Le Manoir maudit

Her physician father's (Adriano Micantoni) efforts to aid his increasingly distressed daughter Anna (Annie Alberti), tormented by recurring nightmares over the death of the beautiful, yet ill-fated countess Irene who she eerily resembles, prove disastrous. The only feature made by former pulp novelist Boccacci remains a feverishly enigmatic cauldron of pulpy Italianate Gothic schlock, oft prone to hysteria-laden theatrics, Tomb of Torture is certainly not without minor interest to vintage Grisly Gothic addicts. Palpably weird, oblique, injudiciously sluggish, Metempsycho is demonstratively not on par with the finest macabre works of Margheriti, Franco, Freda or Bava, yet the innate strangeness residing herein proved bizarrely fascinating to me! Many will find this eccentric high Gothic oddity a torturous experience in mediocrity, yet I found the foreboding atmosphere, oneiric qualities, dingy dungeon dynamics, and the cob-webby creature feature theatrics frequently compelling! A clear highlight is the lurid climax, and master composer Armando Sciascia's quality, atmospherically strident spazzy jazzy score!

Complaining that an Italian genre film doesn't have much of a plot is kind of like complaining that an opera doesn't have a lot of subtle, naturalistic acting or that a hardcore porn movie doesn't have great dialogue--that's just not the point. Still even by Italian standards the plot of this movie is pretty lame. The best part is the opening scene where two of the oldest-looking schoolgirls in film history are exploring a mysterious old castle (for reasons that completely eluded me). They are warned away by the old crone maid who still runs the place, but they don't heed her warning and end up captured, tied-up, and tortured to death in the basement by a sadistic monstrous hunch-back! Although the torture takes place mostly offscreen, it is nevertheless surprisingly graphic for the time.

As the girls' bodies are being carried away a scientist shows up who is planning to stay at the castle. He is surprisingly blase about the double torture-murders even though he is accompanied by his young adult daughter who is about the same age as the two victims. He remains unperturbed even after the old maid tells them that the daughter is the spitting image of the former lady of the castle who mysterious disappeared years earlier. There is then a dumb subplot where the daughter falls in love with a local reporter, who kind of looks like a middle-aged version of "Tin Tin". It's not long though before this damsel-in-distress waiting-to-happen becomes a bonafide damsel in distress with her father and "Tin Tin" rushing to her rescue.

It's not to hard to figure out who the villains are--one we've already seen at the beginning and the other is his only plausible accomplice. The climax is hardly very surprising therefore, or very climactic. And that's the real problem here. This has a good opening scene, but the rest of the movie goes strictly downhill from there.

It seems that I spoke too soon earlier this week when I singled out KATARSIS (1963) as the nadir of the Italian Gothic Horror cycle! To my mind, this one was an even lesser achievement (with totally unfamiliar credits, though it was picked up for U.S. distribution by no less a genre authority than Richard Gordon) – despite having even better possibilities, given the disparate elements that come into play throughout. In fact, the film resembles more the anything-goes attitude redolent of the Mexi-Horror style (think THE BRAINIAC [1962]) – but Italian experiments in this vein, such as SHE (1982) and the notoriously troubled SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1989), have always tended towards the worst aspects of Camp. One other case which I may soon be catching is CROSS OF THE SEVEN JEWELS (1987).

Anyway, here we have a horribly (and inexplicably) disfigured and hirsute man with a penchant for torture devices (whose exposure, complete with maniacal laugh, is over-extended), a woman who is a dead-ringer for her mysteriously vanished ancestor (no great beauty, one wonders what all the fuss is about), the current female owner who is clearly unhinged (since she first appears silhouetted in a darkened room and is always clad in black) and even an Oriental Yoghi (though he never accomplishes much). Also on hand are the usual suspects – dumb cop (not helped by being named Dobson!), stern doctor (father of the heroine) and intrepid reporter (who stumbles on the leading lady while skinny-dipping and automatically becomes engaged to her!).

Though lasting for no more than what is considered standard duration for this type of film (87 minutes), the lethargic pace and singular lack of imagination on display results in deadly dullness virtually all the way through! The only two sequences to hold the attention somewhat are the vaguely surreal reconstruction of the dungeon murder (with the woman menaced by a figure in a skeleton outfit, a knight's armor 'come to life' and a monster that resides in a tomb!) and the finale, which sees the faceless sadist (whom the crazed owner, forever in search of the family jewels, disparagingly calls "brainless idiot"!) tripping and hang himself in a welter of chains attached to the ceiling, while the ageing woman herself shares the exact same fate as her victim (an arrow through the heart!).

This is a one hundred percent cheese fest that's delivered straight to your eyeballs by a guy on a moped.

It all begins when two women think they can just stroll into their local castle just because the front gate is opened and then somehow act surprised when a crazy guy with a really wonky looking face captures and kills both of them.

For some reason the local policeman thinks they died of exposure when their bodies are found dumped later, but a Doctor who has just returned to town with his daughter thinks differently, as does a guy who seems to have spent the last twenty years looking for his missing girlfriend.

His missing girlfriend looks exactly like the doctor's daughter, who of course has been dreaming that she is the missing countess. Her dad brought her back to the town and the castle to rid her of the dreams somehow for reasons I couldn't quite figure out. And obviously someone is out to kill her.

That's enough plot! The first twenty minutes or so of this one are rather good (including the trippy credits), but then you have a bit of a slog through the comedic romance bits between the daughter and some reporter guy, although things pick up again when old wonky face gets involved.

No creepy housekeeper in this one though, although it does throw all sorts of 'haunted house' shenanigans at you which is always most welcome, for me anyway. It's not hard to guess what's going on though! There's a person that keeps turning up dressed as a knight, and they don't even bother disguising their voice.

TOMB OF TORTURE opens with a wordless tour through a creepy castle. Then, we see a skull with an eyeball in one socket.

Great stuff!

The rest involves two young women being tortured to death by a disfigured madman; a woman named Anna (Annie Alberti) who dreams about the torture chamber; and a reporter who investigates the deaths.

TOMB is a macabre, somewhat silly film loaded with lugubrious atmosphere and gothic sets. It's biggest problem is that it has several spots that just drag on.

BEST SCENE: The nightmare sequence, which includes a murderous figure in full plate armor and a giant crossbow!...