Asphyx

Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable treat.
Review: A co-worker and I were just discussing unusual films last week, and I immediately thought of "The Asphyx", though no one else in the office had even heard of it. They're all younger than me so I guess it's excusable. I haven't seen this on the small screen yet, but did enjoy it during its initial release in 1972 on the big screen. I thought it to be thought provoking in the way of classic horror films, when the protagonist discovers (too late) that he shouldn't have been messing around with things like immortality. I've not seen or heard of it since then but I haven't forgotten it either, nor will I. A genuinely scary, gruesome movie with a moral comes along not too often. I highly recommend it and intend to buy it on DVD when it's released!

Rating:
Summary: Ack! I missed the DVD release!
Review: Many other reviewers have covered the story rather well...

I first saw this on afternoon TV, at a time when UHF stations tended to run oddball movies, with even odder hosts. At the time, I was suffering from a cold, laying in a cheap hotel room, after having gone through about 10 hankies during a job interview (1980). The story stuck with me well enough that, about 5 years later, a $12 VHS copy at the late Montgomery-Wards practically jumped off the rack into my arms.

Pity I missed the DVD release -- the compression during the credits shows how much is lost in the pan&scan VHS.

Rating:
Summary: slow but intriguing
Review: though marred by its apparent desire to be intellectually stimulating (certain death for many horror films) The Asphyx is saved by an emotional performance from Robert Stephens as Sir Hugo Cunningham, a photographer who has discovered the secret of immortality in 1875. Stephens recites his hokey lines with conviction, and if it weren't for blunt editing, lapses in logic (notice the camera change positions when Sir Hugo watches a film of Clive's death), and its snotty british desire for respectability, this movie would surely have a prominent place in the pantheon of great 70's horror films. if you prefer Hammer to AIP than you just might enjoy this throwback to the early days of Quatermass and Baron Frankenstein, but if you like your horror with a lot of action and "sobaditsfunny"ness then the only thing here for you is probably the cheesy puppet used to portray the title creature. overall, an entertainingly adequate flawed cult classic.