The Horror of Death

Robert Stephens stars as Sir Hugo Cunningham, a 19th-century amateur scientist and dabbler in psychic phenomena. His experiments in the new art of photography lead him to discover the Asphyx: an apparition that appears suddenly in the moment before death. He postulates that if the Asphyx can be trapped it may render a creature immortal. He begins humbly, experimenting first with a guinea pig but soon progresses to members of his own family. The Asphyx is a cautionary tale of horror, exquisitely photographed by Freddie Young (David Lean's cinematographer) and directed in the Hammer tradition by Peter Newbrook...