Torture Garden (1967)

Directed by: Freddie Francis | 93 minutes | horror | Actors: Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Michael Bryant, John Standing, Robert Hutton, John Phillips, Michael Ripper, Bernard Kay, Catherine Finn, Maurice Denham, Ursula Howells, David Bauer, Niall MacGinnis, Nicole Shelby, Roy Stevens, Norman Claridge, Geoffrey Wallace, Clytie Jessop, Timothy Bateson, Roy Godfrey, James Copeland, Barry Low, Barbara Ewing

In Amicus Productions’ Torture Garden, different stories are told as part of an encompassing narrative, a recipe that Amicus has applied repeatedly. We are introduced to Dr. Diabolo who demonstrates various torture devices to a group of visitors in his haunted house at the fair and then invites them to look into the future through his gifts. The title of this film, the dark environment, and the statements of Dr. However, Diabolo immediately suggests that it will not be of a promising nature for its visitors.

The needy Colin Williams visits his dying uncle Roger and tries to get him where he has hidden his money. However, Uncle Roger gives up the ghost prematurely and Colin decides to search the house. In the basement he finds a coffin with a decapitated corpse and a cat that his uncle had locked in it. Colin finds out that the cat has both psychic powers and a taste for human flesh. Qualitatively, this story comes second in this film: successful due to the heartlessness with which Colin (albeit unintentionally) sends his uncle to death by depriving him of his medicines , the dark atmosphere in the catacombs below the house and the threat that appears to emanate from the devil cat.

The ambitious Carla Hayes takes everything to make it in the film world. She dates the actor Robert Hutton who seems to stay forever young. She witnesses Robert being murdered but to her surprise recovers after an operation. Carla is determined to find out what’s behind this but has reason to regret it when she learns the secret of Robert’s eternal youth. This story ends with not too much actual horror after the previous one. It does evoke the necessary curiosity, but also due to a lack of all too noteworthy tension it stays that way. The pace is somewhat slow. There is, however, a successful satirical tinge with regard to the actors’ guild in Hollywood.

The young Dorothy Endicott has an affair with the famous pianist Leo. She notices that he spends a lot of time on his piano. When Dorothy wants to change that, the piano turns out to be a living being that becomes jealous of the relationship between Dorothy and Leo and decides to thwart Dorothy. Qualitatively, this is the least story in this film: little horror and also little tension. The plot is a bit nonsensical, perhaps even laughable here and there. There is also a certain length of time. Although the piano shows its malicious presence unmistakably on several moments, it still poses little or no perceptible threat, although in the scenes in which the piano has targeted Dorothy, the events are still nicely designed.

Collectors Ronald Wyatt and Lancelot Channing meet at an auction. They appear to have a common obsession for the works of Edgar Allan Poe. When Wyatt visits Channing, he shows him several of Poe’s past properties. Then the inebriated Channing takes Wyatt into the basement of his house, where to Wyatt’s surprise, Channing finds out that Channing has both unpublished works and new writings by Poe. This is the best story in the film, thanks to Jack Palance’s good acting as the nervously uptight Wyatt and the adequate counterplay from horror veteran Peter Cushing as Channing. A well-evoked, held, and built-up suspense ensues as Wyatt slowly moves closer to unraveling Channing’s secrets. Furthermore, a successful dark atmosphere in the basement of Channing’s house and nice Gothic decors.

The encompassing story is nicely designed. Not terribly horrifying, but one of the more remarkable in the productions that Amicus has released according to this formula. A beautiful dark environment – ​​fittingly also for a haunted house – provides a nice background decor with the torture devices on display and the dummies on which various tortures are demonstrated. Nice work by Burgess Meredith as the creepy Dr. Diabolo and Michael Ripper, who is known to many horror fans as the (perhaps a bit too) frightened haunted house visitor. It’s also noticeable that, in contrast to several similar films by Amicus, ‘Torture Garden’ doesn’t get really scary in too many places. Especially in the two middle stories there is a lack of tension. That is why this production in its entirety will not exactly raise the hair on end. It’s all atmospheric, even in the two less successful stories, but also of such an approach that it mainly comes across as a combination of mystery and horror, with the emphasis on the mystery aspect. A repetition or equalization of more actually horror-oriented Amicus productions that are designed according to this recipe should therefore not be counted too much.

But besides the negatives, this film does have its positives and most of the time it also manages to hold the attention without too much effort. This also despite the lack of all kinds of gory scenes, something that would not have been part of the approach that characterizes this production. Furthermore, again in line with the other Amicus productions, there is meritorious acting by the various parties involved, although it is not always striking due to the design of some of the things.

‘Torture Garden’ is therefore not the best of its kind by Amicus ever made, but for fans of this kind of anthology films and for fans of the less intense work it has more than enough interesting to offer.