The Asphyx
Two police officers run to the location of a car crash. The lethal accident threw two people through the windshields of each car, instantly killing the, but one of the people involved miracously survived. One of the police officers pulls one man out from under the car.Cut to title credits.19thC carriage and clothes. English country squire Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) arrives to his manor house, where his two sons -one adopted, Giles (Robert Powell), the other one being Clive (Ralph Arliss)- and one daughter, Christina (Jane Lapotaire) are already waiting for him. The three children are grown-ups now. He introduces to them his fiancée, Anna Wheatley (Fiona Walker), whom he intends to marry the following Saturday. The father also announces that he's brought with him a special camera.At the manor house library, Hugo explains to Anna that he enjoys taking photographs of dead people. He is not alone on this weird passtime, as his friend Sir Edward Barrett (Alex Scott) also enjoys so.We see a slide presentation in front of a small audience. Edward and Hugo explain that they found a dark romboidal stain in photographs of people who had just died. They think they have photographed the souls of the people who died leaving the body. Hugo tries to explain to Clive - who looks like his favourite son - that with power comes responsibility when the son comments on Hugo's generosity towards the waiting servant. He also says that death is the last change. Hugo still misses his late wife.It's March at the manor house during Hugo and Anna's visit, and it's freezing cold. He insists to record everybody soaring on a boat. First, it's Giles and Christina, then Clive and Anna. Clive's oar gets stuck in the mud, which causes him not to see a branch of a tree. A sharp pointed part of the tree stings him, who falls to the muddy river. Anna also falls to the water. Giles tries to rescue them but the water is so muddy that he can't see anything. Clive and Anna's muddy body will appear later on during the night.Two weeks later, Hugo checks on the motion picture. There appears the same black stain, so he decides to photograph the two-week old corpse of Clive.Giles is worried about Hugo's unhealthy obsession, because it causes him to disregard himself. Hugo starts thinking about the Asphyx, a spirit which appears near people who are about to die. Hugo starts looking a bit out of his mind, even asking Giles to photograph him while drinking a cup of poison.There is going to be a public hanging the following day, says Edward. Hugo wants to photograph the execution.Hugo kills a mouse so that the Asphyx appears and he can imprison it in a kind of laboratory tube with strange liquids. With a strong lamp, Giles has captured in in the halo of light. Christina appears to question what the racket was about.Later, Christina goes on her own and takes the guinea pig out. She wonders at the strange box at his father's laboratory. Hugo -with Giles at his tail as usual- goes to visit a home for the paupers. There, one of the homeless men (Terry Scully) is severely ill.Christina questions Giles about what she saw at the laboratory. Giles is worried for Hugo but can't explain it all to her because he swore to secrecy. Christina tries to console Giles even though he can't confide on her. Hugo gives the sick man home, food and shelter. The bump is so sick that he'll only live one or two days more, says the doctor. The homeless man coughs and coughs. When he is about to die, the Asphyx appears, and Hugo captures it with the strong focus light. However, in his last moments, the dying man picks up the acid which Hugo had shown Giles before, and he splashes mit all over Hugo's face. He will be left with the scar for the rest of his life. Christina has been woken up by the acute shrieks of the Asphyx, so she arrives to the laboratory to see it all.Hugo has the idea of electrocuting himself in an electric chair while Giles traps the Asphyx. Christina appears and panics, but Giles slaps her and she is the one who moves the light to trap the Asphyx inside the coffin-shaped box. Giles and Christina put the Asphyx inside of a safe box. That night, Christina is woken up by something in her bedroom: it's the guinea pig she's let loose before. She takes the mouse outside of the house and releases it just outside the door. It looks like the mouse prefers to stay inside, where he is safe and has food, water and shelter without having to survive by itself!So Hugo recovers from the electrocution. He has not died.From that moment on, Hugo behaves weirdly. He wants Anna to marry Giles -is that even possible legally?- so that they have children and the lineage goes on forever. Christina doesn't like his father's plans, but she finally obliges. Hugo wants to make them immortal, the same as him. First goes Christina. Hugo wants to trap the Asphyx when it appears to claim her. They are going to cut her head with a gillotine. But the mouse she released appears to bite off the pipe which carries the water to make the lights work. The light goes out, in the panic Hugo causes Giles to release the guillotine, and Christina dies because her head was severed off.Giles feels guilt of Christina's death. Hugo wants to die now: he wants to join his children. Giles puts the mouse inside the lamp, and doesn't allow Hugo to check it before attempting to catch the Asphynx again. Giles has thought about the way: he will be enclosed in a plastic box and then Hugo will put gas in through a pipe. When Giles is about to die and the lamp doesn't work, Hugo has time to put oxygen in. But Giles wants to die, so he takes a match out. He softly whispers "Christina", and lights the match. That causes an explosion. At that moment, Hugo realises that he has killed his two remaining children. Hugo is not alone though: he has as a companion... the mouse.BACK TO MODERN TIMESA man - Hugo with a completely disfigured head - caresses a mouse. He steps onto the road from the sidewalk getting in the way of two cars which are about to collide.
insanity, gothic, flashback