Customer Reviews
A Pretty Decent Horror Flick - By: E. Barrios, 25 Aug 2008 
Luckily, I bought the version put out by Umbrella in Australia. It's the uncut that lasts for 99 minutes. The video quality is okay but the print used shows some wear every now & then. Let's face it: if you want a reallly good print of this movie, then a bit of restoration is in order, inasmuch as the film needs color correction, general scratch removal, & lighting adjustments. However, Umbrella did an adequate job with what they had.
Aside from those technicalities, the plot is original & the acting is pretty good, with Robert Powell giving a convincing performance.
Worth owning if you're a true horror fan. If not, see it out of curiosity's sake.
Classic film, lamentable DVD - By: Neal Vincent, 27 Mar 2005 
I'm in complete agreement with the other reviewer here - this disc is a travesty, & shame on the usuallly reliable cult-film label Anchor Bay for releasing a classic of British horror in this sort of condition! I'd come to think of Anchor Bay as a genuine film lover's label, but this was a real reputation-destroyer as far as I'm concerned & I'm now as wary of Anchor Bay discs as I am of most other labels.
The main sins here are: "The Asphyx" was shot in 2.35:1 & yet Anchor Bay's disc is presented in 1.78:1 - it's not even "halfway-house" 16x9 widescreen either, in fact they've used a pan & scan full-screen master & then further compounded the insult to both the film-makers & the viewer by cropping the top & bottom of the picture to try & make it look "widescreen". As if that wasn't bad enough to invalidate this disc (and in my opinion that's more than enough!) this version of "The Asphyx" is also the shorter of the two versions out there, running at 83 minutes instead of 99 minutes!
If you want the full-length version of "The Asphyx" in 2.35:1 on DVD then you'll have to seek out the increasingly rare R1 disc from Allday Entertainment, released way back in 1997. The fact that the full version has been released on DVD, & is therefore certainly not "lost", just makes this disc look alll the more lamentable.
Shame on Anchor Bay UK. - By: , 06 Jun 2004 A fascinating theme in an accomplished 70s period horror that I waited 30 years to see - & I'm still waiting. Why? The UK Anchor Bay DVD claims to be "A Widescreen Presentation" but, at 1.78:1, it's a pan-and-scan travesty that does zero justice to Freddie Young's Todd-AO 35 2.35:1 photography. Judging by the incomplete logo in the credits, it even appears to have been cropped verticallly as well. A major disappointment.
