The Torturer

The Torturer is an Italian rip-off, knock-off in the torture mainstream movies trend that Saw and Hostel begins. This time, Lamberto Bava (the son of the great Mario Bava and the maker of the amazing gore movie Demons) directs this movie about beautiful babes being tortured by a psycho snuff filmmaker. Thats all about the plot, and, who needs a plot in this kind of movies? nobody. The main problem with The Torturer is that its like a PG-13 movie. Not much blood or gore here, not a lot of nudity or sex. The girls are really beautiful, porn star-looking some of them and models others(the main babe is really beautiful) but this movie is too bland. And thats a shame because Italian cinema uses to make rip-offs with lots of gore and T & A. Not the case here, just an average movie, nothing memorable here.

I am not very familiar with Lamberto Bava oeuvre, but after 'The Torturer' I don't know if I want to become familiar with it. Story, if there is any, revolves around young director whose work is in vein of grand guignol, and his new mistress - a wannabe actress. She shows up for an audition, but eventually they become lovers. In the background there is plot about mysterious torturer, who does couple of nasty things to some fine looking young woman. But it is really irrelevant, as the main point of the movie is to show some nudity and sex, and a little bit of torture. Movie is done in porno aesthetics - camera focuses on women's breasts and crotches (nothing hard core of course), and the viewer isn't spared camera angle from between one heroine's legs. Acting is completely lame, plot laughable, so it's hard to sit through it. Of course nudity and violence compensates a little the rest of the movie, but only a little bit. Nods to gialli (especially Argento's work) are completely redundant, as they don't add up to the story. Yet violence sometimes becomes very graphic and nasty. and actresses are really good looking. nothing really catchy in here, but one can give a look.

This is only the fourth effort from Bava Jr. that I've watched – not counting the co-directing credit on his father Mario's last film, THE VENUS OF ILLE (1978); the others were BLASTFIGHTER (1984), DEMONS (1985) and DELIRIUM (1987). I hadn't been impressed thus far, and this latter-day giallo with the current (regrettable) torture-porn mentality certainly didn't improve his lot – if anything, it further sank his chances of ever hoping to equal his old man's influential achievements!

Being shot on Digital, the film displays no style whatsoever and looks ugly into the bargain; as for the plot, it's strictly by-the-numbers fare and, therefore, wholly uninvolving. A handsome young man is revealed to have had a disturbed childhood – cue an excruciatingly annoying and recurring ditty – so that we're led to believe that he's the titular figure (especially since the victims are aspiring actresses who had just been auditioning for the would-be boy genius). Then comes the admittedly stunning heroine – who's really there to probe into the fate of a friend who's gone missing but, lo and behold, she instantly falls for the hero. Also involved is his domineering father-in-law/agent and mother (a Daria Nicolodi wannabe) who's all-too-obviously crackers.

Needless to say, Bava Jr. lazily opts to pile up, and linger on, the gore (and nudity) rather than – pardon the pun – pump new blood into the exceedingly tired situations. As I said, the revelation – of both the reason behind our hero's torments and the villain's identity – provides no surprise at all, nor the fact that the heroine is rescued (by her lover's mother, who suddenly regains her senses!) in the nick-of-time from a fate worse than death. For what it's worth, I have a bunch of other titles by Lamberto on hand – namely GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE (1987), UNTIL DEATH (1987), THE PRINCE OF TERROR (1988) and THE OGRE (1988) – which I may or may not get to in time for this Halloween challenge

Really, the only positive thing I can tell you about the entire torturing movie is that the name definitely fits perfectly. The movie being the torturer and anyone watching it being the tortured. Plot, the lighting, camera-work, acting, everything... just utter crap. I guess you could call it original seeing as it's the only movie that was bad enough to make me not want to turn it off (which I don't often do I might add) but keep watching for laughs at it's creators. This also is the only movie that has actually managed to make me want to register and write a comment here about it, especially after reading some semi-positive replies about it.

This movie was rock bottom, and watching it might cause brain damage.

Watch at your own risk.

Aspiring actress Ginette (amazingly hot Russian stunner Elena Bouryka) attends an audition with underground director Alex Scerba (Simone Corrente), who wastes no time in getting his lovely young performer to strip for him. While on stage (on all fours, in her undies), Ginette discovers an earring identical to one worn by her friend Marzia, who has been missing for several days. After a one-night stand with Alex, Ginette accompanies the luck S.O.B. on a visit to his studio where she meets his mother, who is barking mad; while there, she finds a second matching earring on the ground. Suspecting that Alex has something to do with Marzia's disappearance, Ginette breaks into the house after dark to investigate. Meanwhile, a gloved maniac is auditioning three sexy babes for a special one-night-only performance—as the stars of a snuff video!

The Torturer sees director Lamberto Bava cashing in on the success of gruelling gore-fests like Saw and Hostel, presenting 100 minutes of insanely hot women being stripped and mutilated at the hands of a sadistic maniac; before the opening credits have even finished, a whimpering victim has had her breast impaled on a hook and her leg roasted with a blowtorch, and the nastiness continues throughout, with other deviant delights on display including electrocution, flogging, and a nasty instance of nipple mutilation. It's exploitative, misogynistic trash devoid of artistic merit or anything resembling a decent plot, with characters who behave in an extremely illogical manner; but while no means a great film, it's far from Bava's worst (if you want to know the true meaning of torture, try a triple-bill of Devouring Waves, Graveyard Disturbance and The Ogre!). The director at least delivers what the title promises: lots and lots of mean-spirited violence. The fact that all of the victims are female, drop dead gorgeous and mostly naked is just the icing on the whole sleazy cake.