10 Positives Joel Schumacher Actually Brought To Batman Movies

6. Arkham Asylum

Given that Tim Burton wanted to portray the dark and gothic elements of Batman’s world, it is surprising that he never introduced the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. However, given the apparent mandate of killing off at least one villain in each Batman film (after all, Bane’s fate in Batman & Robin is very much left open to interpretation), he did not have much chance or reason to do so.

Schumacher introduced Arkham Asylum as a looming madhouse for the damned perched on a cliff and almost constantly shrouded in storm clouds in true Hammer Horror and Edgar Allan Poe style in Batman Forever. A sequence in which Tommy Lee Jones’s Harvey Two-Face escapes at the opening of the film was cut, but the facility appeared at the film’s conclusion when Dr. Chase Meridian visits Edward Nygma, formerly The Riddler, to confirm that he is a “wacko”.

In Batman & Robin, the institution was represented as being even more medieval and decrepit for a sequence in which Poison Ivy and Bane liberate Mr. Freeze from Arkham. Arnie proves just how antiquated the facility is when he freezes the pipes from his cell’s sink to the wall, exploiting the existing cracks in the wall and causing it to shatter. In true Arkham style, nothing has changed in the facility by the time Freeze is returned to it, this time to share a cell with Ivy.

It is incredibly important to note that, in a time when Batman films were notorious for their lighter tone and tendency to recall the campiness of the Adam West years, the inclusion of the grim and gothic Arkham Asylum is integral in reminding audiences that Batman is meant to live in a dark and psychological world.