The Art of The Asylum: Mockbuster Film Review
Still from Mockbuster. Photo courtesy of the Calgary Underground Film Festival.
In the Broadcast Media Studies degree at Mount Royal University, one aspects of the four year degree program is making short films on a tight deadline and with set parameters. It was about learning how to work with others in your cohort and improvising on a non-existent budget (and by “budget” I mean “just use props and locations that are around you”). It was very stressful. There were sometimes heated arguments making these films, but you came out of each film project like you achieved something, regardless if it was work you were proud of or not. I bring up that personal anecdote, as watching director Anthony Frith make a full 90 minute feature film in five days and only minimal prep, gave me Vietnam War-like flashbacks to this time. I was stressing out making minute long faux commercials for Kraft Dinner, so I can’t imagine being under that same tight deadline making a cheap film for The Asylum!
Who is The Asylum? They are the cheap blockbuster (or Mockbuster, to borrow the title of this film) company that essentially only exists to deceive others from another more popular film the “mockbuster” is riffing on (for example, Transformers becomes Transmorphers). Can’t afford to get a copy of The Fast and the Furious? How about you check out The Fast and The Fierce? The Asylum’s films have also earned a fanbase for people who love so-bad-its-good films, the kind of films that podcast How Did This Get Made? champions. One of those fans is director Anthony Frith, who also went to film school and has aspirations to become like his filmmaking heroes (like Werner Herzog, who he once worked with), but now is stuck making industrial films in his native Australia. Will Anthony Frith ever get a chance to live out his feature film dreams? He reaches out to The Asylum, to see if there are any openings for a film that needs a director, and they respond in the affirmative! They have a script for a film loosely adapted from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land Time Forgot, which has already been adapted in the past by The Asylum, because it's in the public domain, and we are off and running!
Mockbuster is a look at The Asylum's methods of producing films, with very blunt on-camera interviews with the likes of president David Michael Latt, CEO David Rimawi and COO Paul Bales, who solely see it as a money-making enterprise, and not about making “artsy fartsy” films. It’s about delivering an objective (a film in a certain genre, likely tied to something that is about to be released or a current trend), on budget and on time, and not losing any money in the process. That’s it. There are some quotes from The Asylum guys that made me want to throw down (like when president David Michael Latt criticizes long movies, in particular the work of James Cameron and doesn’t want to see any movie longer than 90 minutes), but hey, god bless, I get it. James Cameron’s mentor Roger Corman (who was sort of the precursor to the work that The Asylum does) would probably feel similarly. The film, in showing The Asylum's methods, also made me appreciate what they do, especially the VFX team, who are really skilled for as cheesy as their effects work might be, it’s just they are working with limited resources.
The other side of Mockbuster is the personal story of Anthony Frith and wondering if he can bring any of his point of view or filmmaking aspirations in the very factory-assembly-line-like structure that The Asylum demands. There are no shortage of documentaries where the director is the lead protagonist, where you get plenty of narration, and you are watching the film to watch his journey. This can be very trope-y, and I have seen plenty of bad examples that instantly turn me off, as it makes more of a narcissist endeavour. Mockbuster doesn’t fall under this, as Frith is such a good-natured and kind guide. In a climate where people who always dreamed of getting into the entertainment industry, but realize they can’t due to the shrinking economy, so like Frith you take on directing corporate videos you really don’t care about just to make a living to do something you sort of wanted to do with your life, it hits. Frith also makes a great choice in directing others about their perspective to get advice, like Rachel Lee Goldenberg, who started out in The Asylum system and has now become an Emmy winning feature director (she won that Emmy for producing the Barack Obama episode of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, at that! She went from The Asylum to The White House!!). They are inspiring interviews for not just Frith, but audience members like myself, who want to make things in a shrinking entertainment industry.
Mockbuster is a crowd pleaser that serves not just as a look into the world of no-budget films but also the anxiety of becoming a creative person in 2026. The film scored big laughs during its CUFF screening, so if you have the opportunity to catch it in a theater, I would very much recommend it. Oh yeah, Mockbuster is also 90 minutes right on the dot! The Asylum would be proud.
Mockbuster had it’s Canadian premiere at the Calgary Underground Film Festival on April 20th.