'Eloise' (2016) - Robert Legato.

The thought of watching yet another haunted Asylum horror movie prejudiced my anticipation of 'Eloise' but happily Robert Legato's atmospheric Gothic melodrama proved to be a rather diverting, if ultimately unspectacular spook show. The luscious Pia Carter (Eliza Dushku) is perhaps the key to unlock the multitudinous mysteries of infamous, long-abandoned Eloise Asylum, ostensibly a flesh factory for the wholly inhumane experimentation's of the especially sadistic Dr. H.H. Griess, who seems to have clambered unfiltered directly out of George A Romero's 'Tales of the Darkside', throw in the handsome, emotionally troubled heir to a fortune Jacob (Chace Crawford) on a murky quest with two other stock horror characters to make up the numbers and the so-so spectral shenanigans provide modest thrill-spillage in the creditably doom-laden 'Eloise' mental asylum.

While picture book purty Pia & Jacob are straight out of Beverly Hills 90210 and Robert Patrick isn't quite a Karloff or Price the film succeeds in spite of itself. The vastly ominous, shadow-steeped Asylum is the legitimate star of the piece, not only making an unsettling backdrop for the good doctor's insane theories it frequently distracts from the formulaic script and rather lacklustre ghostie-bonks, but to the film's credit 'Eloise' earnestly attempts to create more of an immersive experience than the banal 'Blumhouse Jump-scare-a-thon' du jour and for that alone I am truly grateful, plus the moodily effective score by the talented Ronan Landa creates some hauntingly diabolical discords!

I gotta be totally honest here, I only gave this a shot 'cause of the divine Dushku, so the fact that I even noticed anything else is much to the director's credit. (There's some business with LSD which they shoulda' made darker use of, but otherwise it's a serviceable teatime terror treat.)