The Asphyx

In Victorian England, philanthropic scientist Sir Hugo Cunningham is a member of a parapsychological society that studies psychic phenomena. The group photographs people at the moment of death, capturing a strange smudge around the body. They interpret it as the soul escaping, though Cunningham remains skeptical about the interpretation and its implications.

At a riverside party celebrating his son's engagement, Cunningham films his son and his fiancée with his home camera. A boating accident kills the young couple, and when Cunningham reviews the film, the blur seems to move toward his son rather than away from him. He concludes the blur is not the soul but a stalking asphyx that comes for each person at death.

While filming a public execution, Cunningham activates a phosphorus spotlight beneath a drip irrigation valve. The condemned man's asphyx is briefly held in the beam, suggesting to him that the energy from phosphorus and water can immobilize an asphyx. This leads him to speculate that such a property could imprison an asphyx and grant immortality.

Cunningham and Giles capture the asphyx of a dying guinea pig and seal it inside the family tomb. The act demonstrates the possibility of imprisoning an asphyx, fueling Cunningham's plan to trap his own elusive force. The implication is that immortality could be achieved by perpetual confinement.

Cunningham commissions an impenetrable vault door for the family tomb and tasks Giles with capturing Cunningham's own asphyx. The plan hinges on maintaining a secure prison for the asphyx so that no one can free or destroy it. It marks the transition from observation to dangerous experimentation.

Using an electric chair, Cunningham slowly kills himself to summon his own asphyx. Giles assists him, and Christina, the adoptive sister and fiancée, agrees to participate when Cunningham promises to bless their marriage if immortality is granted.

Christina is placed on a guillotine operated by Giles, in line with Cunningham's theory that imminent death will summon an asphyx. The guinea pig chews through a hose feeding water to the phosphorus stones, causing the mechanism to malfunction and Christina is decapitated. The tragedy foreshadows the dangerous consequences of their pursuit.

Despondent, Cunningham asks Giles to open the vault and free the asphyx, but Giles makes a counter-demand for immortality. In truth, Giles no longer wishes to live, and he sabotages the equipment to prevent its operation. This sets up the conflict that drives the final act.

During an attempt to gas Giles to force the release of the asphyx, Cunningham discovers the apparatus is not functioning. He quickly turns off the gas and switches on the oxygen to try to save Giles. The moment underlines that the plan is failing and that unpredictable consequences lie ahead.

Giles, in a final act, lights a match and triggers a catastrophic explosion. The blast kills him and destroys all of the equipment required to capture asphyxes. Cunningham is left to confront the ruined dream of immortality as the apparatus lies in ruins.

Before dying, Giles had left the vault's combination on a slip of paper. Cunningham destroys the note, resolving that his own immortality is God's punishment for the deaths of Giles and Christina. The act marks the final rupture of the immediate plan to achieve immortality.

In a framing sequence set in the 1970s, an ancient, disfigured Cunningham roams the streets of London with the guinea pig. He wanders into the path of a car collision, killing the two drivers. A police officer responding to the scene is shocked to find that Cunningham, crushed beneath the two vehicles, is still alive.