Review Asylum (1972)

[Doctor Omega]

Asylum (also known as House of Crazies in subsequent US releases) is a 1972 British horror film made by Amicus Productions.[1]The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker, produced by Milton Subotsky, and scripted by Robert Bloch (who adapted four of his own short stories for the screenplay).

Baker had considerable experience as a director of horror films as he had tackled Quatermass and The Pit, and Scars of Dracula. Robert Bloch, who wrote the script for Asylum based on a series of his own short stories, was also the author of the novel Psycho, which Alfred Hitchcock directed as a film.

It is a horror anthology film, one of several produced by Amicus during the 1960s and 1970s. Others were Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Torture Garden, Tales from the Crypt, The House That Dripped Blood, The Vault of Horror, and From Beyond the Grave.

Shot in April 1972, the film was edited and set for release 15 weeks after the final day of shooting, premièring in July 1972 in the UK. The film had its North American début on 17 November 1972.

 

[johnnybear]

Asylum is mostly memorable for Geoffrey Bayldon's mad laughing at the end and the reveal of Dr.Starr's real identity! Herbert Lom was Byron, the mad man who created small puppet versions of people he knew controlled by his will to murder those who defied him! Sylvia sims was murdered by her husband and his lover played by Richard Todd and Barbara Parkins but not everyone who is dead stays dead! Another great entry into the Amicus vault! I've got the dark Sky DVD which is region 0 but I haven't watched it just yet to check on the quality, but I'm not sure about any other releases outside of the much earlier Vipco version!
JB

 

[Doctor Omega]

I thought the toy Herbert Lom's looked impractical, but somehow still worked and were creepy.

Yes, another great film.

Hammer may have been the kings of the buxom wenches, castles and "We don't like strangers round these parts!" taverns, but Amicus were the kings of the anthology films. Hammer couldn't hold a gothic candle to them!