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Among the Insane - Inside the Asylum House (2007)

Among the Insane

Among the Insane: Inside the Asylum House is a documentary about a haunted house in Indianapolis, Indiana called The Asylum House.  It's just under 45 minutes in length, but with the added bonus scenes, it's probably about an hour.  As a commercial for The Asylum House, it works relatively well, but only if you watch the entire thing (it takes a while to get going).  However, as a documentary film, it could have been a lot better.

The bulk of the documentary is made up of footage of one of the haunted house owners, Patrick "Trick" Greathouse, telling stories about his work at The Asylum House.  The documentary starts out relatively slowly with Trick talking an awful lot about his famous purple wig.  

Aside from his detailed wig history, Trick seems to have some very interesting stories to tell.  Unfortunately, he doesn't come off as a very good storyteller.  His speaking pace is often slow and awkward and at times he seems to lose his train of thought somewhat.  It leaves you feeling like you had to be there to know what he's talking about, so in that respect Among the Insane is kind of like a retrospective geared towards people who have already worked at The Asylum House.

However, I don't blame Trick for the awkwardness.  It should have been cleaned up in the editing.  When it comes down to it, I think the real problem with Among the Insane is the all in the editing.  It's difficult to figure out what the purpose of this film was supposed to be.  Is this a commercial for the haunted house?  If so, it could have been shorter, more focused and given more examples of what's inside.  Is this a memento for the people who worked there?  If so, it could have included more interviews with people other than Trick, more photos of different areas inside the Asylum House  and more clips of the people involved doing their haunting.  Is this a documentary to tell us about the history of The Asylum House?  If so, there could have been more information about and photos from the earlier years.  Numerous posed promotional photographs from various years are shown throughout the documentary and really do add a lot of visual reference to what Trip is talking about, but many of the photos look very similar and I suspect that most were taken around the same time.  Regardless of the point of the film, I don't know that the purple wig was a great place to start.

Despite it's shortcomings, after watching Among the Insane I do have an interest in finding out more about The Asylum House.  If I'm ever in Indianapolis around October, I might check it out!

Gore-o-meter rating: 0 out of 5 (no gore)

Skin-o-meter: 0 out of 5 (no skin)