"Imagine a Hammer film directed by Ingmar Bergman..."

Many horror fans have a treat waiting for them, for many horror fans have not seen a little-known or shown horror gem made in 1973 and now available on DVD.  When they do see this film, they, too, will, like many others, become...

By HARVEY CHARTRAND

Peter Newbrook’s The Asphyx is a horror film that simply refuses to die--not unlike its protagonist, the 19^th-century scientist and country squire Sir Hugo Cunningham (masterfully portrayed by the late Shakespearean actor Sir Robert Stephens).

The Asphyx was released with little fanfare in 1973, the same year as The Exorcist, which ushered in a new era of graphic, head-swiveling, pea-soup-vomiting horror. The intelligent, quiet and yet relentless horror of The Asphyx--imagine a Hammer film directed by Ingmar Bergman--never stood a chance against The Exorcist juggernaut. And yet, over the decades, The Asphyx has been remembered as one of the most remarkable horror pictures of its time.

The story begins in the present day, at the scene of a motor vehicle accident in drab suburban London. A tramp is pulled from under the automobile wreckage, and a police constable cries in disbelief when he realizes that the man is still alive.

We then travel backward in time to the year 1875. Sir Hugo, a wealthy philanthropist and avid psychic researcher, returns to his estate with his second wife, the much younger Anna (Fiona Walker). Sir Hugo introduces Anna to his children Clive (Ralph Arliss) and Christina (Jane Lapotaire), and to his adopted son Giles (Robert Powell). In a private moment later that evening, Sir Hugo confesses to Anna that he has a strange hobby. He likes to take photographs of the recently departed.

Sir Hugo and his colleague Sir Edward Barrett (Alex Scott), the president of the Psychic Research Society, notice a peculiar smudge on images of the dying--a mysterious apparition that seems to be heading toward the dying subjects.

Sir Hugo brings a primitive motion picture camera to a family boating party. The outing quickly turns into a disaster as Sir Hugo captures on film the tragic death by drowning of Anna and Clive. When the film is replayed later, the same ‘smudge’ appears, flying toward his son and vanishing inside his dying body.

Weeks later, at a public execution, filmed by Sir Hugo with the same motion picture camera, the light boost reveals and traps an eerie, ghostlike presence on the scaffold. The hanged man writhes in agony, unable to die until the presence is released from the spotlight, invading his body.

Sir Hugo realizes that he has discovered the Asphyx, each person’s death spirit as described in Greek mythology--a spirit that lives in constant agony, not finding rest until it takes possession of its victim at the moment of death. Sir Hugo surmises that if he can capture his own personal Asphyx, he will become immortal.

In a test experiment, he traps the Asphyx of a rodent, thus rendering the animal immortal. Later, Sir Hugo "rescues" a pauper (Terry Scully) from a workhouse, inviting the dying tubercular to spend his last days in comfort at the Cunningham estate. At the moment of death, the pauper’s Asphyx is trapped in a pool of light. In excruciating agony and unable to die, the pauper tosses a vial of acid in Sir Hugo’s face, making him release the trigger of the spotlight. The Asphyx is freed to invade the body of the pauper, who mercifully dies.

Enlisting Giles as his assistant, the now disfigured Sir Hugo continues with his bizarre experiments. He electrocutes himself to the point of near-death. The hideous Asphyx reveals itself, but then is trapped in the pool of light cast by Sir Hugo’s light booster for his motion picture camera. Sir Hugo’s personal "death spirit" is locked in a container and buried in a vault beneath the estate. Sir Hugo is now immortal. Yet, fearing he might someday be tempted to release the Asphyx, Sir Hugo entrusts the secret of the vault’s combination lock to Giles.

Mindful of his responsibilities as a member of the upper crust, Sir Hugo feels that future generations will need the wise counsel of members of his class. He persuades Christina and Giles (her fiancée) to join him in aristocratic immortality.

The frightened Christina reluctantly agrees to be experimented upon. She places her head in a guillotine. The blade is recalibrated so its descent will stop well above her neck. Sadly, the experiment goes awry and Christina is decapitated. Guilt-ridden and grief-stricken, Giles commits suicide.

Sir Hugo, wanting to die with them, tries to set his Asphyx free, but reconsiders, deciding that he must live forever in torment to atone for the deaths of those he loves. He burns the envelope containing the cipher code to the safe in which the spirit is kept. Sir Hugo is now doomed to live forever, leaving behind his wealth and privilege to roam the earth with his one companion in immortality--the guinea pig.

The story ends in the present day (Seventies London). A 150-year-old tramp with woolly locks and a face folding in on itself in a mass of wrinkles, cradling a small animal, steps off the curb between two onrushing vehicles. The Asphyx ends in a freeze frame as we hear the sound of the vehicles crashing into each other.

The Asphyx is a variation on the theme of the dire consequences that occur when Man tampers with the forces of life and death. In his quest for immortality, Sir Hugo sets a course down a path to ruin, pain, madness and the destruction of everything he loves.

Most of the horror in The Asphyx comes from the deterioration of Sir Hugo's character. Early on in the film, this kind, well-respected country squire arranges to have his butler's ailing sister taken care of at his expense and informs his son Clive, with great sincerity and no condescension whatsoever: "We Cunninghams have our responsibilities."

It is a telling comment on the ego of the British establishment that Sir Hugo craves immortality so he can continue his philanthropy for all time, guiding humankind through its upcoming technological revolution. By the end of the movie, Sir Hugo--who professes to be morally opposed to capital punishment--is building infernal machines and execution devices for family members in his own study. In the end, Sir Hugo sacrifices all that he holds dear to achieve his own Godhood and immortality.

The Asphyx is played absolutely straight, with no trace of irony, camp or melodrama, by an exceptionally good cast. Sir Robert Stephens’ performance is magnificent, although a trifle florid and overwhelming at times. In his 1995 autobiography Knight Errant (published shortly before his death at age 64), Stephens fails to mention The Asphyx even once. Yet the two films he will likely be most remembered for are The Asphyx and Billy Wilder’s The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970), in which Stephens is outstanding as a rather melancholy Great Detective.

Stephens does reveal in Knight Errant that the early seventies were a very difficult time for him, marked by alcoholism, a stalled career, a failed marriage (to Maggie Smith), a suicide attempt, several nervous breakdowns and a short stay in a mental hospital. It is possible that Stephens put some of this real-life torment to good use in The Asphyx.

As for Peter Newbrook, he never directed another film.

So amble on down to your local DVD store and check out this overlooked and underrated horror classic. Get Asphyx-iated!

Thanks Harv!  Yes, The Asphyx is a horror film almost without peer, a frightening tale of hubris and high ideals that ultimately degenerate into a lust for power and end with human devastation.   Although this film received not a fraction of the notice it deserved when first released, fright film fans can now watch it and appreciate it.  It is truly a film not to be missed.

Article copyright © Harvey Chartrand 

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