Fear Chamber

With its rep as one of Karloff's worst, I expected something drab and stilted (like CAULDRON OF BLOOD, '67) so was surprised to find this quite colorful, albeit in a tacky way. While it lacks subtlety (and often coherence), the film delivers sufficient sleaze to please prurient drive-in dwellers.

The haphazard script provides much to mock. Spellunking scientists discover and attempt to communicate with a tentacled, "intelligent" rock. That's all of the plot you need...it's raw gibberish. Amoral researchers stop just short of human sacrifice in their experiments, and place blind faith in primitive, printout-spitting computers. Rants from Roland, the diamond-obsessed comic relief, beg for MST3K skewering, and Karloff's scientific theories are the daffiest heard since mad docs roamed the Monogram lot.

Most commenters cluck about "Poor Boris." Granted, he isn't tossed one morsel of decent dialogue, but he just phones his part in. (The young leads, on the other hand, are quite likable, even though their characters are not.) Upon his passing, rummagers of Karloff's effects discovered that his check for this flick was uncashed...perhaps he expected it to bounce.

I recently bought a Boris Karloff DVD collection, containing four of Karloff's infamous last movies on two DVDs: "La Muerte Viviente" aka. "Snake People", "House Of Evil" aka. "Dance Of Death", "The Incredible Invasion" aka. "Alien Terror" and "The Fear Chamber" aka. "The Torture Zone", all of them directed by Juan Ibánez and Jack Hill.

I was prepared for extremely trashy stuff, but after watching the extremely crappy, but extremely hilarious "Snake Peolple" I was sure I had found the epitome of a 'so bad it's good' kind of movie (I already wrote a review). Then I watched "The Fear Chamber", just to find out it is even a better example for how great awfulness can really be.

Horror icon Boris Karloff's very last movie, "The Fear Chamber" was released in 1972, three years after Karloff's death. Not only am I a big Boris Karloff fan, but I also have utmost respect for Director Jack Hill for his great exploitation classics (like "Coffy" with Pam Grier for example). If you are a fan of unintentional comedies, "The Fear Chamber" should be your kind of movie.

Near the earth's core, scientists discover a rock that is obviously alive! Hoping that the rock will reveal "all secrets of the universe", they bring it to a laboratory to examine it. But since the living rock feeds on human fear, they have to torture young women in a special fear chamber, in order to gain fear hormones and keep the rock alive.

"The Fear Chamber" is an extremely poorly produced flick and apart from Karloff and Isela Vega (who played Warren Oates' girlfriend in Sam Peckinpah's surreal masterpiece "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia"), the acting is pretty bad too. The lab and the attached fear chamber look extremely ridiculous and resemble of the Ufo in Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space". The movie's crappiest (and most hilarious) aspect, however is its script, especially the dialogue. The head scientist Dr. Carl Mendel (Karloff) assumes, for example, that the living rock could reveal "all secrets of the universe" and "the secret of our very existence", although none of the scientists seems to have the slightest reason to make such an assumption.

This may be one of the crappiest Sci-Fi Horror flicks ever, but it is also one of the most hilarious unintentional comedies I have ever seen. The great Boris Karloff makes anything worth watching, this, however, also has a big value for it is probably one of the most absurd movies ever, and for its (unintentional) fun factor. If you had fun watching "Plan 9 From Outer Space", I can guarantee that you will laugh your ass of watching this. Very bad, But I loved it!

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Juan Ibanez and Jack Hill; Produced by Luis Enrique Vergara, for Azteca Films, released in America by Columbia Pictures. Screenplay by Luis Enrique Vergara and Jack Hill; Photography by Raul Dominguez and Austin McKinney; Edited by Felipe Marino; Music by Enrico Cabiati; Dialogue Director: Stillman Segar. Starring: Boris Karloff, Julissa, Isela Vega, Carlos East, Sandra Chavez and Eva Muller.

Silly sci-fi/horror exploitation film, integrating some of Karloff's last live-action footage into an incredible plot. Vega plays a fellow mad scientist who with big K is feeding a living volcanic rock blood from busty young women after scaring them in the title area. Oddly, Vega's famous frame is kept under wraps until her finale, being fed to the rock herself. Wide-angle lenses and flashy lighting effects do not hide the absence of development in the subplot of rocks from the center of the earth trying to learn to survive on the surface and take over.

One of those dreary Mexican productions that Boris Karloff made toward the end of his career, "The Fear Chamber"'s only attraction for the great but now aged and ailing star must have been the paycheck. The plot, already described elsewhere, is ludicrous, the set looks like somebody's basement, and the effects are cheap.

It's always worth seeing Karloff, but otherwise the only attraction is the supporting cast which includes various beautiful women, including Isele Vega (best known for "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"), who are called upon to add some sex to the mix. The lesbian scenes make no sense within the context of the story, but they may at least prevent you from fast-forwarding to the conclusion.

The "Torture Zone" version of this film released by Rhino has between 10-15 minutes cut from the Mexican version. No significant scenes are missing (except for the original credits which have a live-action background); most of the cuts are trims to existing scenes. However, the English-language version does feature Karloff's own voice, which is a bonus.