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Special Features
- Commentary by director Roy Ward Baker and cameraman Neil Binney
- "Inside the Fear Factory" featurette
- Cast and crew bios
- Liner notes
- Trailers
- Still gallery
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Director Roy Ward Baker (Quatermas and the Pit) builds momentum with each story until the dark and deliciously bloody climax. This Amicus Studios production looks visually dull compared to Hammer's gothic gloss, but it features a great British cast (including Patrick Magee and Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing), and ultimately Baker makes that gloomy look work for his increasingly creepy production. Amicus produced a series of horror anthologies, including the original 1972 Tales from the Crypt and The Torture Garden (also scripted by Bloch). --Sean Axmaker
Product Description
Customer Reviews
You have the marvellously talented Robert Powell (Jesus of Nazareth) coming to an old Gothic mansion that has been converted for a home for the criminally insane. He is applying for a job there as a doctor, and he soon find himself proving his worth in a test. He is presented with three different patients. He most go in, interview them and learn why they are there. One of them is a former doctor at the institute, but has flipped out and has been confined. Powell's task is to determine which one is the former doctor.
It's the frame works for some nifty horror tales, with fine directing by Roy Ward Baker and script by Robert Bloch.
A great fun evening with a super cast of Powell, Peter Cushing, Patrick Macnee, Herbert Lom, Barry Morse, Barbara Parkins, Charlotte Rampling, Richard Todd.
For this edition from Dark Sky Films has struck a new print from the 35mm negative, transfered it in high definition and presents it in an anamorphic widescreen presentation. The extras include a commentary track by director Roy Ward Baker and Director of Photography Neil Binney, biographies for Baker, Cushing, Lom, Britt Ekland and producers Milton Subotsky & Max J. Rosenberg. There's also a featurette on Amicus entitled "Inside the Fear Factory" as well as liner notes and a still gallery. The only thing I could have asked for that isn't included is a appreciation in the form of a featurette for some of the deceased stars such as Peter Cushing.
Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) arrives at Dunsmoor a hospital for the mentally ill. Martin is challenged by the director of the hosptial Dr. Rutherford (Patrick Magee) to prove his mettle as a doctor; Martin must figure out who of the recently admitted inmates is Dr. Starr the former director of the hospital who's gone insane. Martin listens to the stories of different inmates (played by Barbara Parkins,Charlotte Rampling and Herbert Lom)and tries to determine which of them was the former director. Each has a bizarre story to tell from a reanimated dismembered corpse, suits that bring the dead to life to hand made little "people" that their maker can "will" himself into. Curiously Robert Bloch is credited as Robert Black on the box. Considering all the care that went into the re-release I'm surprised this happened.Also featuring Peter Cushing, Barry Morse and Charlotte Rampling "Asylum" is the gem in the Amicus crown.
The featurette features Max Rosenberg discussing the formation of Amicus and how the first couple of films came to be. For example Rosenberg discusses how he and Milton Subotsky became involved in Hammer's first successful horror production "Curse of Frankenstein". Freddie Francis also appears discussing how he got into direction, working with Peter Cushing and his work for the duo.
The previous edition has been out of print for far too long. It looks as if the plentiful extras and usual care that MPI takes with their releases is here as well. It's taken a while for this gem to become available again but I'm happy it has finally come "back to life". This creepy horror thriller scared the heck out of me as a kid and while some of the edge may have been dulled by the more explicit horror films out there for younger horror fans the subtle direction and storytelling has kept this film vital and makes this film an essential horror thriller to pick up on DVD.
The first story, that of Bonnie, is a wholly remarkable one. Her lover, having finally agreed to kill his divorce-denying wife and run off with her, chops his wife into several pieces and stows everything in the freezer, including her voodoo-ish protective bracelet He is quite shocked shortly thereafter to see the head, wrapped in butcher's paper, roll into view upstairs, and he is even more surprised by what happens next. When Bonnie arrives, she finds herself menaced and attacked by the separate body parts of the seemingly undead murdered woman. Next we have the story of Bruno the tailor. Facing economic ruin, he is offered two hundred pounds to make a suit for a rather strange gentleman named Mr. Smith (played magnificently by Peter Cushing). The suit must be created under the unusual conditions specified by the customer and must be made from the remarkable fabric Smith has provided Bruno. This metallic, strangely glittering coat is actually an instrument of magic, Bruno finds out upon delivering it. Supposedly it has the power to give or restore life to whoever wears it. Cushing's performance helps make this the strongest of the four stories, in my opinion. Next up is Barbara, who denies having committed the murders that resulted in her institutionalization. It was her friend Lucy, she says. The story plays pretty well until the end, when whatever mystery lingered concerning the truth about Lucy is rather unnecessarily done away with. Finally, we have Dr. Baron, maker of robotic men; actually, he says, the creatures are quite human on the inside, and he claims to have the power to will his own mind into one such creation and essentially make it come alive with his own consciousness. This tale has its weaknesses, but its effect on Dr. Martin is profound and sets in motion the thrilling conclusion of the movie. This conclusion, I must say, is remarkably good, treating me to a wonderful surprise and devilishly good twist.
The plot of Asylum does have a weakness or two in it, but the film's overall effect on the viewer is so gripping that minor questions cease to matter very much. Frankly, I have never seen an anthologized movie such as this succeed so well. Few movies can combine separate tales and succeed as a unified whole, but Asylum accomplishes this feat quite easily. This is an intelligent horror movie that fans of the genre can point to with great pride.
