Abandoned buildings are creepy. Abandoned hospitals and insane asylums are creepiest of them all. So journey with us through a top ten list of creepy movies set in asylums, abandoned or otherwise.
Broke and Bookish are taking a break until August 15th with their topics for Top Ten Tuesday, so we’re going to fill the slot with some movie related lists until they’re back at it!
Bedlam
Nell Bowen, the spirited protege of rich Lord Mortimer, becomes interested in the conditions of notorious St. Mary’s of Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam). Encouraged by the Quaker Hannay, she tries to bring support to reforming Bedlam, but the cruel Master Sims who runs it has her committed there. The inmates, however, have the last say.
The Ninth Configuration
A new commanding officer arrives at a remote castle serving as an insane asylum for crazy and AWOL U.S. Army soldiers where he attempts to rehabilitate them by allowing them to live out their crazy fantasies while combating his own long-suppressed insanity.
Isola
When a woman, able to read the thoughts of others, comes to help survivors of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, she encounters a girl with Multiple Personality Disorder whose dangerous 13th personality, Isola, must be stopped.
House on Haunted Hill
An amusement park mogul offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.
Session 9
Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.
Gothika
A repressed female psychiatrist wakes up as a patient in the asylum where she worked, with no memory of why she is there or what she has done.
The Jacket
A Gulf war veteran is wrongly sent to a mental institution for insane criminals, where he becomes the object of a Doctor’s experiments, and his life is completely affected by them.
The Ward
An institutionalized young woman becomes terrorized by a ghost.
Grave Encounters
For their ghost hunting reality show, a production crew locks themselves inside an abandoned mental hospital that’s supposedly haunted – and it might prove to be all too true.
Stonehearst Asylum
An Oxford graduate takes up a job in a mental asylum, only to discover that the “revolutionary” new treatments are inhumane and that there is more going on than meets the eye.
Are there any crazy-good movies that we’ve left out? Let us know! Want to talk about any of them? Catch us in the comments!
GracieKat was the first co-host of Sci-Fi & Scary, Lilyn’s partner-in-crime, and sub-head of the Coolthulhu Crew. She reviews horror books, movies, and games for the site. She also does a weekly Focus on the Frightful feature, and is the site list-maker. She is also in control of the Sci-Fi & Scary podcast which will relaunch soon.
Gracie is also a member of the Ladies of Horror Fiction crew.
Is it bad that I’ve seen all of these. LOL I do love the horror! I’m pulling a blank on some others. What’s that one with Leonardo DiCaprio? Shelter Island?
You’re in good company, lol. The only two I haven’t seen on the list are The Ninth Configuration and The Jacket.
Shutter Island is the movie you’re thinking of. It’s kind of a love/hate movie but I loved it. It’s actually one of the few books that translated well to a movie.