Asylum (1972) Standard Edition Blu-ray Review

Asylum (1972) Standard Edition Blu-ray Review

In order to secure a job at a secluded mental institution, Dr Martin (Robert Powell), a young psychiatrist, must interview four patients inside the asylum and determine which is Dr B Starr, the former head of the asylum. During Dr Martin’s questioning of the four patients we witness tales involving voodoo and bodily dismemberment (Frozen Fear), a poverty-bound tailor employed to make a rather unusual suit (The Weird Tailor), a murderous split personality (Lucy Comes To Stay) and wee automatons that have a nasty habit of butchering people (Mannikins of Horror).

Upon its original theatrical release Amicus Productions’ fourth horror anthology Asylum received generally negative reviews from critics but still went on to be a financial success. As horror anthologies go Amicus’ Asylum (released as House of Crazies in the US) is one of the more enjoyable, with a game name cast giving it their all.

As with The House that Dripped Blood, Asylum was written by Psycho’s Robert Bloch, who adapted four of his own short stories for the screenplay. This was to be the final movie that the author wrote for the studio. The segment starring Charlotte Rampling – Lucy Comes to Stay – has echoes of Bloch’s more famous written work ‘Psycho’ with the lead character having a split personality that murders on her behalf, one of which takes place on a stairwell, just as it does in, well, you know, Psycho.

There’s a better wraparound story than you usually find within a horror anthology too, with Robert Powell’s doctor having to figure out which of the asylum’s inmates is actually the person he came there to see. I had a feeling that there would be a twist with the final review and that it was actually Powell’s character looking for himself. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was wrong.

That, in part, is why Asylum works, because it does what good horror should do, it surprises you, something that the same studio’s The House that Dripped Blood spectacularly failed to do regardless of the quality of the script it was working from – but then, that film had a director working on his first feature film whereas Asylum has veteran Roy Ward Baker (Quatermass and The Pit, Scars of Dracula) calling the shots.