History Film / StonehearstAsylum

A 2014 film starring Jim Sturgess, Creator/KateBeckinsale, Creator/BenKingsley and Creator/MichaelCaine, based on the short story ''The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether'' by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe.

* EmptyShell: Both Dr. Lamb and Dr. Salt [[spoiler: are almost catatonic at the end of the film - Salt due to brain damage due to repeated electric shock administered by Lamb, while Lamb winds up in much the same state by the trauma of recalling the events that put him in the asylum in the first place. In the closing scene they're sitting together at the same table as patients in a psychiatric hospital, though they now have enough of their wits about them to play chess]].

* EmptyShell: Both Dr. Lamb and Dr. Salt [[spoiler: are almost catatonic at the end of ''Film/StonheartAsylum'' - Salt due to brain damage due to repeated electric shock administered by Lamb, while Lamb winds up in much the same state by the trauma of recalling the events that put him in the asylum in the first place. In the closing scene they're sitting together at the same table as patients in a psychiatric hospital, though they now have enough of their wits about them to play chess]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Lamb]], who only wants the patients treated humanely, but is willing to imprison, kill or torture anyone who gets in his way; he also refuses to admit that [[spoiler:even when treated humanely and given work that greatly improves their condition, many of his "staff" still cannot meet the logistical requirements of running the asylum, to the point that the heating systems are breaking down and critical medical supplies are running out]].
** By modern standards [[spoiler: Dr. Salt]] may also qualify, as he is genuinely determined to cure his patients if he can, however brute-force his methods. (He would not have seemed an extremist to people of his day and age, unfortunately, as many of those methods were commonly used to try treating mental illness at the time.)

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Lamb]], who only wants the patients treated humanely, but is willing to imprison, kill or torture anyone who gets in his way.

* CampbellCountry

* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Finn is one to Lamb.]]

* [[spoiler: TheDragon: Finn is one to Lamb.]]

* TheDulcinaEffect: [[spoiler:It takes only a glimpse of Eliza for Edward to plan an escape from his asylum, assume a false identity, walk all the way to Stonehearst in the middle of winter, and integrate himself among the staff in order to rescue her]].

* DomesticAbuse:
** {{Implied}} to be the case with Eliza, whose husband was apparently possessed of "unnatural" appetites, and it's likely the cause of her mental illness too.

** "Mickey Finn", which is slang for knockout drugs, hence "slipping a mickey". [[spoiler: Of course this is what the character with this name did to the real staff, and almost does to Newgate.]]

* DrPsychPatient: The main character discovers that the entire staff of a mental hospital have been replaced by the patients, who took over the asylum. Some of them are actually much nicer than those they replaced.

In 1899, young Dr. Edward Newgate arrives at the remote Stonehearst Asylum to join its staff. He is surprised to learn that the asylum's superintendent, Dr. Silas Lamb, rejects the common methods of his time. The patients are free to move around the grounds rather than be drugged and imprisoned, even having their delusions encouraged when Lamb thinks this will make them happy. All is not as it seems however, as Newgate soon makes a shocking discovery...

* DomesticAbuse: {{Implied}} to be the case with Eliza, whose husband was apparently possessed of "unnatural" appetites, and it's likely the cause of her mental illness too.

* MeaningfulName: "Mickey Finn", which is slang for knockout drugs, hence "slipping a mickey". [[spoiler: Of course this is what the character with this name did to the real staff, and almost does to Newgate.]]

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: The film features a background character whom the credits identify as 'Elegant Lady' but is played by a male actor and is called William by one of the nurses. It's never actually addressed whether they are a crossdresser or trans woman, but either way, given both the film's setting (Victorian England) and its themes, wearing dresses and make-up as a person assigned male at birth can be assumed to be the reason they are in the asylum (at the time, all such behavior was viewed as a symptom of mental illness).

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: The film features a background character whom the credits identify as 'Elegant Lady' but is played by a male actor and is called William by one of the nurses. It's never actually addressed whether they are a crossdresser or transwoman, but either way, given both the film's setting (Victorian England) and its themes, wearing dresses and make-up as a person assigned male at birth can be assumed to be the reason they are in the asylum (at the time, all such behavior was viewed as a symptom of mental illness).

* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: The film features a background character whom the credits identify as 'Elegant Lady' but is played by a male actor and is called William by one of the nurses. It's never actually addressed whether they are a crossdresser or a trans woman, but either way, given the film's setting (Victorian England) and its themes, wearing dresses and make-up as a person assigned male at birth can be assumed to be the reason they are in the asylum.

* RewatchBonus: The film contains several lines alluding to the fact that [[spoiler: Newgate is an escaped mental patient passing himself off as a doctor. Lamb gets a sense they are "kindred spirits," and later taunts him with "We're all mad, just some of us aren't mad enough to admit it."]]

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler: Lamb. Though he was mad to begin with, over the course of movie he gets worse. After seeing a picture of one of the boys he killed, he breaks down.]]

** Doctor "New gate" (also the name of a famous prison in London).

* BedlamHouse: Stonehearst used to be like this under Dr. Salt, with "treatments" that amounted to little more than torture. Lamb abolished these and has instituted kinder methods. The actual Bedlam, Bethlem Hospital in London, also gets a mention.

* MeaningfulName: "Mickey Finn", which is period slang for "slipping a mickey". [[spoiler: Of course this is what the character with this name did to the real staff, and almost does to Newgate.]]