Mockbuster: The Asylum Doc

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel The Land that Time Forgot featured British and German sailors during WWI. The latest adaptation from The Asylum features modern-day Australians and Russians. That is more than close enough for scrapy, intentionally unpretentious B-movie studio. Calling their movies B-level might be generous. They regularly churn out cheesy rip-offs of big budget releases and dubious adaptations of public domain books, while their greatest hits were the Sharknado movies. For some reason, they wanted their second take on the aforementioned Burroughs novel to be their first Australian production. The film will also be Australian Anthony Frith’s first full-length directing gig. Essentially, they hired him because he was crazy enough to ask. However, he has no idea what he is getting into, as he shows us, warts and all, in his own documentary, Mockbuster, which releases in theaters and on digital this Friday.

Basically, The Asylum trolls for viewers who either mistake their knock-offs (like The Transmorphers) for the real thing or figure they look so stupid they must be funny. They contain formulaic elements, most importantly including one recognizable name in the cast. Why they wanted to make The Land Time Forgot again is never really clear, but they did and they received Frith’s resume at an opportune time.

Frith made some short films as a student, but all of his work since then were commercial training films. He is more surprised than anyone when they offer him a film, but it soon becomes clear his producer has all the real power and his creative input is strictly discouraged. Frankly, Frith can’t get too creative, even if he wanted to, because he won’t get the script until a few days before shooting starts.

Along the way, he gets some sage advice from Eric Roberts, a veteran of many Asylum productions. He mostly tells Frith to have fun with it, which seems to be his approach to the interview and his own Asylum work. As a bonus, Frith appears as an extra with Michael Pare, who is like the King of the Asylum lot, if they were big enough to have a lot.

Of course, the shoot is chaotic and The Asylum is far more controlling than you might expect. Nevertheless, Frith must complete it in six days. It’s almost like watching the Little Rascals trying to put on a show.

The Asylum’s films certainly aren’t for everyone, but just about every cult movie fan has seen a few. Yet, even if they aren’t to your liking (hey, go figure), most movie fans will appreciate the lunacy of Frith’s baptism of fire. In terms of polish, his finished film probably ranks somewhere between Al Adamson (the subject of Flesh & Blood) and the amateur filmmakers of Journey to Planet X, but if you enjoyed their documentaries, you will dig Mockbuster just as much or more.

As crazy as the Asylum process undeniably is, the participants all share a strange but infectious love of filmmaking. The Asylum staff all pretend to be crassly business-focused, but they clearly enjoy what they are doing. After all, there are easier ways to make greater marginal returns. Highly recommended for fans of The Asylum and similar weird grade-Z exploitation, Mockbuster releases this Friday (6/10) in theaters and on VOD/digital.