A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.
Acting
Peter Cushing's 10-minute masterclass in broken obsession
Writing
Robert Bloch's nested structure—stories that devour themselves
Production
Hammer's asylum sets: Victorian grandeur rotting from within
Director
Roy Ward Baker
Peter Cushing
Smith
Patrick Magee
Dr. Lionel Rutherford
Herbert Lom
Byron
Britt Ekland
Lucy
Barry Morse
Bruno
Charlotte Rampling
Barbara
Barbara Parkins
Bonnie
Robert Powell
Dr. Martin
Sylvia Syms
Ruth
Richard Todd
Walter
James Villiers
George
Geoffrey Bayldon
Max Reynolds
Ann Firbank
Anna
Megs Jenkins
Nurse Higgins
John Franklyn-Robbins
Mr. Stebbins
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'Lucy' segment features a genuine 19th-century automated figure—Baker found it in a junk shop and built the entire story around its unhinged staring.
Asylum arrived at the tail end of Hammer's golden age, when the studio was desperately anthologizing to compete with the psychological horror emerging from America—it's essentially British Gothic's last stand before The Exorcist changed everything.
GB
