The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism. (1967)
Another extremely loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic story The Pit and the Pendulum. The pendulum sections are really just a wrap around story for a succession of notable set pieces, in particular the deliriously disturbing nightmarish sequences of the coach journey ranging from the terrifying woods with the trees garlanded with corpses and limbs protruding from trunks and branches.
The coach and horses journey to the Count's castle takes up a good quarter of the films running time, and whilst this could have dragged the pace to a standstill in this film its the most memorable part due to the imagery on offer. The hanging corpses in the mist are extremely eerie and scary. Director Reinl's camera slowly guides past them allowing us the coachman's view of proceedings, no wonder he dies of a heart attack midway through the journey.
Of the actors, Karin Dor is lovely and makes for a perfect victim. Former Tarzan, Lex Barker is good value for money as the square jawed hero. Unfortunately it is Christopher Lee who drew the short straw as his character, the Count, is only in the aforementioned pendulum parts and an early prologue before he's captured and killed and not revived until the last third.
Whilst The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism is a good film it can't be classed as one of the great Gothic horrors, and it is really only the surreal nightmarish coach journey that will stay in your head after the film finishes rather than the story itself. In fact the visuals are so strong it really is a case of style over substance. If only Mario Bava had directed it....
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