Asylum (1972)

 View trailer here

Hot on the heels of my previous post on horror anthology 'The Monster Club', and seeing as we're celebrating what would be the Centenary year of genre gent, Peter Cushing, I thought Asylum would be a fitting next entry.

The premise for this Amicus anthology - again directed by Roy Ward Baker - is pretty straightforward. A doctor named Martin (Robert Powell) travels to Dunsmoor Asylum for the incurably insane for a 'job interview'. Depending on whether he gets the job or not, he must visit four patients in order to work out which one is the former head psychologist - the very vacancy he is applying for. There are four stories in this anthology, written by author of Psycho - Robert Bloch. From a personal point of view, I enjoyed the first two stories most, but I implore you to watch the entire film.

So, the first story. A chopped-up body attempts to wriggle its way out of a freezer in a basement (as you do!) and as you can appreciate, it is annoying the murderer who put them there in the first place. The strange events begin when the decapitated head appears on the floor  just beyond the basement door. From here, the murderer will soon regret that they chopped the body up into so many pieces, as it exacts its revenge in a way that is funny and scary all at once.

The second story is more an acting set-piece, a confrontation between Peter Cushing and Barry Morse (Of Space: 1999  fame). This story is more suspenseful and involving for the audience, as it builds their sense of anticipation. A strange man named Mr Smith (Cushing) enters a tailor's shop and asks for a suit to be made from a strange reflective material. Not knowing it at the time, the tailor makes a suit that can actually reanimate the dead. In a disagreement over payment, Mr Smith is killed and this segment ends as a possible precursor to another 'horrifying' film - 1987's ahem.. comedy... Mannequin, starring Kim Cattrall.

It is worth noting here, that Cushing had completed all of his filming in only two days. Herbert Lom (segment four) shot his part in a quarter of that time, and the entire film was shot in 24 days.

Segment three stars Britt Ekland and Charlotte Rampling, in the tale I always thought was probably the weakest of the lot. Clearly influenced by Psycho, it is the story of a schizophrenic murderer. The problem I always found here is that the viewer is way ahead of the script in realising the twist, and couldn't be clearer in seeing it coming.

The final story - later remade for Season One of TV anthology Monsters - restores some of what the previous segment lost in the viewer. Surprise and horror are present as a crazy doctor creates a murderous little homunculus. Lom is effective as the psychotic doctor, and though the murderous doll is only a wind-up robot, the horror scenes are strangely effective. It's quite creepy seeing a wind-up toy make its way through an asylum and commit murder.

The wraparound involving Dr Martin are quite well made. Director Roy Ward Baker is careful to include the disturbing artwork on the walls of the asylum - bizarre portraits and caricatures. These artworks suggest that the building itself is evil, which creates a nice link to the supernatural stories we see. When we transition from wraparound to flashback, the camera focuses on a sketch and then spins about. It's almost as if we are descending into the madness of the drawing, at the same time sending the camera 'off its rocker'. A nice touch, seeing as the audience are taken from their normal world and spiralling into that of madness.

Asylum is a well-made horror anthology (remember, 24 days!) and seems to capture that great era of the horror anthology which is a world away from modern anthologies, so probably won't appeal to younger fans of the genre. The stories are rather short and underdeveloped compared to others of the time, such as Tales From The Crypt, Monsters and Tales From The Darkside. However, there is something about the era in which this film was made, which will always appeal to the older generation. Still, younger audiences have modern anthologies such as Tales from the Hood and Creepshow 3, so... you know.

The Monster Club (1981)

View trailer here

'The Monster Club' is another film I watched early on as a youngster which made a big impact and contributed towards my love for the Horror genre. The opening sequence where we see horrific busts of monsters displayed in the dingy shop window had me hooked instantly.

This is a weird little film which is essentially an old-fashioned anthology, presided over by two of the genre's iconic elder statesmen - John Carradine and Vincent Price, no less. Despite these two genre heavyweights, the film itself is a strong, yet funny film which makes clever points about human nature. Essentially, the message is "Can't we all just get along?" The 'Species diagram' displayed proudly within the Monster Club itself, charts the not-always pleasant integration of humans and monster, and is thus a metaphor for race relations.

The film itself begins with a suspiciously homoerotic encounter in a dark alley at night, next to the shop previously mentioned. Horror novelist R. Chetwynd-Hayes (Carradine) is standing at the shop window admiring a display of his latest novel and photo portrait, when he is quite literally reached out to by the famished vampire, Erasmus (Price). Erasmus asks the stranger for a rather intimate favour - to drink his blood. The writer agrees to help the vampire however he can, and after quenching his thirst, a new friendship is forged. Erasmus recognises that he has just drank the blood of one of his favourite horror authors, and in gratitude he offers to take him to a place "not too far from here" to show him a world where he could gather ideas for his future horror novels. Even at the young age I was when first viewing this film, I always wondered why Erasmus did not take the short trip to the club in the first place if he were that famished, for an ice-cold drink of blood, rather than drink from a stranger in a dark alley. Then again, this wouldn't have made much of a film!

At the Monster Club, Erasmus begins to tell the tales of men and monsters and their difficult history together.

The first story tells the tales of a lonely Shadmock who is exploited by two crooks, one being a beautiful woman named Angela. "You have no idea what meeting you has meant to me", the tragic ghoul tells Angela, unaware of her treacherous plan. She ultimately finds out the hard way that a Shadmock's special ability to whistle often results in a slow and painful death. Throughout this story, the Monster is portrayed sympathetically, which can't be helped as we see him weeping from a broken heart.

The second story is a reversal of the conventional vampire tale - again showing the monster in a sympathetic light. This is essentially a family drama. A young boy is horrified to find out that his father - a vampire- is being hunted by a ruthless vampire killer (played here by another horror great, Donald Pleasance). This vampire family, immigrants from 'the old country', are simply trying to get on with their existence in a new world, but the vampire hunter is a bad, bad man who will not rest till he rids the world of one more blood sucker. He dresses in black - initially approaching the unsuspecting boy disguised as a vicar - and carries a violin case, and generally looks like a classic Mafia mobster, only the violin case does not contain a machine gun. Instead, it houses a stake and hammer.

This story cements the theme that monsters are a misunderstood and non-aggressive minority in society. The young boy's vampire father's motto is, "Feed without greed", which suggests that although some unpleasantness has to take place in order for their survival, the vampire is not a lethal predator, as portrayed in other genre films. Fortunately for this family, the climax to the story ends happily for them. The father was smart enough to wear a stake-proof vest (I shit you not!) and the boy grows up to become a vampire film producer.

The third story of this film involves a humgoo - the result of cross-breeding between a human and a ghoul. This is an interracial monster that although primarily still human, has picked up the genetic make-up from the ghoulish side of the family tree and feeds on the dead. An unlucky horror film director is scouting for locations for his next film when he comes across a remote village which looks perfect for filming. Unfortunately for him, this village is populated entirely by ghouls. I always felt as a child that this was by far the most frightening of the stories within this anthology, and I still stand by that today. The village has a misty gateway separating it from the outside world, leading to a gloomy, frightening place with no telephones... but plenty of monsters! The director is there to exploit the locals for his film, but ultimately, the tables get turned on him.

After the final story plays out, the action settles down inside the Monster Club where Erasmus proposes Chetwynd-Hayes be allowed to join as a full member of the club. The chairman of the club - a bespectacled werewolf - protests, "But, he's a human!" Erasmus then launches into a monologue of how humans and monster do have some common ground. He suggests that humans are probably the best of monsters, stating that in the past sixty years they have destroyed millions of their own kind. When questioned what special abilities a human has, seeing as they do not have fangs or claws... or a deadly whistle(!) Erasmus explains that the human has invented guns, tanks, extermination camps and atomic bombs. This logic is accepted by the rest of the monsters and so the first human is admitted as full member to The Monster Club.

To celebrate this, we are treated to Carradine and Price 'getting down' on the dance floor as yet another monstrous band (each story within the film is separated by a band playing live on stage in the club) plays on into the night.

The 1970s was probably the great age of British horror anthologies, with films such as 'Tales from the Crypt' (1971) and 'Asylum' (1972) amongst others, but 'The Monster Club' makes a good showing for  the 1980s... rubber-masked disco-dancing monsters, and all!