AsylumRating:
Release Date: 22 May, 2001 Retail Price: $14.95 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (10 total) |
Asylum Reviews
Asylum
This film describes 4 stories told to psychologist Robert Powell by patients at a remote English countryside house. Powell is invited to be interviewed as house doctor by psychologist Patrick Magee, who promises Powell that he will get the job if he can recognise which one of the 4 patients is the former Dr B Starr, who was previously the house's chief psychologist but now a patient himself/herself. Powell meets Reynolds (played by Geoffrey Baldyon) who looks after the patients. The first story describes a woman, Barbara Parkins, who became crazy after she discovered both the dead remains of a woman whose husband Parkins was to be married and the dead husband himself. He killed his voodoo-trained wife and cut her into small pieces, but she later killed him. The second story describes Barry Morse as a tailor who needs money to pay his rent and makes a suit for Peter Cushing's dead son, hoping to be paid well. After the suit is made, Cushing tells Morse that he has no money and demands the suit. Morse kills Cushing with a gun and uses the suit to bring Cushing's son alive. His son kills Morse's wife, and Morse becomes made. The third story describes Charlotte Rampling having an imaginary friend, Britt Ekland, who kills and makes Rampling the murderer. The last story describes Herbert Lom as a scientist who makes toy mannekins and wills his soul into one of them. Powell leaves to tell Magee he is not interested in working at the house, and Magee is killed by a knife from a toy mannekin. Powell crushes the mannekin with his foot, and finds human remains in the toy. Lom screams, and Powell sees Reynolds, who tells Powell that Lom's body was crushed. Powell tells Reynolds that Lom was Dr B Starr and goes to Reynolds' office to telephone the police. Reynolds tries to stop him but Powell discovers a dead body in his office, whom Reynolds tells him to be the real Reynolds. The fake Reynolds is actually Dr B Starr, who strangles Powell to death. The film ends with Dr Starr posing as another doctor at the home and inviting another person to interview. This is the one of 6 Amicus films consisting of short stories. The other films are Tales From The Crypt, The House That Dripped Blood, The Vault of Horror, From Beyond The Grave, and Dr Terror's House of Horrors.
Lacklustre presentation of classic Amicus omnibus horror
Asylum is of course one of a group of anthology horror films that includes Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, etc., produced by Hammer wannabe Amicus Productions. Never as stylish, daring, or bloody as Hammer's efforts, their movies nevertheless were usually solid, entertaining mystery/horror outings. Half the fun of the Amicus pictures is watching so many terrific veteran English actors going through their paces. Asylum is a perfect example of this, with a great, mostly British cast including Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Barbara Parkins, Charlotte Rampling, Britt Ekland, and Richard Todd. I remember seeing the trailer for this (with the dismembered body parts) back in the early 70s at the theater and the audience went nuts. Unfortunately, decades of gore/slasher movies have lessened the impact of movies like this (see comments of other reviewers), whose horrors are more subtle, though still effective. I found it fairly absorbing and ultimately satisfying on recent viewing. Minor complaints: The film is a bit uneven, with a couple of standout episodes (the first and last) bracketing a couple of less effective, if serviceable pieces. (Anyone who's seen Robert Bloch's original 'tailor's dummy' episode of the Thriller TV series will wish the remake here was done as well.) I also would've saved the first (most blatantly horrific) story for last (somehow), and my wife did guess the "twist" ending fairly quickly. But overall still quite original; creepy at times, shocking at others, delicious fun throughout.
Sadly, Image's DVD is rather standard fare, with nary an extra in sight. The film is presented full frame 1.33:1, though it appears to have been shot this way (according to IMDb and by the way the titles and compositions are framed). The source print looks like a typical (16mm?) TV print with mediocre color fidelity, slight softness, and light to moderate speckling throughout. It's not really bad but not really great either, and put to shame by numerous other Image and Anchor Bay releases of similar type movies (see Anchor's recent stupendous Circus of Horrors disc). Fans of the film will probably buy this anyway (I did) since it's a huge gamble that it'll ever be released in a better version in the foreseeable future, but it's hard to recommend purchase to the uninitiated at this price, especially considering the mediocre quality of the source print and lack of extras. The movie gets four stars; the DVD is a solid three.
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