An all-star supernatural horror that fell frustratingly short finds the inmates running the streaming asylum

Horror has always been one of the most heavily-saturated genres in cinema, but the Gothic offshoot has largely been under-served, at least when it comes to major productions backed by an array of top talent. Stonehearst Asylum looked to buck that trend back in 2014, but it ended up completely falling through the cracks instead.

To say that the supernatural chiller was stacked would be an understatement, and that applies to everything from its inspirations all the way through to the ensemble cast. Adapted from Edgar Allen Poe’s The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, The Machinist director Brad Anderson was wielding the megaphone on the expensively-assembled tale.

The cast boasted such heavy hitters as Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, knights of the realm Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine, Brendan Gleeson, and Jason Flemyng to name only a handful, but it barely even saw the inside of a theater on its way to a measly box office haul of only $3.2 million, while reviews were about as chilly as a winter’s night.

However, big names and broad concepts continue to hook streaming subscribers on a near-daily basis, with Stonehearst Asylum proving to be the latest beneficiary after it took on a new lease of life to become one of the top-viewed features on Starz, per FlixPatrol.

Unfolding at the titular institute, a new employee becomes instantly infatuated with one of his colleagues, but there are dark and sinister secrets lurking in the bowels of the facility that end up causing nightmares of both a literal and figurative nature. All the ingredients were there for success, but the dish at the end was a beige gruel of cinema.