Asylum
1972 Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Synopsis
You have nothing to lose but your mind
A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum, and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.
Cast
Studio
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Middling horror anthology, but the segment featuring a wind-up Herbert Lom is so silly that it's worth it.
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Amicus delivers another solid portmanteau, and while not as chilling or peculiar as 1973s The Vault Of Horror, it still manages to titillate your terror receptors.
There's a some great jamboree bag of actors in each story, with the plot s interconnected by the framing story of a Doctor interviewing patients in a nut-house (medical term).
The first, "Frozen Fear" is fairly standard and probably the weakest story but it raised a smile when the husband with murderous intent shows off his new fangled "Freezer" to his wife. "Wow... a Freezer... I've always wanted one of those".
Ladies and gentlemen... welcome to 1972.
The second tale, "The Weird Tailor" stars Peter Cushing and Barry Morse (who's sporting a terrible "European"… -
Another fantastic Amicus horror anthology. It features a great cast, each segment is consistently entertaining, the score is perfectly creepy (including Night on Bald Mountain never hurts) and the wrap around story works perfectly.
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The October Ordeal day #7a: Asylum
Roy Ward Baker's Asylum is, like many Amicus productions, a well-dressed but underwhelming anthology, full of good ideas and worthy moments but incomplete as a total entity. The wraparound here is far too prominent, despite featuring Herbert Lom, Robert Powell and Patrick Magee. The first segment, where a man is being menaced by a pile of his his wife's body parts, sets the high-water mark. The segment where Britt Ekland plays Charlotte Rampling's imaginary friend is even somehow disappointing.
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When I was a kid in the early 70’s, British studio Amicus released a series of horror anthology films. Although extremely tame by today’s standards, the sometimes shown and sometimes merely suggested gore and occult mayhem was unlike anything this kid had seen at the time, certainly nothing like any of the horror movies I was addicted to on TV. The two I remember seeing in the theater were” The House that Dripped Blood” and “Tales from The Crypt” (both with my friend Paul and his dad). Each of these films told four or five tales within some framing device that connects them in some way. Because of the short story nature of each segment, they rarely offered anything other…
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Peter Cushing segment the best, Charlotte Rampling one the worst, everything else in-between, okay. Fun framing story.
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Asylum is the first Amicus anthology film I've seen and I came out with generally a positive opinion. It helps as an anthology that it all has one director and one writer. That the writer is Robert Bloch should be of extra interest.
It might reverse the usual anthology formula as the framing sequence is probably the most interesting story of the bunch. I don't think they quite pulled off the devil doll aspect of the finale, although it's memorable, but all the actors in the frame were good and the Asylum itself had a nice look to it. Plus there's a nice final twist. Could have done with an original score though as Night on Bald Mountain is much…
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Middling horror anthology, but the segment featuring a wind-up Herbert Lom is so silly that it's worth it.
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Amicus delivers another solid portmanteau, and while not as chilling or peculiar as 1973s The Vault Of Horror, it still manages to titillate your terror receptors.
There's a some great jamboree bag of actors in each story, with the plot s interconnected by the framing story of a Doctor interviewing patients in a nut-house (medical term).
The first, "Frozen Fear" is fairly standard and probably the weakest story but it raised a smile when the husband with murderous intent shows off his new fangled "Freezer" to his wife. "Wow... a Freezer... I've always wanted one of those".
Ladies and gentlemen... welcome to 1972.
The second tale, "The Weird Tailor" stars Peter Cushing and Barry Morse (who's sporting a terrible "European"… -
Completely bizarre horror flick that's okay for kids.
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Another fantastic Amicus horror anthology. It features a great cast, each segment is consistently entertaining, the score is perfectly creepy (including Night on Bald Mountain never hurts) and the wrap around story works perfectly.
-
The October Ordeal day #7a: Asylum
Roy Ward Baker's Asylum is, like many Amicus productions, a well-dressed but underwhelming anthology, full of good ideas and worthy moments but incomplete as a total entity. The wraparound here is far too prominent, despite featuring Herbert Lom, Robert Powell and Patrick Magee. The first segment, where a man is being menaced by a pile of his his wife's body parts, sets the high-water mark. The segment where Britt Ekland plays Charlotte Rampling's imaginary friend is even somehow disappointing.
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A stylish anthology horror film that was fun and tied everything together perfectly.