Asylum of Satan (1972)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Better Late Then Never

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

I don't know much about William Girdler (I've seen only one other film that he directed, "Three on a Meathook", which wasn't nearly as entertaining as this one), but it's obvious that he put a lot of heart into "Asylum of Satan". Remember the horror movie you wanted to make when you were a kid? Well, Girdler made it for you. The plot is thin: a beautiful concert pianist (Carla Borelli of "Days of Our Lives" and "Another World") suffers a minor breakdown and ends up at an old, scary-looking asylum in the country, where she hears sinister chanting and has a number of extremely vivid nightmares. What's going on at Dr. Jason Specter's Pleasant Hill Sanitarium? You'll have to find out for yourself! While most of the cast fails to impress, Charles Kissinger (as Dr. Specter) makes a good bargain-basement Vincent Price. Nick Jolley must have known even at the time that he was delivering a stupendously awful performance as the heroine's hot-tempered, houndstooth-clad boyfriend, and a couple of the bit players--Mimi Honce as another patient at the asylum and Jack Peterkin as the physician who reluctantly transfers Borelli to Kissinger's house of horrors for "special treatment"--recite their lines in the corny, mock-dignified cadences of daytime TV, suggesting that Girdler plucked them from the same talent pool as his female lead. (Honce sounds like she's doing a Correctol commercial, and Peterkin reveals, in unintentionally hilarious fashion, a gaping continuity error in the script: he says he warned Borelli a year earlier that she was overworked and, literally in the next breath, splutters that "she's only been under my care a short while!") To a great extent, "Asylum of Satan" works because of its imperfections, not in spite of them--and, believe it or not, is formidably eerie in spots. Watch this film a few times and you'll develop a soft spot in your heart (or your head) for it ;)

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.

I am ashamed to say I have seen this movie. And more than once. Why? I guess I'm just a sucker for pain. But really, Nick Jolly? Where did they find this guy? For that matter, where did they find any of these people? I'd say "Asylum of Satan" should be burned, but it's just too much fun to make fun of a la MST3K (who, by the way, would have a field day with this stink-burger!).

This movie...where to begin. A heavily mustached Nick Jolley runs around smoking Slim Jims,wearing plaid bell-bottoms, and telling cops how to do their job. Zombies lose their teeth, Dr. Spector has a glued on beard, the "decapitated head" blinks, there's some sort of wormhole at the end of the film taking you to the beginning for a brief moment...one could go on and on. Put bluntly, this movie is one of the most horrid pieces you could ever hope to avoid. But after a while, you kind of start liking it! One might wonder why Nick Jolley wasn't in anything else. This film puts all questions to rest