William Girdler was never a great director, but he did give us a handful of entertaining B-movies before his life was tragically cut short by a helicopter crash in 1978. Asylum of Satan, however, is not one of them, being a muddled and rather wearisome occult horror/thriller, the scariest thing about the movie being the hideous fashion sense of its hero Chris Duncan (Nick Jolley), whose wardrobe includes a range of loud checked jackets and even louder checked flared trousers (thankfully, not worn together: I think my eyeballs would have exploded if that had happened).
Duncan arrives on the scene after his fiancé - overworked and stressed singer Lucina Martin (Carla Borelli)- is transferred from general hospital to the Pleasant Hill asylum, where she is put under the care of sinister Dr. Specter (Charles Kissinger) and his creepy assistant Martine (also Kissinger, in drag). Unable to visit Lucina, concerned Duncan goes to the police for help; meanwhile, Specter kills several of his patients in preparation for a Satanic ritual to summon the devil, with Lucina lined up as the final sacrifice.
The film's hilariously bad highlights are the two killings (death by fire extinguisher/rubber bugs, and death by snakes in a swimming pool), Lucina consenting to have her back washed in the bath by Martine, and the appearance of Satan himself (a man in a crap mask) during the final act. With a few more unintentionally funny scenes like these, the film could have been a lot of schlocky fun; instead, it is quite the bore for much of the time, focussing instead on Duncan's attempts to convince surly cop Lt. Tom Walsh (Louis Bandy) that something is rotten in the state of Kentucky.
4/10
N.B. The Church of Satan were technical consultants for the film; I wonder if they approved the papier-maché likeness of their deity at the end.
Duncan arrives on the scene after his fiancé - overworked and stressed singer Lucina Martin (Carla Borelli)- is transferred from general hospital to the Pleasant Hill asylum, where she is put under the care of sinister Dr. Specter (Charles Kissinger) and his creepy assistant Martine (also Kissinger, in drag). Unable to visit Lucina, concerned Duncan goes to the police for help; meanwhile, Specter kills several of his patients in preparation for a Satanic ritual to summon the devil, with Lucina lined up as the final sacrifice.
The film's hilariously bad highlights are the two killings (death by fire extinguisher/rubber bugs, and death by snakes in a swimming pool), Lucina consenting to have her back washed in the bath by Martine, and the appearance of Satan himself (a man in a crap mask) during the final act. With a few more unintentionally funny scenes like these, the film could have been a lot of schlocky fun; instead, it is quite the bore for much of the time, focussing instead on Duncan's attempts to convince surly cop Lt. Tom Walsh (Louis Bandy) that something is rotten in the state of Kentucky.
4/10
N.B. The Church of Satan were technical consultants for the film; I wonder if they approved the papier-maché likeness of their deity at the end.