The Asphyx

Plot synopsis:
Two police officers run to the location of a car crash. The lethal accident threw two people through the windshields of each car, instantly killing the, but one of the people involved miracously survived. One of the police officers pulls one man out from under the car.Cut to title credits.19thC carriage and clothes. English country squire Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) arrives to his manor house, where his two sons -one adopted, Giles (Robert Powell), the other one being Clive (Ralph Arliss)- and one daughter, Christina (Jane Lapotaire) are already waiting for him. The three children are grown-ups now. He introduces to them his fiancée, Anna Wheatley (Fiona Walker), whom he intends to marry the following Saturday. The father also announces that he's brought with him a special camera.At the manor house library, Hugo explains to Anna that he enjoys taking photographs of dead people. He is not alone on this weird passtime, as his friend Sir Edward Barrett (Alex Scott) also enjoys so.We see a slide presentation in front of a small audience. Edward and Hugo explain that they found a dark romboidal stain in photographs of people who had just died. They think they have photographed the souls of the people who died leaving the body. Hugo tries to explain to Clive - who looks like his favourite son - that with power comes responsibility when the son comments on Hugo's generosity towards the waiting servant. He also says that death is the last change. Hugo still misses his late wife.It's March at the manor house during Hugo and Anna's visit, and it's freezing cold. He insists to record everybody soaring on a boat. First, it's Giles and Christina, then Clive and Anna. Clive's oar gets stuck in the mud, which causes him not to see a branch of a tree. A sharp pointed part of the tree stings him, who falls to the muddy river. Anna also falls to the water. Giles tries to rescue them but the water is so muddy that he can't see anything. Clive and Anna's muddy body will appear later on during the night.Two weeks later, Hugo checks on the motion picture. There appears the same black stain, so he decides to photograph the two-week old corpse of Clive.Giles is worried about Hugo's unhealthy obsession, because it causes him to disregard himself. Hugo starts thinking about the Asphyx, a spirit which appears near people who are about to die. Hugo starts looking a bit out of his mind, even asking Giles to photograph him while drinking a cup of poison.There is going to be a public hanging the following day, says Edward. Hugo wants to photograph the execution.Hugo kills a mouse so that the Asphyx appears and he can imprison it in a kind of laboratory tube with strange liquids. With a strong lamp, Giles has captured in in the halo of light. Christina appears to question what the racket was about.Later, Christina goes on her own and takes the guinea pig out. She wonders at the strange box at his father's laboratory. Hugo -with Giles at his tail as usual- goes to visit a home for the paupers. There, one of the homeless men (Terry Scully) is severely ill.Christina questions Giles about what she saw at the laboratory. Giles is worried for Hugo but can't explain it all to her because he swore to secrecy. Christina tries to console Giles even though he can't confide on her. Hugo gives the sick man home, food and shelter. The bump is so sick that he'll only live one or two days more, says the doctor. The homeless man coughs and coughs. When he is about to die, the Asphyx appears, and Hugo captures it with the strong focus light. However, in his last moments, the dying man picks up the acid which Hugo had shown Giles before, and he splashes mit all over Hugo's face. He will be left with the scar for the rest of his life. Christina has been woken up by the acute shrieks of the Asphyx, so she arrives to the laboratory to see it all.Hugo has the idea of electrocuting himself in an electric chair while Giles traps the Asphyx. Christina appears and panics, but Giles slaps her and she is the one who moves the light to trap the Asphyx inside the coffin-shaped box. Giles and Christina put the Asphyx inside of a safe box. That night, Christina is woken up by something in her bedroom: it's the guinea pig she's let loose before. She takes the mouse outside of the house and releases it just outside the door. It looks like the mouse prefers to stay inside, where he is safe and has food, water and shelter without having to survive by itself!So Hugo recovers from the electrocution. He has not died.From that moment on, Hugo behaves weirdly. He wants Anna to marry Giles -is that even possible legally?- so that they have children and the lineage goes on forever. Christina doesn't like his father's plans, but she finally obliges. Hugo wants to make them immortal, the same as him. First goes Christina. Hugo wants to trap the Asphyx when it appears to claim her. They are going to cut her head with a gillotine. But the mouse she released appears to bite off the pipe which carries the water to make the lights work. The light goes out, in the panic Hugo causes Giles to release the guillotine, and Christina dies because her head was severed off.Giles feels guilt of Christina's death. Hugo wants to die now: he wants to join his children. Giles puts the mouse inside the lamp, and doesn't allow Hugo to check it before attempting to catch the Asphynx again. Giles has thought about the way: he will be enclosed in a plastic box and then Hugo will put gas in through a pipe. When Giles is about to die and the lamp doesn't work, Hugo has time to put oxygen in. But Giles wants to die, so he takes a match out. He softly whispers "Christina", and lights the match. That causes an explosion. At that moment, Hugo realises that he has killed his two remaining children. Hugo is not alone though: he has as a companion... the mouse.BACK TO MODERN TIMESA man - Hugo with a completely disfigured head - caresses a mouse. He steps onto the road from the sidewalk getting in the way of two cars which are about to collide.

Tags: insanity, gothic, flashback

Review:
This is one of those rare small movies which has a great plot, decent special effects (for the time), and good acting.
Nineteenth century , England , a mad doctor is studying death when he discovers the Asphyx , an obscure supernatural power , it is the key to immortality on the subject .
This eerie movie deals with a man : Robert Stephens who attempts to trap the spirit of death but things go awry when he practices his experlments with his descendants : Arliss, Jane Lapotaire and adopted son , Robert Powell .Scary picture with a promising notion in which a scientist discovers an aura that surrounds persons just before they die ; however , his irresponsability in unleashing the rare entity on the world brings a swarm of unforeseen consequences , ominous distresses , irreversible problems and grisly murders .
This isn't surprising - The Asphyx takes elements from supernatural horror and there's a little bit of sci-fi involved, but selling this film couldn't have been easy as there's no way to pigeon hole it.
The plot focuses on Hugo Cunningham - a man who discovers that when we die, what's called an 'Asphyx' appears.
He then proceeds to test the procedure on himself, and after becoming immortal decides he wants his young assistant and daughter; who want to get married, to become immortal also The Asphyx is a British film set in Victorian times, and director Peter Newbrook does an excellent job of producing the period setting.
Set in 1870's England, aristocrat Sir Hugo (Robert Stephens) accidentally photographs an entity (mythological name Asphyx) entering a person's body at their death.
Although like the implications of time travel, half the fun is speculating on the ramifications of the idea.There is a pleasant and very haunting score and the story has a nice touch of irony as Sir Hugo's first experimental subject is his eventual downfall.The real strength of this film is the production design.
All looks great on the big screen and is probably fine on the letter boxed DVD, but the VHS tape is of marginal quality and the 4x3 aspect ratio does not do justice to the frame.Few films from the era that did a better job of filling their frames than "The Asphyx" (credit to Academy award winning cinematographer Freddie Young), but this just magnifies the problems of the full-screen version.
That's one of the reasons why The Asphyx was a box-office flop, fondly remembered by a select few who never forgot this quirky little "thinking man's horror film" (as Variety called it), in which a 19th-century British philanthropist and amateur psychic researcher embarks on a fateful quest for immortality.
Sir Hugo Cunningham (nicely played by Robert Stephens) has a morbid hobby of taking photographs of dying people, and this leads to his discovery of a nebulous spirit of the dead--known in mythology as the Asphyx--that appears (only visible on photographic plates) at the moment of death.
With its talky, literate script, well-drawn characters, and fascinating themes, The Asphyx bears closer resemblance to the Hammer horror films that became passé in the early and mid-1970s.
Filled with foreboding atmosphere, this is an intelligently conceived horror film that relies more on story than shocks, although the screeching Asphyx is eerily haunting.
Kudos to Allday Entertainment for producing this DVD--The Asphyx has been rescued from obscurity, painstakingly remastered in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio for discerning connoisseurs of high-class horror..
Sir Hugo Cunningham becomes obsessed with the possibility of becoming immortal after discovering the Asphyx, or Spirit of Death, which seeks out the dying and finds release in them, killing them at once.
On the back of the DVD cover, some critic called it "the thinking man's horror film".
A clever, likable story of one man's quest for immortality, this film is something of a neglected gem in the horror genre.
The Gothic atmosphere makes it feel like one of the better Hammer films, while the supernatural events which occur are actually believable (the use of the real-life society of psychical research adds to the authenticity) and therefore all the more frightening because of this.
Some people have criticised the film for being too talky and too boring, but there are loads of scientific experiments going on in the best Frankenstein tradition to liven things up.Robert Stephens puts in an unlikable yet accurate performance as a man who will stop at nothing to achieve immortality, his character understandable yet despicable at the same time.
Jane Lapotaire adds some conviction to her role as a female victim (she doesn't just scream all the time), and at least everyone looks the part in this film.The one truly memorable thing, though, is the special effect of the Asphyx itself, a creature which possesses the body at the moment of death.
It has only been some 30 years ago but I remember the line of the witness when the movie opened when the bus?/truck screeches over the old man, MY GOD HE'S STILL ALIVE the guy says as the guinea pig runs across the screen to the left.My memory of the asphyx being caught in the light, and the noise of the thing screeching, the man they were hanging was moving around and twitching on the end of the rope, still just freaks me out..
It was on TV, on one of those Creature Feature-type Saturday shows(other movies I saw at this time were The Thing That Couldn't Die, Dinosaurus!, & Angry Red Planet).
(Oops, sorry...bad joke.) Rather, "The Asphyx" is a finely constructed film that tells of a British scientist in 1875 who, with the aid of some novel equipment, realizes that he can photograph this eponymous "spirit of death" that hovers over people who are about to die.
The asphyxes (asphyxi?) themselves look like no critter you've ever seen on screen before, and the film keeps getting better and better as it goes along.
The Asphyx is one good horror film in that it has a credible plot about a ridiculous story.
Very good; consider this a 70's Brit Horror B movie/ a little gem which i don't think has been touched upon by Hollywood yet.
It's not Body-Horror like the Thing but rather the condition of the human spirit/ tragedy/ death; which are played to the extremes.
It had some good writing(especially poignant towards the end) and special effects that certainly served their purpose without being hokey.Well worth a look if you are seeking an obscure, well made British horror film..
19th century scientist Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) creates a crystal light beam that can illuminate The Asphyx, a screaming death spirit that appears in the moment of one's death.
....Immortality instead of youth,and "technology " replaces the Devil;Maybe Alejandro Amenabar borrowed his "photographs of the dead album " from "the Asphyx " for one of his scenes in "the others".It also might have inspired David Selzer when he wrote "the omen" which Richard Donner transferred to the screen in 1976 (David Warner's photographs) After an intriguing start (the scenes on the river) ,the movie remains too predictable and relies on tricks which are worn out such as the French guillotine (which was actually invented by the Chinese).And we do know that any attempt to challenge God and His plans are doomed.Robert Powell (who was the best Christ of all time in Zeffirelli's version) does not seem to care too much for what happens .
Stylishly filmed in TODD-AO-35 system this clever little horror film once again tells about certain dangers of an over-ambitious attempt to play God. A nineteenth century nobleman discovers by an accident the secret of human soul and immortality.
But when everything is not going according to plan the immortality can become quite a long time.Somewhat over-acted in very theatrical style the film does have enough charm, good look and a decent story to overcome this.
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.Told at a measured pace and totally free of gore, the film might be a little too leisurely and 'dry' for today's horror fans, but those who can appreciate subtlety should find much to enjoy, with the scenes involving the capture of the asphyx full of tension, the spirit itself a crudely executed yet strangely unsettling spectral creature that screeches when it is caught.
To me this is the kind of horror film that you don't see much or at all any more, which is part of what makes it great for me; it's also something really different which is something I always look for in the horror genre.I really like the production value, it was done on a low budget but it was used really well and right, another example of why these type of budgeted films equal good quality.
It really capture a Victorian times long gone, from the buildings, locale, wardrobe, to even certain customs.The effect I thought was very good, I really like the look of the Asphyx spirit from it's color and the scream it makes which makes it really creepy.
It's true that this was a hand puppet (or glove with a really detailed sketch on it) but wow, it was such a simple prop piece that surprising worked let alone it was practical, so it just shows sometimes old fashioned are still the best ways.I even like the sequences when Hugo shows the photographs and even the film reel of the sightings of the Asphyx, which I think are great they remind me of the kind of photos from some of those unexplained phenomena cases from the ghosts, UFO, Bigfoot, you name it.
But most importantly I just really like the story which is different in horror because it's a supernatural story but with science involved and just a bit of Greek myth since The Asphyx is a figure of it.
As British horror was making it's move to Satanic ritual and loads of blood, here come a film about metaphysics and immortality.
A film out of it's time, so to speak.Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) an interest in photography that reveals to him the existence of the Asphyx, a spirit that the Ancient Greeks believed arrived to whisk people away to death.
The rest of the film, essentially his punishment for "playing God" and beating the system, consists of him using increasingly ridiculous methods to begin to bring his family and friends close to death and capture the spirit in the process.
The Asphyx is a genuinely creepy British horror film with wonderful cinematography and an intelligent script.
The acting is good too, from such well-known actors as Robert Stephens.An eccentric scientist tries to gain immortality by capturing his Asphyx (the spirit that appears as you are about to die).Watch out for the first and last scenes of this movie, as they really are eerie and clever.
It would perhaps be better if we couldn't see the "Asphyx" at all - and if we had to see it, it should have been a more "abstract" form, not a cheesy little creature.Also, horror films usually work better when a character you can identify with gets into trouble.
English country squire Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) searches for immortality by literally 'bottling up' the Spirit of the Dead, or Asphyx.I love the awesome photographs of the dead in the beginning of the movie -- look at those faces!
I also love that when the moving pictures are being developed, somehow the film captured was the same as what we had seen just before -- including a cut to a second camera.This is actually a pretty good horror film, and I am surprised I had not heard of it before.
However, when he later uses a completely anachronistic* movie camera and a special blue light, he discovers that some creature he labels 'the asphyx' is released by the body upon death.
1st watched 8/29/1999 - 5 out of 10 (Dir-Peter Newbrook): Chilling, morbid horror movie about a man who trapped the Greek creature (Asphyx) and therefore immortalized himself.It does scare you but the preposterousness of the story and it's attempt to make you think that these people actually believed in God as well is too much.(Titled- "The Horrors of Death" in viewing I watched.).
The sets and costumes look good, and the effects for the asphyx itself are acceptable, but the hanging scene is poorly executed when it could have driven home the grim subject of the story.
Resolute amateur scientist Hugo Cunningham (splendidly played with fiery aplomb by Robert Stephens) discovers the secret to immortality by trapping an apparition which materializes at the moment of death called the asphyx.
This movie further benefits from uniformly sound acting from the capable cast: Stephens excels in the lead role, with fine support from Robert Powell as his disapproving son-in-law Giles, Jane Laportaire as Hugo's sweet daughter Christina, and Alex Scott as sage colleague Sir Edward Barrett.
One of my all time favourite horror films this features hardly any gore at all, rather it weaves a chilling and thought provoking tale of a psychical researcher in the Victorian era who believes he can prevent death and sets about trying to prove it with harrowing results.From the very opening scene where a policeman pulls someone from the remains of a fatal car crash you know this film will keep you interested, and it does.The story is gripping and tense, the acting not always the best but good never the less and the few small plot holes can be forgiven if noticed.Like many good horror films this relies primarily on a gripping plot and our interest in the fate of the characters to keep it interesting rather than on gore.
When we do see gore, such as the severed head or the explosion it is toned down and shown briefly, and the only weak spot is when we do see who it is pulled from the wreckage at the end the makeup effects are a little bit underwhelming but then for the period they were pretty good.Fans of Hammer films such as the Dracula outings of Christopher Lee should enjoy this as should anyone interested in a good story.Like "The Survivor" (a later horror chiller with co star Robert Powell) this is effective because the original idea is just that, original, and because Stephens and Powell work so well together.A good fun old fashioned horror movie with that Gothic Frankenstein feel to it..
Further research, following the tragic accident of his oldest son and with the help of his adopted son Giles, teaches Sir Hugo that the process of the spirit – or Asphyx – leaving the body can be evoked by simulating death, and that it can even be captured and locked!
Sir Hugo is eager to test his theory on himself and then subsequently on his remaining family members, but let's just say that a thing or two goes terribly wrong during the preparations I truly love "The Asphyx" because it's an incredibly original and absorbing film that finds a proper balance between suspenseful thriller, authentic family drama and gruesome horror.
The curious choice of death devices that are used to summon the Asphyxes, for example I'm sure that every fanatic horror lover – myself certainly included – will be thrilled to watch a film that features an authentic guillotine, but what a dumb idea to use it as a tool to simulate a deadly accident!
The thinking man's horror film..
Hugo is sure that if someone's asphyx is trapped they will become immortal & unable to die, with this in mind he persuades his adopted son Giles (Robert Powell) to assist him in an experiment to capture his own asphyx & thus give him immortality...This British American co-production was directed by Peter Newbrook & while I have to give it credit for being different & trying it's hardest to be original that doesn't automatically make it a good film, does it?
Anyway, even if it was a bit predictable I must admit I liked the twist ending & how it came together but I couldn't help but feel the story would have been better served as a half an hour Tales from the Crypt episode (1989 - 1996).Director Newbrook does a great job & The Asphyx looks good throughout, there's some cool cinematography & lighting, the production design & period sets, costumes & props are lush & give The Asphyx a nice atmosphere.
The fine details added in to make the time period so authentic really go a long way in this movie.When Sir Hugo accidentally captures a picture of a spiritual creature heading towards a dying man, he starts to question what this is.
With the help of Christina, Giles captures his Asphyx and seals it away, ensuring his immortal life.
The story is unique and interesting, the immortality via the Asphyx is clever as are the methods of the characters killing themselves.
Before watching The Asphyx, I had never thought of what it would be like if someone adapted a junior scientist playset instruction manual into a feature film.
This 1973 comedy-opus is one of the infrequent bad movies so harmlessly but fundamentally incompetent that it earns its title as a cult classic for the cinemasochist who surely goes out of her way to see it.The film goes out of its way to let us know that it takes place in the 1870's where Sir Hugo Cunningham (Stephens) has observed a celestial body that appears right when hanged men are about to die.
"The Asphyx" is good, solid, imaginative horror dealing with that timeless theme of learning to deal with death, and the desire to avoid it if possible, or even if one *should* avoid it.Robert Stephens is aces as 19th century scientist Sir Hugo Cunningham, who loses son Clive (Ralph Arliss) and daughter in law Anna (Fiona Walker) to a horrible canoe accident.