Recent Reviews
DVD Review: Asylum (The Amicus Collection)
By HammerFanatic
Jun 23, 2006, 22:41

On 25 July, Dark Sky Films will release three films as part of their, Amicus Collection and here we will first look at the classic 1972 film, Asylum. The film is directed by Roy Ward Baker and the stories that make up this anthology were written by Robert Bloch of Psycho fame. The cast for this film include, Peter Cushing (Smith), Herbert Lom (Dr. Byron), Patrick Magee (Dr. Rutherford), Barbara Parkins (Bonnie), Robert Powell (Dr. Martin), Richard Todd (Walter), Sylvia Syms (Ruth), Britt Ekland (Lucy), James Villiers (George), Geoffrey Bayldon (Max Reynolds) and Charlotte Rampling (Barbara).

Dr. Martin (Powell) is on his way to an asylum for the incurably insane, to interview for a position at the asylum. When Dr. Martin arrives, he's greeted by Dr. Rutherford (Magee) and is told that the Dr. Starr, the doctor who was to conduct the interview, has gone insane and rather than running the asylum, has now become a patient. Dr. Rurtherford tells Dr. Martin that he will be considered for a position at the asylum, if he can identify Dr. Starr. Max Reynolds (Bayldon) greets Dr. Martin once he comes upstairs to the patient wing and proceeds to take Martin to each room to interview four patients and make his choice of who is Dr. Starr. The first patient....

Bonnie (Parkins) tells her story to Dr. Martin....it seems she and her lover, Walter (Todd), made plans to do away with Walter's wealthy wife, Ruth (Syms) and set in motion their plan to kill her and take off together. Ruth dabbles in voodoo and knows of Walter's philandering ways and also knows that he needs her for her wealth, what she doesn't plan on is Walter's ability with an axe, but then Walter and Bonnie don't exactly plan on is Ruth's voodoo connection!

Bruno (Morse) is next to tell his sad tale....Bruno had worked as a tailor his entire life and was good at what he did, but a decline in clients saw Bruno and his wife about to be put on the streets by their less-than-sympathetic landlord. Just as the landlord leaves, in walks Mr. Smith (Cushing), with a job for Bruno that will allow him to pay off his landlord. Mr. Smith wants a very special suit made for his son, to be given as a surprise and gives Bruno some special fabric and very explicit instructions on how this suit is to be made. Bruno finishes the suit and head to Mr. Smith's to deliver the suit and collect his payment. Upon arriving, Bruno wants to meet the son, but Mr. Smith hesitates in any introductions and then gives even more devastating news....he can't afford to pay for the suit! Bruno enters a room and finds Mr. Smith's son and is shocked at what he sees, he and Mr's Smith begin to struggle and one thing leads to another and Bruno lands in the asylum!

Dr. Martin's next interview is with Barbara (Rampling).......Barbara appears to suffer from multiple personalities and she has just come home to live with her brother, George (Villiers), but almost immediately, Barbara is seeing her alter ego, Lucy (Ekland) and and feels Lucy and George are up to no good and Barbara takes matters into her own hands to defend herself from any wrong doing.

Dr. Martin's final patient that may or may not be Dr. Starr is Dr. Byron (Lom), an inventor of sorts that has an uncanny ability to make robot versions of people he is acquainted with. He makes a robotic version of himself and it's almost as if he can project life into these robots and goes so far as to tell Dr. Martin that his robots are exact replicas of the human body inside, which is graphically proven a short time later.

Dr. Martin makes his way back to Dr. Rutherford and is almost hostile in telling Rutherford that these people are not being given the treatment they need or deserve and it's only while talking to Rutherford that things begin to go very wrong. When the real Dr. Starr is finally revealed, it is a slight surprise and makes for a great ending.

Asylum is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1:85.1) and has been taken from a 35mm negative. I must say, this is the third print I've seen of this film....the first being the Image EuroShock Collection and the second coming in the Region 2 Amicus Collection. This print by far appears to be the best of the three. Print damage is very minimal and while there is grain present, it's not as noticeable as in the earlier Region 1 release. The print looks much brighter and the colors much more natural and solid. Audio options offered are an English only track (Dolby Digital Mono) with English subtitles also being the only subtitles offered. Sounds is good, with just a few moments of quiet audio. Bonus features are numerous and quite nice for this disc and include:

Asylum is one of Amicus' strongest anthologies, not my personal favorite, but one of my many favorites from Amicus. I've always thought of Amicus as Hammer's little brother, but Amicus put out some excellent films of their own and Asylum must certainly be considered one of their best. Great stories make up this film with in my opinion, only one weak one and that being the Britt Ekland/Charlotte Rampling story and that's not horrible by any stretch of the imagination. Peter Cushing was always a solid performer and this film and his story is quite good and Barry Morse certainly held his own with Cushing. Patrick Magee never seems to get enough praise and he's great in this film, too. I think the musical choice used for the opening and closing sequences of the film are spot-on, too....creepy and start the film off with enough of a chill that you know you have to watch this one. Probably the best part of this upcoming release is how very good it looks. I'd say this is definitely the best I've ever seen this film look and would, without hesitation, recommend this to any fan of classic horror. If you're not familiar with the films of Amicus, this is a good film to start your Amicus viewing with....definitely rent this and I'd even say at the price it's offered for, buy it!

Pre-order Asylum on DVD from Amazon.com