Asylum

Cast: Peter Cushing, Britt Ekland, and Herbert Lom

Director: Roy Ward Baker

88 minutes (15) 1972

Second Sight Blu-ray

Rating: 8/10

Review by Donald Morefield

Arguably the finest and best-loved Amicus omnibus type movie, Asylum (aka: House Of Crazies, 1972) begins with the memorable Night On Bald Mountain by Russian composer Mussorgsky, that plays over the title sequence. This absurdly dramatic piece of music seems to fit perfectly as a counterpoint for modern horror. Dr Martin (Robert Powell, also the star of the greatly under-rated The Asphyx, 1973) arrives at a gothic madhouse, where he is challenged by Dr Rutherford (Patrick Magee) to identify which of the new inmates was a doctor. Visiting four loonies in their cells, Martin tries to decide which of them, if any, is telling the truth.

Written by genre legend Robert Bloch, this quartet of stories in anthology format starts with Frozen Fear, starring Barbara Parkins, Richard Todd, and Sylvia Syms. Walter buys his wife Ruth a deep freezer just so he’s got somewhere to stash away her dismembered corpse. Unhappily for him and his girlfriend Bonnie, she returns to life in pieces. Haunted by homicidal mayhem with zombified limbs wrapped in brown paper, it’s no wonder that Bonnie goes crazy. Macabre details of the breathing head, apparently still in full control of wriggling legs, and arms with clutching hands, are what makes this segment of grimly domestic terror work so effectively.

Bruno (Barry Morse, TV show Space 1999, 1975) plays the title character in The Weird Tailor, a creepy tale about making a special suit for wealthy Mr Smith (Peter Cushing), when the gleaming pale cloth seems magical and impossibly proof against blood-stains. Desperation on both sides of the custom job means their stand-off escalates to fighting and killing. The bizarre twist-ending delivers black comedy with its uncanny creativity.

Lucy Comes To Stay features the glamorous double-act of Britt Ekland (The Wicker Man, 1973), and Charlotte Rampling (Zardoz, 1974) as a schizophrenic murderess. Moving to live with her brother (James Villiers), at their family’s country house, a neurotic heiress struggles to settle in when her mischievous blonde friend arrives. Anxiety increases and sinister plotting begins to disturb the placid Barbara when Lucy’s challenging cruelty and larks turn malevolent.

The closing story, weird Mannikins Of Horror, sees the mad inventor Byron (Herbert Lom) creating tiny robotic killers with human faces, and he uses his telepathic powers to direct one of these murderous dolls into attacking asylum boss Rutherford. “From playthings to creations.”

These stories are linked by a common trope of resurrection or bringing the unborn to life, usually by the sheer power of imagination or a force of will. With a bitter irony, this act of dark creativity is closely allied with states of insanity. For all of its perceived fragility, the human minds found in all these horrors are exceptionally strong, with more than enough potency for carrying out homicidal actions. Motivations vary, but revenge of some form is an obvious possibility despite the irrational drives to murder. This thread of similarity has a notable plus in that Asylum differs from most of the other portmanteau horror movies of this era, which typically offered compendiums of tales of very different themes.  

Blu-ray disc extras:

• Director’s commentary track
• Vintage featurette Two’s A Company (18 minutes), about producers Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg
• David Schow talks about Robert Bloch (20 minutes)
• Memories of Subotsky by his widow Fiona (9 minutes)
• Best of all is documentary Inside The Fear Factory (20 minutes) about Amicus history