Torture Garden [HD]

"There's nothing like a good fright for toning up the circulation."
Throughout the mid 60s and early 70s, Hammer Studios counterpart, Amicus Productions, also known as the Studio That Dripped Blood, formed through a partnership with producers Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, churned out a series of wonderful little horror anthologies including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972), Tales From The Crypt (1972), The Vault Of Horror (1973), From Beyond The Grave (1973), and this feature, titled Torture Garden (1967). Written by Robert Bloch (Psycho, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum), and directed by Freddie Francis (The Evil of Frankenstein, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Tales from the Crypt), the film features Burgess Meredith (Rocky, Clash of the Titans), Jack Palance (Hawk the Slayer, Alone in the Dark), Beverly Adams (How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, The Silencers), and Peter Cushing (The Abominable Snowman, Dracula, The Revenge of Frankenstein). Also appearing is Michael Bryant (Bikini Summer...

ENTERTAINING HORROR ANTHOLOGY.....
From Britain's Amicus Studio's anthology series is 1967's "Torture Garden", a quartet of ironic terror tales featuring a great cast, directed by horror pro Feddie Francis and written by Robert Bloch--no slouch in the horror genre himself. Burgess Meredith is Dr. Diablo, a carnival operator of a "Torture Garden"--a sideshow of ancient to modern torture devices. He lures a group of people into seeking their future from a Sybil he has on display...the Goddess of Fortune. They learn they each have an evil desire and see what happens should they pursue their greedy urge: a greedy nephew falls prey to a demonic cat owned by the uncle he murders; an ambitious starlet, willing to do anything for eternal fame, learns how those big stars last forever; a girl finds she has an unusual rival for her pianist boyfriend's affection....his piano; and there's Jack Palance and Peter Cushing in a tale about a fanatic Poe collector who gets much more than he bargained for. Good fun and a good DVD print...

Where Terror and Madness Are In Full Bloom
In Torture Garden you won't see anyone whipped with string beans or turnips rammed under fingernails, but you do get a good collection of Robert Bloch horror stories...Amicus style! I like the horror anthology format for movies, it's something we really don't see much of anymore. Torture Garden is quite entertaining, but it falls victim to the same thing pretty much all anthologies suffer from, and that's the fact that not every story is a winner. It must be tough to make all the stories good, but sometimes there's that one or two that tend to fall short. But even the worst of Torture Garden is entertaining. I'd have to say the low point revolves around a homicidal piano. In reality, if a piano was trying to snuff you out, it would probably be terrifying, but in the film world, it's pretty silly. The Mangler should have taught us that homicidal inanimate objects are usually good for a laugh rather than a scare. You can't say it's not amusing though. This film stars Burgess...

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