ASYLUM / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ROY WARD BAKER / SCREENPLAY: ROBERT BLOCH / STARRING: PETER CUSHING, ROBERT POWELL, HERBERT LOM, BRITT EKLAND / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Watching an Amicus portmanteau horror movie from the 60s or 70s is like visiting a ‘traditional’ travelling funfair parked on your local recreation ground; you walk in ready for a return to your childhood, and you’re not wrong – you walk out with your balls completely retracted. Milton Subotsky and Max J Rosenberg’s low-budget productions may seem quaint and oh-so-British through modern eyes, but Asylum still has the power to unnerve as surely as that rattling rusty bolt underneath a spinning teacup ride.
These four torrid tales come from the superior pen of Robert Psycho Bloch (the film, that is, not his nickname) and stars bug-eyed David Bowie-alike Robert Powell, in his post-Doomwatch pre-Jesus matinee idol sweet spot, as a young doctor arriving for a job interview at a country asylum run by Patrick Magee. As intros go, it’s about as cool as UK horror gets. Magee being Magee, he eschews a standard competency-based interview format and instead sets Powell the task of sucking up the testimonies of four raving nutters inmates, played by special guest stars Barbara Perkins, Barry Morse, Charlotte Rampling and Herbert Lom, in order to determine which of them is the former head of the establishment. If he can do that, he’s got the gig.
The Perkins opener sets the tone with a re-animated severed head that will make you jump so hard you’ll leave your fingernails in the sofa like cat claws; the second, with Morse as a tailor who weaves a suit from the most abominable cloth, is a true delight of the macabre. The third has a Rampling / Brit Ekland double-act that radiates 70s glam, and the final part, featuring a rampaging little Herbert Lom robot that looks like a demonic Gerry Anderson puppet, resolves matters in outright bizarre fashion. Bloch ensures there are no weak links, injecting each 20-minute segment with the deft character work and playful cruelty that made him a master of his craft.
This new HD upgrade from Second Sight looks reference-quality and comes in a Graham Humphreys art box to drool over. Extras include a cool book, an audio commentary from director Roy “the boy” Ward Baker and plenty of featurettes. Best of the bunch here is an extended 1972 BBC TV visit to the set. Featuring interviews with many of the cast and crew, it majors on Milton Subotsky who is interviewed in the small wooden hut at Shepperton he and Rosenberg called base. He tells it like it is with genial candour, laying bare the Amicus business model of great stories, maximum star power, minimum overheads and as many cool foreground props as possible. It wasn’t broke and it didn’t need fixing.
Special Features – Audio commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker, Camera Operator Neil Binney and film historian Marcus Hearn; Two’s a Company: 1972 On-set BBC report featuring interviews with Producer Milton Subotsky, Director Roy Ward Baker, Actors Charlotte Rampling, James Villiers, Megs Jenkins, Art Director Tony Curtis and Production Manager Teresa Bolland; Screenwriter David J. Schow on Writer Robert Bloch; Fiona Subotsky Remembers Milton Subotsky; Inside The Fear Factory: Featurette with Directors Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis and Producer Max J. Rosenberg; Theatrical Trailer; Reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Graham Humphreys and original artwork
