Blockbuster or mockbuster?

You've heard that Hollywood is virtually another world -- vaguely familiar yet removed from our own, governed by its own rules and morality. But did you know that within that universe exists another parallel universe -- a bizarro Hollywood? It is called the Asylum, a 13-year-old full-service B-movie assembly line of direct-to-video titles, and it is run by two mini-moguls with very large cojones.

Asylum has stumbled on a brilliantly realized idea: a discount mockbuster DVD season, which, if you squint, hews closely to the stories, and even the marketing, of blockbusters released every weekend. Who can tell the difference between "Transmorphers" and "Transformers," right? See if you can spot the B-movies below.

--Christopher Borrelli
Read the complete article about The Asylum and its knock-offs.
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The Asylum stumbled on success four years ago, after being encouraged by video-store chains and cable networks (their biggest champions) to make an adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic "War of the Worlds." It came out about the same time as the Steven Spielberg epic starring Tom Cruise and was a success.

"H.G. Wells War of the Worlds"

(The Asylum)

The Asylum stumbled on success four years ago, after being encouraged by video-store chains and cable networks (their biggest champions) to make an adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic "War of the Worlds." It came out about the same time as the Steven Spielberg epic starring Tom Cruise and was a success.