Sir Hugo Cunningham is a photographer of the paranormal, out to capture an image of the soul escaping the body. When his fiancée and son are killed in a boating accident, with Cunningham on the shore taking pictures, the tragedy ironically yields the first evidence he needs, but it is not what he had expected. In the photographs, he see's a blurry, ghostly image moving towards his son prior to his death. He concludes it is THE ASPHYX, an entity from Greek mythology, which is believed to appear only when death is a looming possibility, like an over anxious Grim Reaper.
After crafting a special moving pictures device, particularly designed to more clearly capture the elusive force, Cunningham and his adopted son Giles discover after documenting a local execution that they have indeed, once again, attained filmed evidence. What they further discover is the fact that THE ASPHYX seems to become trapped in the camera's beam, which leads them to try and imprison it, and in turn, stave off death indefinitely.
Then, the love interest Christina, shows up, who is not only Giles' step-sister, but bride-to-be. Kinky! Soon, a horrified Christina is roped into helping her father and brother-husband with their insane experiments, in their increasingly mad quest to conquer death, and achieve eternal life.
From here on out, THE ASPHYX's narrative really starts to wind itself up, as the mounting desperation and insanity of the characters yield some crazy plot twists, and in turn, more nihilistic tragedy.
THE ASPHYX mixes Jules Verne's visionary Victorian-esque gadgetry with H.P. Lovecraft's penchant for paranoid, cosmic tales of foolishly curious men toying with the dark unknown. The results are an oddball gem of a film that exudes a comforting Gothic charm, not unlike the Hammer output of the same time, while also being stunningly original in it's premise, and at times, genuinely creepy and disturbing in it's delivery.
Directed by Peter Newbrook
Starring Jane Lapotaire, Robert Stephens, Robert Powell, and Ralph Arliss
*KINO LORBER has just launched their free streaming service, KINO CULT, with some seriously great genre selections. Go HERE to sign-up now, and if you already have? Just click the title at the top of the post!*
No comments:
Post a Comment