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For the best of the Horror/Cult/Exploitation film experience
The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967) / Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973)
The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967)
This film is known worlds over by several different titles. Prior to ever seeing it I realized that I had actually heard it referred to at times as "Castle of the Walking Dead", "Pendulum", "The Blood Demon", and "The Snake Pit". This time we have courtesy of our friends over at Legend House the film titled as "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism" from director Harald Reinl based on Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum". Although legendary genre actor Christopher Lee was billed as top star that was clearly just to further sell the film. He's more or less in a few minutes at the beginning and once again toward the third act he shows up again.
In the beginning of "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism" we see Count Regula (Christopher Lee) drawn and quartered for the murder of twelve young virgins. Fast forward thirty five years into the future and it seems as if the Count is going to return to get revenge on the daughter of his thirteenth victim and the son of the judge who took his life in the first place. While all this is going on you have Roger (Lex Barker) on a journey to find out who he is. He never knew who his parents were or where he was originally from and just couldn't go on without finding out for himself. While there he meets up with a priest who is going to show him where the castle was in the town as well as Lilian (the lovely Karin Dor) and her servant. When they all start their journey together they are greeted by morbid acts of violence as well as seeming sabotage. All this leads them to the evil Count Regula and a very interesting finale to scare the pants off the audience!
One of the strong points of this movie in my opinion is the acting. Although I was disappointed in the fact that Christopher Lee was in it a lot less than I expected, Lex Barker actually did a really good job in the role of Roger. Besides them there are a few character actors that did a great job and really added to the overall feel that the film had.
After watching two scenes in this one it was pretty apparent to me that director Harald Reinl was influenced a great deal by the Mario Bava film "Black Sunday" as there are two scenes in this one that are taken directly from that movie. There is a scene at the beginning where Christopher Lee has a spiked mask hammered into his head that's very reminiscent of the way that Barbara Steele's character was executed in Bava' "Black Sunday". Also there is another scene that features a spiked coffin of sorts that from the same film.
Anther thing that this film was a winner at was the fact that it really brought a unique look to this type of film. Sure it had the typical gothic look that you come to expect, but there were some really effective scenes in the movie (one comes to mind of the horse carnage riding in the orange sunset) that show some directing skill.
With all of that said though that's not to say that "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism" isn't without it's problems either. The pacing in the film is nowhere near where it should be and at times was a task to sit through and that's not a good thing at only about 85 minutes or so.
Overall I would have to say that this one is worth checking out if you are into old school gothic horror. Lee fans may be disappointed by the lack of on screen time that the legend has, but even with that said there are still some positive things to see this one for. The women look great and the payoff at the end are pretty good, so I would say that this one is worth checking out at least once. The folks at Legend House have released this one completely with commentary by Chris D. (The programmer for the American Cinematheque in LA) and author of "Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film" Wyatt Doyle.
Rating - **1/2
Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973)
As a big fan of Italian movies and Euro Trash in general I have to say that one of my favorite directors is Joe D'Amato. From the "Black Emanuelle" series to films like "Beyond the Darkness", and Anthropophagus the Grim Reaper" D'Amato has always been an underrated director to me. So when I heard that one half of a double feature (paired with "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism) being released by Legend House was a Joe D'Amato gothic horror film directed by D'Amato and featuring Klaus Kinski I was very intrigued.
"Death Smiles on a Murderer" is basically a story revolving around a young girl named "Greta" (played by the beautiful Ewa Aulin) and the fact that just about everyone around her is infatuated by her. Kinski acts as Dr. Sturgis, who just so happens to be obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. So obviously there has to be tons of prolonged scenes of him in a laboratory mixing liquids to goofy music. From here we have a mix up of lesbian affairs, gore sequences, bad music, some bad police procedural stuff, and a overall plot that's a total mess.
Honestly, I'm a fan of D'Amato but there isn't much that can really be said for this one. Kinski is totally wasted as a doctor who doesn't have anything interesting to do other than just about one scene in the entire movie. Ewa Aulin is pretty good in this one and is just about the only reason to watch it if you want my honest opinion here. Other than that everything else is just a jumbled up mess even if it is shot pretty well and look pretty on the surface. There is an atmosphere and mood that are established in the film that are admirable but those things don't make much of a difference on weather or not I like a movie if the story isn't there.
Overall this one wasn't really worth checking out other than the fact that it's basically a early D'Amato film. It's also not even near the best of his work from what I've seen and outside of Ewa Aulin's performance there wasn't much here even for me. Combined with "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism" this one also contains a commentary with Chris D. And Wyatt Doyle as well as a edition of "Gore Beat" from Johnny Legend.
Rating - **
-Ed Demko
