Torture Garden (1967)

Some Hits - Some Misses, 5 February 2005

Torture Garden (1967) is a series of four short horror stories made by Amicus (the company made several of these anthologies). The stories are held together by Dr. Diabolo (Burgess Meredith) - the owner of a circus sideshow. For an extra charge, he'll show you something really frightening. Each patron is presented with a vision of what may or may not happen in the future.

The first vision deals with a man who has "inherited" a cat that turns out to be a witch's familiar. The cat can make the man rich and asks only to be fed in return. The problem is that the cat has developed a taste for humans. Very effective story with several thrills along the way. 7/10

The second story concerns a woman who will do anything to succeed in Hollywood. Well, almost anything. When she discovers that many of Hollywood's elite are androids, she balks at the thought of voluntarily becoming one of them. Not overly effective with little or no moments of horror. The saving grace of this story is the beautiful Beverly Adams - who will always be Lovey Kravezit in Dean Martin's Matt Helm movies. 4/10

The third vision is the worst. A girl is killed by a piano for coming between it and its owner. I think this is the only killer piano movie I've ever seen. Very silly premise. 2/10

The fourth vision is by far the most entertaining. Peter Cushing and Jack Palance star as Poe fanatics. In fact, Cushing is such a fanatic that he has Poe himself as part of his collection. The acting in this story is (as expected) excellent. Palance holds his own with the horror legend Cushing. The sets are extremely well done for a film of this type. This story could have been fleshed out to make a good full length film. 9/10

Overall, some hits and some misses.

6/10