Friday, October 4, 2019

TOMB OF TORTURE (1966) ***


Tomb of Torture opens with an atmospheric credits sequence highlighted by some cool camerawork.  As the camera glides along the corridors of a creepy decrepit castle, it builds up a growing sense of dread, culminating with a nice little stinger.  The opening sequence is equally awesome as the movie wastes no time getting right down to business. 

Two girls sneak into a castle where they don’t belong and are captured and taken to the torture chamber by a giggling deformed hunchback with a fucked-up face.  After killing one girl, he puts her friend on the rack and tortures her.  Then the plot begins. 

A mentally fragile girl named Anna (Annie Alberti) believes she’s the reincarnation of a dead countess.  Her father, a know-it-all shrink (Adriano Micantoni) takes her to stay at the countess’ castle as a form of shock therapy to disprove her claims.  It doesn’t take long before Anna’s seeing visions of the countess, cackling skeletons, and suits of armor walking around all by themselves.

One of the many cool things about Tomb of Torture is the beautiful sepia-tint cinematography.  It helps to give a film that’s already loaded with atmosphere an added dreamlike feel.  (There’s a distinct Mario Bava vibe throughout the picture.)  Anna’s nightmare/freak-out scene looks particularly badass thanks to the visual flourishes of director Antonio Boccaci. 

Even though it was released in 1966, there’s just enough skin here to be provocative without really revealing too much.  The only things we get to see are bare legs, midriffs, and shoulders but it’s all done in such a sleazy way that it often feels more exploitative than it really is.  These moments are contrasted by the lighthearted (and genuinely funny) comedy bit where our romantic love interest (Marco Mariani) has a meet-cute with Anna while she is skinny-dipping.  It’s a little reminiscent of Last House of the Left how it goes from balls-out horror to over-the-top comedy on a dime, but it still manages to work somehow.  This sequence is accompanied by comedic music like you’d hear in an old Charlie Chaplin movie, which adds to the overall effect.  

It’s here however when Tomb of Torture kind of loses a little steam.  Once Mariani begins investigating the goings-on in the castle, the breakneck pacing begins to flag.  The ending is a little contrived too, but there’s still enough cool shit here to make it worthwhile for horrorhounds everywhere. 

Micantoni gets the best line when he tells a cop, “You’ve been drinking!  A good enema is what you need!”

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