“You have nothing to lose but your mind.”
I love a good horror anthology, but I don’t often think about them when it’s not October. I’m not sure why that is – I’ll happily watch other types of horror movies any time of the year. (And I’m not the only one, as the Christmas release of Robert Egger’s Nosferatu shows.) There’s just something about spooky season that puts me in the mood for a bunch of horror short films. It’s like sitting around the campfire glow of the TV while someone tells ghost stories.
Somehow this week, one of the coldest of the year here in Maine, I found myself once again in the mood for something short and spooky. While most of my favorite horror anthologies are more recent – Creepshow and Trick r’ Treat, for instance – I’ve also got a soft spot for classic 60s/70s portmanteau horror films from Amicus. They’ve got a particular feel to them that reminds me of Hammer films (and they shared quite a few of the same actors).
After digging through the list of Amicus horror films – from Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors through Tales From the Crypt to Beyond the Grave – I settled on Asylum as my choice for the night. I’ve only seen it a few times and could only really remember the wrapped parcels of the first segment. I did briefly entertain Doctor Terror’s, if only to see Christopher Lee menaced by a severed hand, but saw that Robert Bloch (writer of Psycho, amongst many other things) had done the screamplay… er, screenplay for Asylum, and that Roy Ward Baker (A Night to Remember and Quatermass and the Pit) was the director, which tipped me towards Asylum.
I’m going to bust it out by segment with quick thoughts on each.
The Medium
I watched Asylum on Amazon’s Freevee service, as it was listed as being in HD. I don’t think that mattered much, as it’s still grainy and there is obvious damage to the film elements. It was still enjoyable, but I wonder if the 2018 Blu-ray from Severance might be better.
For other streaming options, Asylum is available for free on Hoopla, FlixHouse, PlutoTV, Roku, Plex, Darkroom and Tubi. It’s available for subs on Amazon, Screambox, Fandor and Midnight Pulp. It can also be rented or purchased at the usual online vendors.
The Movie
The Framing Sequence
I always appreciate it when an anthology takes the time to create a decent framing story. In my mind they should be just as good as the other segments, and I’m always disappointed when it’s just an excuse or a bad pun. Luckily, this appears to be exactly what the doctor ordered (sorry). The young Dr. Martin (Robert Powell), arrives at the eponymous asylum (for the ‘incurably insane’) where he’s greeted by the wheelchair-bound Dr. Rutherford (Patrick Magee). Though their styles clash, Dr. Rutherford agrees to hire Martin IF he can correctly identify the patient who used to be the head of the asylum – a certain Dr. Starr. Dr. Martin agrees and is buzzed into the secure ward by the orderly, Reynolds (Geoffrey Bayldon). The stories of the patients form the bulk of the rest of the film.
As an aside, I’d forgotten Patrick Magee was in this. He was in a ton of films (including A Clockwork Orange), but this time around I identified him with Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat.
“Frozen Fear”
This ended up being my favorite segment, simply for the monster. The patient, Bonnie (Barbara Parkins), tells Martin about a plot to murder her lover’s wife, Ruth (Sylvia Syms). Ruth is an heiress and a believer in (movieland) voodoo. She’s efficiently killed off and dismembered, her pieces stored in a freezer in the basement. (This is all fairly bloodless, fyi.)
Of course things aren’t that simple, and Ruth is not quite finished with her husband – or Bonnie.
The paper-and-twine wrapped parcels are just disturbingly fun and the effects – though dated now – are tremendously creepy. The paper going in and out with the severed head’s ‘breath’ is fantastic.
“The Weird Tailor”
A story I feel like I’ve read before. A tailor, down on his luck, is tasked by a stranger to create a suit out of strange material. Though difficult – the instructions require him to work only after midnight and before dawn – the tailor manages to complete the task. Things don’t go as planned, of course, and the tailor finds out the true purpose of the suit far too late. Peter Cushing is excellent, as always, but this is my least favorite of the bunch. I think the affectations of the tailor (Barry Morse) are just a bit too much to take seriously.
“Lucy Comes to Stay”
Charlotte Rampling and Britt Ekland in a case of mistaken identity – sort of. There’s some Thelma and Louise horror movie to be made here. The patient, Barbara (Rampling), tells a tale about a murderous friend (Ekland) who may or may not be real – but who definitely has Barbara’s best interests at heart. She even tries to get her to quit her drug dependency. Too bad about the stabbings, though.
“Mannikins of Terror”
I love Herbert Lom – what a great body of work he has. His Dr. Byron makes a very sympathetic patient – working so well with his dolls. Yeah, his insistence that they can be animated – brought to life, actually – is a bit weird, but other than that he seems perfectly reasonable. You know, if including perfect, functional replicas of human organs in your dolls is reasonable.
At this point Martin concludes listening to the patients and Reynolds sends him downstairs.
Epilogue
Martin refuses to engage in Dr. Rutherford’s game and berates him for his methods. During the argument, Dr. Byron’s killer doll shows up and does what killer dolls do. Martin destroys the doll, revealing the viscera that makes the thing truly alive on the inside. Running upstairs for help, poor Martin finally discovers the real Dr. Starr, the murderous former (and future?) director of the asylum.
Bottom Line
Asylum was just plain fun to watch! I realized who Dr. Starr was early on, but it in no way diminished my enjoyment. “Frozen Fear” is now one of my favorite short horror bits in any anthology, and the whole flick made me want to go on a binge and rewatch other Amicus anthology films like The House That Dripped Blood or Vault of Horror. Very much recommended if you want short bites of classic, Hammer-style, horror.
