorium (think Shutter Island with even more creaky ooga-booga), Jim Sturgess’s naive Edward discovers glamorous Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale) unhappily ensconced amid indistinguishable doctors and patients.
Ben Kingsley rolls his eyes as sinister Dr Lamb, Michael Caine is all spittle-flecked vowels as Dr Salt, and David Thewlis goes for the mad-Oirish jugular as slippery Mickey Finn. 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.
