1973 Directed by Peter Newbrook
Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question... what is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?
Pirullista kauhua, The Horror of Death, Asphyx - kuoleman henki, Asfixia, L'esprit de la mor, Den skrikande anden, Experiments, Asphyx, L'Esprit de la mort, Дух мертвеца, 窒息
USA
USA
A sort of Victorian Ghostbusters meets Frankenstein with a dash of Hammer, neat premise, and plenty of goofy charm make for a weirdo ‘science gone too far’ Black Mirror episode and I kinda love it.
Week 1: Elvira Week
This is a slightly Hammer-esque horror about a guy who discovers an apparition that appears at the moment of death and decides to trap it in order to become immortal. It’s silly and suspenseful (probably more of the former) and, for some reason, I’ve always really dug it.
It’s set at the turn of the century but it was made in the early 70’s so it’s got that whole aesthetic thing going on that I love. The story would be a total downer if it wasn’t for the theatrics of the cast. Robert Stephens delightfully hams up every word he says and Robert Powell gives some grade-A side eye throughout. In spite of that, some of the scenes still manage to be genuinely tense and even though I knew what was going to happen, I was still sweatin’ a little. Love that total 70’s “freeze frame/roll sound” ending!
I vaguely remember watching this oddity as a kid. I appreciated the story was different from the usual big gothic mansion films of the time and the effects when capturing the asphyx's coulda come across a little goofy if it wasn't for how bloody weird it looked and sounded. The Dad, wonderfully played by Robert Stephens, was a maniac and it's always great seeing Robert Powell. The thing that really let it down for me was the sets, a few small basic rooms, no staircase or anything. If Hammer did this it woulda looked glorious!
The opening of The Asphyx is genuinely unnerving how pleasant this Victorian family is to one another. Still, it doesn't take long until the real horror occurs and it becomes a sort of Hammer rendition of Ghostbusters except that didn't exist yet (outside of the one with the gorilla). While it's a far too dry in between fits of mania, I was earnestly surprised by a number of the plot developments, including one twist that is set up at the very beginning and pays off long after you've forgotten about it. Back to Ghostbusters, if you thought the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Man was ridiculous, wait until you meet the dastardly immortal guinea pig.
Near the end I thought what a good episode of Doctor Who this would have made. The classics of course. Baker-era preferred.
HOOP X, the 24th
The British costume drama version of "Flatliners", whereby a scientist in Victorian England endeavors with a makeshift camera of his own invention to capture a form of the Grim Reaper during the instant of a person's death when it arrives for their soul. Cockblocking death itself, rendering the person permanently alive forever after. Death-edging, you might call it. Playing with fire like this has its consequences of course, but you can't blame a guy for experimenting with extraordinary phenomena and trying to harness an unprecedented access to eternal life, right? I would've chipped in to his Kickstarter.
A creative story that you can't easily predict during its first half, well-acted, properly staged and judiciously tuned. Kind…
Let's say you're a brilliant scientist who creates a camera that can not only make visible but actually imprison the specter of death and thus grant its subjects immortality. What's the first thing you do? If you said rig up an increasingly elaborate series of Rube Goldberg death devices and play chicken with your loved ones' souls, you probably wrote The Asphyx.
The concept's too good for me to write this off completely, but gosh it seems like it should've been a lot more fun.
The basic premise is that life is a more severe punishment than death; this film does not seem to hesitate in its condemnation of the death penalty. The old joke/argument that life in prison is worse than death is a complicated little idea that I will eschew for the moment, but the idea that eternal life is a punishment is more relevant here. The idea of immortality has been explored in fiction finer than this, but there's ambition here that is admirable.
The effects in this tend toward the cartoonish, but the theatricality of it kinda works. The asphyxes reminded me a bit of Slimer, but their wailing and struggling was all the more creepy because they were not the…
The October 2022 70s Horror Extravaganza #36
Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens), is a scientist who studies psychic phenomena. Taking photographs of people at the point of death, Cunningham spots a smudge hovering next to them. Deciding that he has captured the spirit of death, what the Greek call the Asphyx, he believes if he can remove or trap it, it would pave the way to immortality. With the help of his adoptive son (Robert Powell), he sets about creating a device to collect the spirit. Tragedy is never far away though.
This was on my list to get round to this month if there was time but was promoted to must see after it was recommended by Edgar Wright…
The Asphyx is pretty fantastic. The sets slay me as do the weird jangly contraptions used in the main character's loopy experiments.
Death photography, spirit hunting, crystal machines, immortality- so many fun things happening all at once here.
The Asphyx itself looks badass and I love the stupidly overcomplicated way these characters do everything. And that devious little Guinea pig! He knows too much!
The first half is definitely better than the second half but still - highly recommended.
An interesting but flawed blend of period drama and existential horror concerning the discovery of an asphyx, a (usually) imperceptible life essence that leaves the body shortly before the point of death.
Keen photographer, nascent filmmaker, scientist and philanthropist Sir Hugo (Robert Stephens) inadvertently discovers the existence of the asphyx via several of his photographs (which he’s taken of the recently departed) and decides that if it can be captured before it disappears, the dying person will live forever. I’m not sure what leads him to this assumption – but of course, he’s right.
He then sets about killing himself to make himself immortal – and then does the same with daughter Christina (Jane Lapotaire) and her fiancé, Giles (Robert…
The intro music lulls you into thinking this is going to be some of fantastical romp, but good lord.
A spooky photographer figures out that there's a thing that shows up at the moment of a person's death and he sets out to trap it, thus giving whatever immortality. And to tragic results, obviously.
At the beginning there's so much pomp and circumstance about Hugo's new wife, but when she and his son are killed it's like she never existed? All we hear about is him mourning his son and like one further mention of her. It makes sense, obviously he's known him longer, but it was just weird and like... couldn't they have thought of a better device to…
1973 In Review - February
#9
English country squire Sir Hugo Cunningham searches for immortality by literally 'bottling up' the Spirit of the Dead, or Asphyx.
When Victorian scientist and budding photographer Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) records people at the moment of death, he discovers a strange apparition on his images. Further investigation leads him to believe that the phenomenon is an asphyx, a spirit of the dead come to claim the soul, and that by trapping it, one can attain immortality.
An excellent Gothic horror, intelligently written, expertly directed, and well acted, The Asphyx shows the possible tragic outcome of becoming obsessed with the finality of death. And of letting a guinea pig roam free around your laboratory.
