When do you first remember seeing an Asylum studio title? Established in the late 90s, they may have been knocking around for a while before they ended up on your radar. So at a guess, your first Asylum title might have been Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (2009) or if you’re a little younger, perhaps Sharknado (2013), or else you may have forgotten exact titles, but definitely remember witnessing a fight between 80s pop sensations Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. (It was in Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.) In any case, it was (and still is) a wild time, with a slew of low-budget titles designed to be derivative and lowbrow, pivoting around old, dependable exploitation cinema tropes like giant sea creatures, mad robots, aliens, zombies and of course, the mockbusters designed to ride the coattails of whatever Hollywood is doing at that particular time. But how do these films get made – and who makes them?
Mockbuster (2025) is one answer to that question, giving us a rare behind-the-scenes perspective from a first-time feature director, Anthony Frith, tasked with directing a spin on The Land That Time Forgot (and providing a voiceover for this film). Frith starts by acknowledging the quandary of getting involved with such a studio: you have to start somewhere, but you might never get past it. He got the gig, incredibly, after sending The Asylum a tentative email asking if they were looking for directors. Be careful what you wish for. Turns out, they were, provided said director can work to a six-day shoot, perhaps sub as an actor when needed, and of course abandon themself to the process, even when it’s not fully clear what that process is.
Frith, not only as a newbie but as a newbie getting his first experience of directing under, shall we say, unusual circumstances, is perennially humble and surprised during Mockbuster; he’s open about not feeling very comfortable in front of the camera, but he’s at his most organic when he seems to almost forget about the documentary, abandoning himself to a kind of harassed laughter when for example, he finally receives the script – late, with a vast array of locations, characters and developments. He’s less amused when they then cut his already miniscule budget and expect the same content, but hats off to Asylum producer Brendan, who arrives to cut corners like a pro and saves the day.
Yes, you will need more than a passing interest in this kind of behind-the-scenes detail, but on the whole, the whole thing is rather endearing. it shows that you do need to give any film your all to get it made, regardless of whether it’s going to be rammed full of CGI dinosaurs in post-production (great work if you can get it) and everyone who works on this film seems to come round to it, really wanting to give their best. It provides a new, or at least an expanded perspective on the filmmaking process, and a reminder as a reviewer to be constructive wherever possible (though lambasting a film is always acceptable if someone is just phoning it in). Asylum, to do them credit, sort of are ‘phoning it in’, but there’s an earnestness there to counterbalance their cynicism which means they just about get away with it. Perhaps they’re the reason we should start grading cynicism, sort of like a Beaufort Scale. By the way, the Head of Production at The Asylum looks comfortingly and exactly like you’d hope he looked, and actually, all of the people employed at the LA head studio are utterly disarming, Whisper it, but they even make some solid points about the Hollywood machine. Their ethos is: always make a film for less than you think that film is going to make as a profit. It’s not art and it’s not Tarkovsky, but it has its place and in the spirit of honesty, some of his could really use some dinosaurs.
Mockbuster shows the filmmaking process for what many of us may know, or at least expect it to be: fun, but frustrating and filled with snags. And the film gets made! Will The Land That Time Forgot ever make it onto anyone’s favourite film list? It’s highly unlikely – though not completely impossible – but seeing it come together is entertaining, the preview screening at the end looked like an absolute blast and despite the Asylum Wiki coming in quite hard on the studio as a team of slavedrivers (see second paragraph), they were willing to take a chance on a first-time filmmaker when most wouldn’t, and that has to count for something. There’s a lot to be said for that kind of shrug of optimism.
Mockbuster (2025) is available on digital from 27th July.