Asylum of Satan

Get this title into your mind right now: ASYLUM OF SATAN. Why? Because the 70s was known for tons of low budget movies about the worst of both worlds: crowded asylums and Satanic possession. Before watching the movie trailer, I saw the full-length feature. What you get is absolute nonsense. This, being made a couple of years before THE EXORCIST, helped bring in numerous offerings about the Devil. Here, it's same old, same old. Cheap special effects are the excuse for a rotten-apple horror chiller, with rubber snakes and toy bugs taking toll on two innocent lives. Now, I've just seen the trailer, and I would have been better off giving a donation of twenty dollars to film preservation. An interesting note: the warning label on United's copy of the film is mistakenly misleading. Movies such as ASYLUM OF SATAN are junk food for your head. Just add a television set.

A young woman finds herself held against her will in an eerie mental asylum by the sinister "Dr. Specter" and his masculine-looking assistant, Martine. She begins to suspect that the visions of horror she experiences are not nightmares and that she is due to be sacrificed to The Evil One. A laughably awful film if I've ever seen one, "Asylum of Satan" is highly enjoyable, cheesy trash. Bad acting from everyone, especially the lead actress, a terribly dated score, and the fakest-looking Satan you'll ever see make this steaming pile one worth checking out if you like bad movies. Oh, and the death scene are a stitch! (Apperantly people can die from cockroaches crawling all over them...) My rating for "Asylum of satan"--2/10.

Scrubby but watchable occult nonsense, ASYLUM OF SATAN finds an attractive young woman being subdued within a strange private hospital. Waking from sleep in fear and confusion, she is told by staff that she has been placed under the special care of a certain doctor, along with a handful of other patients with various personal afflictions which said doctor insists he can treat. There's one problem, however...his sure-cure is the same for all maldies, and the most common side-effect is rigor-mortis. One-by-one the patients disappear, leaving our young heroin to search for a means of escape. The mystery culminates in a Black Magic ritual which conjurs Satan himself...and he is one scrawny, bedraggled looking Lord of Darkness, I must say.

While this is unquestionably a B minus production, it does manage to entertain, and it more-less succeeds in keeping itself steeped in a creepy, otherworldly atmosphere. As 70s drive-in fodder goes, ASYLUM OF SATAN might be a bug's nose above the yardstick...neith fish nor fowl.

4.5/10

When Lucina (Carla Borelli) wakes up at Pleasant Hill Hospital, she has no idea how she got there, or what sort of nightmare awaits her. Kept as a veritable prisoner, Lucina is drugged, and begins to lose her grip on reality.

As the title suggests, ASYLUM OF SATAN is about a mental hospital where satanism is the only true therapy. This is a bare-bones production from Director William Girdler, with most of the budget apparently going toward the frilly shirts worn by the devilish Dr. Specter (Charles Kissinger). Very low on action, calling this movie a "slow-burn" is like calling the Sahara Desert "a bit dry". Still, it has enough charm and delirious dialogue to make it enjoyable.

Best Scenes:

#1- When the female patient is "gassed" in a room by what can only be fire extinguishers shot through a wall vent! She's also covered by -obviously- rubber bugs for good measure!

#2- Lucina being chased by the most ridiculous ghoul in movie history!

#3- The swimming pool snake attack!

#4- The "severed head" with suspiciously lifelike movements under the eyelids!!

Be sure not to miss the satanic ritual and "shock" finale!

The perfect candidate for your next drunken movie night...

So William Girdler's screen debut was running a little slow through 1972 but it's not all that bad! Charles Kissinger is a great actor in which he later appeared in almost of all of Girdler's other films. Nick Jolley superfly hero of the 70's appears also wondering why he was'nt in anything else. ASYLUM OF SATAN is a good film about a girl taken hostage to the Asylum were doctor's zombies and critters run wild! Kissinger plays Satan himself. Give ASYLUM OF SATAN a shot if you are a big fan of Girdler's films. Yes the film is very violent with way too much sex, but hey it's still worth watching.