Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) has one son, Clive (Ralph Arliss), one daughter, Christina (Jane Lapotaire), and one adopted son, Giles (Robert Powell). After the death of the children’s mother, Hugo spent many years as a widower. Finally, after his children have grown to adulthood, Hugo finds and falls in love with Anna Wheatley (Fiona Walker). Hugo brings Anna home to meet his children, who are happy that their father has found love again.
Hugo is a scientist who is fascinated with parapsychology and is on the board of an institution that studies psychic phenomena. Hugo is also a photographer. His latest subject of interest is photographing people at the moment they die. He and the leader of the society, Sir Edward Barrett (Alex Scott) have noticed that some of the photographs show a smudge on the film that they can’t explain. The society comes to the conclusion that the smudge is the soul of the deceased as it leaves their body. Hugo is a little skeptical of the assumption.
During a family outing both Hugo’s son Clive and Hugo’s fiancé Anna drown in a boating accident. When the accident occurs Hugo was photographing the two of them with a special motion picture camera that he invented.
During the photographing of an execution in the town square Hugo notices the image of something that is moving toward the dying man and not moving away such as you would thing a soul would do. When he uses his special camera, he notices that the image is frozen in place and is unable to move toward the dying man. Hugo concludes that the image is not the soul leaving the body but is what is called an asphyx. When Hugo views the moving images that he took of Clive and Anna he sees the same image moving toward Clive. Hugo now believes that the image is death taking over the dying.
Hugo and Giles perform an experiment with a guinea pig. Hugo gives the creature poison. They film the animal as it is dying. Hugo uses his special camera to freeze the asphyx and isolate it in a container. With the asphyx captured the guinea pig cannot die. Hugo decides to experiment on humans in the quest for immortality.
“The Asphyx” (pronounced Ass-Fix) AKA “Spirit of the Dead” AKA “The Horror of Death” was released in 1972 and was directed by Peter Newbrook. It is a British science fiction horror film.
This ended up being pretty good. It’s a period piece taking place in the 1870’s which gives it a gothic influence. The special effects were standard for the 70’s and the story was interesting.
In the film, Hugo says that asphyx was a Greek god of death, a sort of Grim Reaper that takes over the spirit at the moment of death and that each life has their own asphyx similar to the belief that each life has its own soul. In reality there is no such god. The asphyx is a fictitious creation used as a major plot point for the movie.
There are two versions of the film available, the 83-minute UK release and an expanded 99-minute U.S. release. The expanded version includes some deleted scenes, but they are in SD footage while the original version is in HD. The combination causes the quality of the film to change between the two.
Movie
Expanded version