(c) The Asylum
Directed by: Jeremy M. Inman
Written by: Jeremy M. Inman
Rating: Not Rated
Genre: Action, Fantasy

Who is in the movie?

The cast of characters in Sinister Squad includes:

• Rumpelstiltskin (Johnny Rey Diaz) - He is supposed to be the titular character from the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. Having cheated death in the previous film, he is attempting to find the pieces of the Magic Mirror before Death gets his hands on them. He still maintains the ability of mind control, but his powers are fading.

• Alice (Christina Lucciardi) - She is supposed to be the titular character from the story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice is from Earth in this movie. Her character is meant to be the stand in for Amanda Waller from Suicide Squad and she assembles the villains in The Looking Glass Asylum to fight Death.

• Goldilocks (Lindsay Sawyer) - She is supposed to be the character from "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Goldilocks helps Alice track down and capture the various magic folk that have escaped from the Magic Mirror to Earth.

• Piper (Isaac Reyes) - He is supposed to be The Pied Piper. He helps Alice and Goldilocks find the magic folk too. There isn't much to his character.

• Tweedledee / Tweedledum (Aaron Moses) - They come from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Both twins assist Alice in capturing the magic folk on Earth too.

• Bluebeard (Trae Ireland) - He is supposed to be the titular character from the French folktale of the same name. His character is clearly meant to represent the Captain Boomerang of the group with his use of knife throwing as his means of attacking. Bluebeard's knives capture the lives of the people he kills with them and that gives him more power. This is taken from the character Katana.

• The Big Bad Wolf (Joseph Harris) - A massive, feral beast of a man that has a hard time trying to refrain from indulging in his primal urges. He is meant to be the character from Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. His character sort of mixes Killer Croc and El Diablo from Suicide Squad.

• Gelda the Red Queen (Talia A. Davis) - Her character is a representation of The Red Queen from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She seems to have had a previous relationship with Rumpelstiltskin. She has the same power of mind control as Rumpelstiltskin.

• The Mad Hatter (Randall Yarbourgh) - He is supposed to be the character from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but he’s characterized as some kind dimwitted, absent-minded, stoner character. He takes a "white rabbit" drug and it gives Hatter the ability to have visions.

• Carabosse the Witch (Fiona Rene) - A cannibalistic representation of the wicked fairy popularized in the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. She is in love with Death and seeks to assist him in his plans to find the Magic Mirror. (Her more common name is Maleficent. Just a FYI for those who don’t know.) Her character seems to be a play on Enchantress’ character from Suicide Squad.

• Death (Nick Principle) - The main villain of the film. He is the ruler of the Underworld and seeks the Magic Mirror from Avengers Grimm.

When does this movie take place?

The film doesn't specify when it takes place, but the events happen sometime after Avengers Grimm.

Where does this movie take place?

The film takes place in The Looking Glass Asylum.

What is the movie about?

This film is a "mock buster" of DC's Suicide Squad and continues to borrow elements from fairy tale characters in the same fashion as Once Upon a Time and Grimm. It is meant to be a sequel to Avengers Grimm.

Rumpelstiltskin is scheduled to meet Hansel in order to make an exchange for a piece of the Magic Mirror. He is losing his magical powers and needs a piece of the mirror to restore them. The deal is a ruse for The Pied Piper and Goldilocks to make contact with him. Piper goes to meet Rumpelstiltskin instead of Hansel. Rumpelstiltskin figures out the deal is a trap when Piper tries to say his name. He gets scared and attempts to make his escape.

A messenger of Death arrives on the scene to capture Rumpelstiltskin. It is revealed, somehow, Rumpelstiltskin had cheated death and Death doesn't like that. Death wants the Magic Mirror. Before Death arrives, Rumpelstiltskin is taken by Alice and Tweedledum.

Rumpelstiltskin wakes up in restraints at The Looking Glass Asylum. Alice tells him that breaking the Magic Mirror has caused an imbalance between the magical world and Earth. There are creatures and beings from the magical world on Earth and they're running amok here. She has opened The Looking Glass Asylum to round up the magic folk.

There is another problem. A cult dedicated to Death have been making trouble recently. They have been trying to track down pieces of the Magic Mirror too.

We see Alice has The Big Bad Wolf locked up here.

Goldilocks finds and captures the violent criminal known as Bluebeard.

Alice needs to assemble a team to take down Death and his messengers. She intends on using Rumpelstiltskin, The Big Bad Wolf, and Bluebeard to accomplish this goal.

Piper and Goldilocks track down the cannibal witch Carabosse. She seems to have killed one of the messengers of Death. While Piper and Goldilocks are fighting with Carabosse, Death possesses the body of the dead messenger. Carabosse is in love with Death, but he rejects her.

This allows Piper and Goldilocks to subdue and capture Carabosse.

It doesn't take long for Carabosse to kill Tweedledee and escape from her cell. She finds the messenger of Death's body from the beginning of the film in the morgue. Carabosse casts a spell on it to allow Death to possess the corpse. She informs him that Rumpelstiltskin is in the asylum and Alice is in possession of his scythe.

Death calls his more of his messengers to invade the asylum.

Alice has captured Rumpelstiltskin's old girlfriend, Gilda the Queen of Hearts, and forces him to get her to cooperate. She plans on setting her inmates loose in the asylum with bombs strapped to them in order to take out Death and his messengers.

The fight for the fate of Earth starts here in The Looking Glass Asylum.

SPOILERS AHEAD

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Why is this happening?

It is revealed the reason why Death wants the Magic Mirror is to give him the power to come to Earth in his own physical form and rule Earth himself. Rumpelstiltskin has claimed to have broken the mirror in order to prevent this from happening, but he is given the option to sacrifice his body in exchange for becoming ruler of the Underworld.

Rumpelstiltskin is only playing along because he knows that Alice has a vial filled with shards of the Magic Mirror in her possession. He wants to get his hands on that vial in order to restore his powers.
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How was the movie?

This movie is meant to be a mock-buster sequel to another film from The Asylum called Avengers Grimm.

Sort of.

I guess it is considered to be a loose sequel. The film focuses on fairy tale villains in a superhero type movie. That checks out. The problem is that we've got Rumpelstiltskin and The Big Bad Wolf here again. They were features as the main antagonists of Avengers Grimm and things... didn't end well for them. The other problem is the characters were re-cast and they have been given drastically different characterizations here. The Big Bad Wolf was a beast of a man whose main goal was to kill Little Red Riding Hood. In Sinister Squad, he doesn't look like the same character and he actually wants to refrain from hurting anyone else. The same happens for Rumpelstiltskin. He was a Loki-esque type villain in Avengers Grimm, but here he is depicted to be more of a shady drug addict type of character. It's weird. The princesses from the previous film don't make an appearance either.

It's kind of like The Asylum didn't care about any form of consistency and just wanted to do another fairy tale-themed superhero knock off movie. Big shock for a mock-buster.

So... what did I think of the movie? Well, I liked it more than the previous film. That might be because I genuinely like the concept behind the Suicide Squad. The idea of taking villains and making them use their powers for good is an intriguing one. It adds a level of complexity to the villain. We can see if there is more to them than evil schemes and destruction. They might have something they care about. They might have some other motivations behind their actions that we don't know about. They might have a conscience and there might be things they're not willing to do. I like the idea. Using fairy tale villains is kind of a cool idea. I probably would've picked different characters, but we have who we have here.

That doesn't necessarily make the film good. The acting is still over-the-top. The special effects are still cheap looking. Sound effects have become more cartoony. Costumes leave much to be desired. The actors don't really resemble any of the characters they're supposed to be. The best looking character is Bluebeard, but he still doesn't really resemble his namesake. There must've not been much of a budget because the movie sets look more generic this time around too. The only interesting thing is the concept. I'm not entirely sure why they are fighting Death. I kind of wish they would've picked some other overpowered fairy tale villain for the Sinister Squad to fight. That's just a personal preference.

Other than that? Eh, I'll say give it a watch. It's a terrible movie, but you can have fun with it. There are some funny moments. Seeing a parody of Suicide Squad was a little entertaining. If you like seeing fairy tale characters in a modern setting, this might be for you.