How to begin with this one? Well it starts out with a horror movie cliché. It then sticks to that theme for the rest of the movie.<br /><br />To begin with, we are introduced to Madison. We are shown her as a child walking down a dark hallway in her parents home while her parents are heard to be yelling. Hmm where have I seen this before. Oh, right. Everywhere. Anyway, it turns out that they weren't fighting. The reality is that her father is insane and pitching some sort of hissy fit, and her mother is trying to calm him down. He shoots himself. This sounds dramatic, but in this movie it just comes off as boring.<br /><br />Years later, Madison is attending orientation for college. I don't know what sort of private university this is, but I have never seen dorms an eighth as nice as these. It is mentioned that Madison and the other characters will be staying in the new dorms, but the building looks old and much nicer than anyplace a college student has ever stayed. It is explained that the building used to be an old asylum (clever title isn't it). This just makes it seem stranger that the place is so nice. Generally speaking, old asylums weren't very nice places.<br /><br />I guess I should introduce the characters. The movie had the good manners to do so. There is actually a scene in this movie where all the main characters gather round in a circle and introduce themselves. Saves the filmmakers the trouble of giving them back story. There is the nice guy (whom Madison nearly pepper sprays for rudeness). There is the loud mouth douche bag guy. There is the somewhat standoffish Latin girl. There is the nerdy guy (this college age male plays with a cat's cradle). There is the slutty chick (she never has sex with anyone, but she says slutty things all the time). That covers the students.<br /><br />There are also some other characters that should be mentioned. There is the campus police guy who doesn't believe anything supernatural is happening (in his defense, he survives the movie without ever seeing anything even slightly otherworldly). There is the slow witted maintenance man who knows all about the secrets of the old asylum (it bares mentioning that though this is the sort of character that other characters humor he is scene to be doing the work of an electrician, poorly I should mention). There is the grad student in charge of the watching over the kids (this guy is a jerk and he never dies or gets any comeuppance, in fact, it's like they forgot about this character halfway through the movie). Finally, there is the ghost of the doctor who ran the old asylum (he is sort of a tenth rate Freddy Krueger. He doesn't kill people in there dreams, he just appears to people causing them to relive some painful memory. He then says that he can help them. He proceeds to kill them in some manner in keeping with the theme of their memory. At least, he does this for a while. Towards the end he gets lazy and just starts stabbing people).<br /><br />I know it seems like I have described these characters as undeveloped, one dimensional stereotypes. That is how the movie shows them. As such, you really don't care about them.<br /><br />Anyway, on to the plot. The kids stay in the dorm. They go into the old abandoned section (nobody dies there). The lights blink all creepy like (a character even comments on how creepy this is, but I would like to point out that there is a slow witted man doing electrical work at this building. Maybe that has something to do with the blinking lights. Hmmm) The doctor kills people one at a time until it is really monotonous. Madison (She might be insane. She sees things that aren't there. It might just be the ghosts and all, but I don't think so. At one point she seems an image of her dead brother shoot himself. This doesn't really seem to bother her that much. Madison is weird) and the nice guy try to investigate. They suspect the creepy maintenance guy. This is annoying since the audience knows that it is a ghost killing people. He acts like he is going to reveal some great big secret about the old asylum, but he really doesn't tell us anything we don't already know. The remaining characters (those who haven't died or been forgotten by the director) try to flee. The ghost chases them. For some reason doors stop this ghost who can appear anywhere. At one point the ghost takes off his lab coat to reveal that he is inexplicably wearing a weird S&M outfit underneath. He keeps chasing them. Even after they escape the building he keeps chasing them (this is strange). They end up in a clearing in the woods. Madison stabs the ghost. The souls of his victims leak out of him and he disappears. Madison and nice guy go away. The end.<br /><br />I would just like to say something about that ending. Madison had no reason to suspect that stabbing the ghost would kill him. (By the way, why does it?) Also, we were never really told that the doctor was holding on to his victims souls. It seems like this ending was sort of a half effort rip off of the ending to Mortal Kombat the movie. That the filmmakers chose to end their movie this way should really tell you something. Don't bother watching this. It isn't scary. It isn't so bad it's good. It's just bad.