Moviecut—Tomb of Torture

source: Tomb of Torture

Metempsyco

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!...

Good looking but rather dull and nonsensical story of a man taking his daughter to a village near a deserted castle in the hopes of curing her nightmares. She is of course the spitting image of the Countess who disappeared years before, and of course there is a one eyed hunchback killing anyone who goes the castle proper. I really liked the look of this film, its beautifully shot in black and white and fills the proceedings with a real sense of dread. The problem is that the plot kind of wanders around for a good bit with details only popping up sporadically for the first half while we're treated to very atmospheric sequences that don't really mean anything. Its interesting for a while as you try to grasp what is going on, but finally you'll loose interest before things really start to come together. Odds are you'll either fall asleep or turn the channel before the end, if not you'll probably start puttering about.

It starts out with two females that waltzes right into an old castle, gets frighten by a woman there, caught by a madman in a weird mask and then killed. Another woman starts having dreams of being the Countess that used to run the castle, her father is worried about her naturally. A reporter shows up to find out more about the two dead women and ends up falling in love with the woman having dreams. Raman is a weird guy that lurks around outside - the only one that might know what is really going on! I guess he's a swami of sorts - he shows up from time to time in the film. OH we even get a knight clubbing the butler! It's just a weird film that starts out promising then falls downhill. The atmosphere is great - I love it. The story, the plot - lacking - completely lacking. Tries to throw in comedy with cutesy music after trying to build up a scary story at the start. -- Reporter and his car is a good example. 3/10