Asylum of Satan (1975)

User Rating:

2.9/10   

Director:

William Girdler

Writers:

William Girdler (writer)
Patrick J. Kelly (writer)

Release Date:

February 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Love Slaves Of Satan Tortured To Blood-Dripping Death

Plot:

A young woman is brought to an asylum to receive special treatment from a mysterious doctor. Dr. Spector does more than just run the hospital...

Plot Keywords:

Asylum | Doctor | Sacrifice | Hospital | Satan

Cast

Charles Kissinger	...	Dr. Jason Specter / Martine Williams
Nick Jolley	...	Chris Duncan
Carla Borelli	...	Lucina Martin
Louis Bandy	...	Lt. Tom Walsh
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lila Boden
Liz Cherry
P.J. Childers
Don Cox
Don Dunkle
Joan Edwards
Claude Fulkerson	...	Chief Aide
Pamela Gatz	...	The Creature
Mimi Honce	...	The Cripple
Ken Jones
Lynne Kelly
Nancy Marshall
Gary Morris
Beth Pearce
Jack Peterkin	...	Dr. Nolan
James Carroll Pickett		(as James Pickett)
Harry Roehrig	...	Deafmute
Sherry Steiner	...	Blind Girl
Karen Stone
Biggs Tabler

Also Known As:

The Satan Spectrum (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-16 | USA:PG | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Company:

Studio One

Trivia:

The yellow Porsche driven by Chris Duncan (Nick Jolley) actually belonged to director William Girdler.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)

Tacky PG rated "horror" film

Lucina Martin (Carla Borelli) finds herself in Pleasant Hill. It's a sanitarium she was put in after a breakdown she was told happened to her but she can't remember. She find she can't leave--she's locked in her room and the sinister Dr. Specter (Charles Kissinger) won't let her go. Her boyfriend Chris (Nick Jolley) comes to see her but isn't let in. It turns out she's to be sacrificed to Satan...or something. I fell asleep to be honest.

Perfectly boring, stupid horror movie. It's badly acted (Jolley is the worst), directed and edited. Lousy lighting too--I couldn't make out what was going on a few times. The script is just silly too. The special effects are laughable--I got a BIG kick of the obvious fake rubber spiders used in one scene. It all ends up with some idiot in one of the most ridiculous costumes I've ever seen playing Satan! It's padded too, even at just 78 minutes, with a pointless and silly montage of Lucina and Chris to show their "love" for each other. And wait until you see actor Kissinger in drag (!!!) playing Martine! And Jolley wears some of the worst 1970s clothes I've ever seen.

Maybe I'm being a little too hard on this. It was made on no budget and, by all accounts, everybody went out of their way to do as good a job as possible with no money. Still it sadly doesn't work. Director William Girdler did go on the bigger and better things--so to speak. He later did "Grizzly" and "The Manitou". These were hardly classics but much better than this. A 1 all the way.