Torture Chamber - Der Folterkeller

You will laugh a couple times, shake your head at the rest of it.

One scene in particular that basically defines the whole thing is where the lady is walking down the hallway, and behind her some kind of trap door slowly opens, keep in mind she's walking away from it. Then, it opens all the way and she catapults head first down some kind of chute or hole that I guess was the trap door, behind her, in the hallway. So she went from walking upright to plunging headfirst down a pit behind her. I think we rewinded that scene ten times to keep the laugh going.

You can tell there was quite a bit poured into this thing, I mean there are quite a few actors in it, lots of different sets, but overall bad. If you wanted this 'quality' but way more gore, look up dard divorce.

With a title like Torture Chamber I assumed this was a torture porn effort but it's something even worse.

Torture Chamber tells the fragmented story of a horribly burnt child who his mother claims is pure evil. He has rounded up the other children from the burns unit and goes on a murder/torture spree with them.

Trouble is it's all so very bad. Kids are simply not scary, apparently the child has powers but it's neither explained how or exactly what they are and the whole thing is just a bit of a mess.

Production values are there alas the competent writing staff clearly weren't.

The Good:

I'll get back to you on that one

The Bad:

Dreadful sound balancing in places

Messy storyline

Bland cast

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

One line of the lords prayer will get a car started

Kids are not and will never be good antagonists

Dante Tomaselli is one of the most overlooked, and underrated horror directors that I know of. He has consistently put out great movies (Desecration, Horror and Satan's Playground) with barely a whisper from the mainstream. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. On one hand it keeps his maniacal genius to those chosen few lucky enough to find and appreciate his movies. I however, would like to see him strike it big. He deserves it. Not because multi-millions would change his ideas one iota, but because his vision would appeal to the masses. They just don't know it yet.

His latest film, Torture Chamber, is just the latest in a line of fever dream films designed to scare us, disturb us, and make us think about the society that we live in. Jimmy (Carmen LoPorto) is a young burn victim who seems to have special powers. He also seems to have a mind and soul that come straight from the bowels of hell. So when he decides to get revenge on everyone who he feels has done him wrong, recruiting and brainwashing a group of other young burn victims to help him in his plan, it seems as if nothing will be able to stand in his way. Jimmy's older brother, a priest, has tried to exorcise him several times without success. And his mother (Tomaselli regular Christie Sanford), is overtly religious as well, trying to find help for her youngest son, even though she was blinded by him. As the bodies pile up, will anyone be able to stop Jimmy's reign of demonic terror? This is a movie that will leave you thinking. It will also immerse you in its intensity, and its atmosphere. It could almost qualify as a "drug movie". You know, Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Wizard Of Oz? That type of drug movie. It transports you. It takes you places. Almost all of his movies do this. There is not as much abstract horror imagery in this film as there is in "Horror" or "Desecration". But what it lacks in imagery, it makes up for in the music (oh, boy does it ever!). The music for the film was also done by Tomaselli, as is it should be. The director of a film should have the best ideas of how he or she wants the music to sound. The soundtrack here is intensely haunting. Voices and screams swirl and moan, and even take over for some of the dialog at points, transporting you into Jimmy's world. A world where hell lives on earth, and God is dead.

Also of note for Tomaselli fans is a cameo by Danny Lopes, who has had either major or minor roles in all of Dante's films. Knowing that there are several cast members who have appeared in previous films by the director makes the film seem more welcoming in some way. It somehow feels like we know the actors personally, and wonder what kinds of hell that Tomaselli is going to be putting them through this time. Lynn Lowry (from George Romero's The Crazies) also has a small role as one of Jimmy's school teachers. It's nice to see her getting some good roles recently, as it seemed as if she were away too long.

Torture Chamber has not been released yet. But it will be soon. Until then, you have Dante's other three films to digest, and I suggest that you do so at your earliest convenience. He is deserving of much, much more attention than he gets from movie goers. Give him and his new film a chance. I swear that you won't regret it. 9/10.

It is ironic that Torture Chamber contains the word I felt most in tune with while viewing – torture. The new horror film from writer/director Dante Tomaselli (Satan's Playground) was so bad it was torturous to watch through 93 minutes. The film opens with our introduction to 13-year-old Jimmy (Carmen LoPorto). For reasons to be explained later, Jimmy's first appearance on screen has him bound in an animal cage. His face appears burned and scared making his blue eyes all that more piercing and ominous. A Catholic priest is present but Jimmy is possessed by an extreme evil and his powers lead to his escape. Jimmy then recruits an army of children who follow his instruction on a murderous rampage on teachers, doctors….just about anyone who ever looked at Jimmy in his past. The victims are dragged to an abandoned hideout where they are tortured until death. The above synopsis may sound like a film full of fun, blood and satanic overtones, but Torture Chamber is handled so ineptly that you can't help but think that being a victim of Jimmy would be less painful than trying to squeeze any drip of entertainment value out of Tomaselli's effort. Most of the faults can be found in the screenplay and the unmotivated actors that were hired to play out Tomasell's script. None of the cast comes out smelling like roses but its Soprano's star Vincent Pastore who has the most egg on his face as Dr. Fiore. The actor says his lines as if he was acting in a high school play without the benefit of a rehearsal. Most of his dialogue sounded as if he was just winging it – forced and awkward. It's been a long time since I have been embarrassed for an actor involved with a paying project, but poor Pastore was in my prayers after screening. When it comes to the horror genre, you can sometimes mask bad acting, a bad script and any misdirection if you have the gore to help you overlook the faults. Not here. Torture Chamber's gore is ridiculously bad. Hardly any blood. Hardly any ingenuity when it comes to the ritual killings. Hardly any fun. All this makes Torture Chamber one of the worst films of the year. A zero out of five stars. That's not to say that we won't have interest to see Tomaselli's next effort, but this one needs to be put in a plastic bag with spray paint fumes and burned.

Ok, the story idea was freaking awesome. Execution really bad. It didn't have anyone who could act. Or even anyone who was any good at making a film. The slow camera moves were just like watching Italian horror films from the 70s. Takes 10 minutes to get across the room. So I was fast forwarding a lot. I think the burnt kid was the best, he had no lines. The filming locations were good, eerie and creepy atmosphere. This needs a remake, by Blumhouse or James Wan. It's always more fun when it's the kids doing the damage than the adults. Some of the ideas have been done before, but it has potential, just done by someone else.