Paranormal Asylum (also called Paranormal Asylum: The Revenge Of Typhoid Mary) is a Direct to Video Horror Movie by Nimrod Zalmanowitz.
Mark (Aaron Mathias) and Andy (Nathan Spiteri) are a couple of New York City filmmakers who, after Mark returns from L.A., decide they're going to make a documentary film about Mary "Typhoid Mary" Mallon
, which Andy's fiance, Michelle (Laura Gilreath) decides to tag along with. They start by setting up cameras in a hospital Mary was secretly transferred to after having a stroke.
When they start filming, however, things soon take a strange turn. Mark seems to be seeing people who aren't really there, and at one point, Michelle starts behaving strangely. As all this is happening, secrets of what happened to Mary start being unearthed.
The film was released on DVD on September 17th, 2013.
Paranormal Asylum contains examples of:
- Artistic License – History: Naturally, some liberties were taken with Mary Mallon's history. For one thing, the general consensus is that Mary was born with Typhoid Fever that she got from her mother when she was pregnant with her, rather than getting it from being raped by a pedophile who had it. There also doesn't seem to be any record of Mary having any relatives besides her parents, least of all a half-sister.
- Bait-and-Switch: When the ghostly orderlies start coming towards Mark while he's locked in the room with them, he shields himself for their attack. They just pass right through him.
- Deliberately Monochrome: At least one shot viewed through the camera is done in black and white.
- Derelict Graveyard: While boating around the Hudson River, Mark and Andy get some footage of old ship ruins.
- Downer Ending: Mark gets sealed in a mortuary storage slab (presumably for when Evelyn decides to consume his youth), while the ghostly orderlies get ready to operate on Michelle. The camera pans out on the monitor recording all this before they start to glitch.
- Driven to Suicide: When Mark returns to George Sheffield's apartment, he finds George standing on the balcony rail. He says something, and then falls off it to his death.
- How We Got Here: The film opens with Michelle possessed by Typhoid Mary's ghost wandering through the house at night. The next scene shows Mark returning home.
- In the Back: Mary-in-Michelle's-body stabs Andy in the back with a knife while he's arguing with Mark.
- The Reveal: Evelyn is Mary's half-sister, who's been using her sister's ghost to lure men to her so she can consume their youth to stay young. Also, Mary was regularly molested by her father, which only stopped after her stroke because her not moving took the enjoyment out of it.
- Spooky Séance: Michelle holds one of these by herself one night. It results in her being possessed by Mary's ghost.
- Undeathly Pallor: Michelle's skin becomes much paler, and her eyes and lips turn black, when Mary takes over.
