The Asphyx (1973)

a.k.a The Horror of Death / Spirit of the Dead
Directed by: Peter Newbrook

It's hard to not compare this movie with the Hammer films from the same time. I mean, it's a gothic horror film set in the victorian era (the film is set in 1875) and it has all of the ingredients that a Hammer flick would have had as well. But, if you go beyond the similarities you'll soon spot the signs that this isn't a Hammer flick. Don't get me wrong, I do think the film is quite OK, but at times it has a tendency to be a bit too slow paced, talky and in all honesty, a bit on the dull side. Even though the sets looked good it still felt like a low budget little brother to the Hammer films of the time and I know it's not fair to compare to Hammer all of the time, but they really set a standard for gothic period horror flicks.

The low budget showed quite well in the last scenes of the movie (I'm not gonna tell you exactly what happens - watch it for yourself) where there is a mask that looked even worse than the old alien masks in the original Star Trek TV series. That was a pure low budget series and still this flick managed to look even cheaper when it came to the special effects. Not that it should matter as a great movie is a great movie no matter how cheap it might look, but then again... I wouldn't go so far as to call this one a great movie.


The main character in the movie is the scientist Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens), who is taking photographs of dying people (quite a macabre hobby, wouldn't you say?). When he discovers a black blur in all of the photographs he starts to research the phenomena, coming to the conclusion that he has captured the souls leaving the bodies. Later when he is out filming with his family (yes, he's also an inventor as he has invented a way to make moving pictures) his son and Hugo's soon to be second wife capsize with their small boat and drown. Hugo continues to film them when they're drowning (that's dedication for ya!), while the rest of the family at least tries to save them.

Later on when Hugo is examining the film from the accident he finds the same black blur there as well, but realizes that the blur is not leaving the bodies - it's coming for them. And later when he's filming a public hanging he manages to capture a weird muppet looking blue spirit coming for the hanged man. Hugo comes to the conclusion that what he captured on film was the spirit of the dead, The Asphyx, who came to take the hanged man to the underworld. Being the bright guy that he is he realizes that if he can capture the spirit he will have found immortality... if there's no spirit of the dead to take you away you will not die.

He uses a guinea pig (it's an actual guinea pig) for an experiment in trying to capture the Asphyx, and after having fed it some poisoned paste the guinea pig starts to die - and viola! the Asphyx appears. Thanks to some weird blue light Hugo uses he traps the spirit and locks it up in a box - the guinea pig recovers and it comes clear that if you catch the spirit of the dead you can not die. He's not only a brilliant scientist, he's also a bit koo-koo, so Hugo decides to top himself off (well, almost at least) and with the help of his adopted son, Giles (Robert Powell), capture his very own spirit of the dead who will come and collect his soul and thus become immortal.


After doing what they do so well in Texas, using an electric chair, Hugo's very own Asphyx is now trapped and locked up in a room in the cellar. Having lost half of his family recently Hugo wants Giles and Hugo's daughter (who wants to get married to Giles... her adpoted brother, what the hell is going on in that family, really???) to do the same so he won't lose them as well. After some persuading they both agree (he won't let them marry unless they do this, nice guy that he is), but things don't really go as planned...

This is by far not a bad movie, not at all, but I feel it could have been so much more... It's a horror film, but in all honesty there isn't really that much horror in it. I don't know if it's the low budget, but at times it does feel like I'm watching an old british TV theater episode - it's a very talky movie that rather than showing some of the stuff let the characters tell us about it instead. Even though the DVD I have of this flick looks pretty washed out when it comes to the colors it is a good looking film with some great looking sets - and even if some of the acting was a bit too TV theater looking I really liked Robert Stephens as Hugo Cunningham. The ending was maybe a bit on the cheesy side, but I like cheesy so I won't complain too much.

It's a good flick to check out when you have run out of Hammer flicks to watch... well, check out the Amicus ones before this one as well, but then you should definitely check this one out as it is well worth the time you'll spend with it if you're into british 70's gothic horror flicks.