Torture Chamber (2013) User Reviews

Torture Chamber: Worse than I even feared

[Platypuschow · 2/10 · 5 November 2017]

With a title like Torture Chamber I assumed this was a torture porn effort but it's something even worse.

Torture Chamber tells the fragmented story of a horribly burnt child who his mother claims is pure evil. He has rounded up the other children from the burns unit and goes on a murder/torture spree with them.

Trouble is it's all so very bad. Kids are simply not scary, apparently the child has powers but it's neither explained how or exactly what they are and the whole thing is just a bit of a mess.

Production values are there alas the competent writing staff clearly weren't.

The Good:

I'll get back to you on that one

The Bad:

Dreadful sound balancing in places

Messy storyline

Bland cast

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

One line of the lords prayer will get a car started

Kids are not and will never be good antagonists

JUST INHALE THE DEODORANT

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 27 November 2018]

Little Jimmy Morgan (Carmen LoPorto) has been disfigured by fire and appears to be demon possessed. He escapes from his cage using his powers of....fire, heat, ad whatever. There is a nearby castle, dungeons, tunnels, traps and a bunch of kids in orange jump suits who follow Jimmy and help him torture people.

The film doesn't care about chronology and haphazardly interjects flashbacks. The effects and music had the feel of an old Italian horror film and it made even less sense.

I wasn't sure what was going on, or what the picture on the DVD cover has to do with the film.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. Has a lot of bad ideas for kids to get a buzz from household products.

The Script Is So Bad It's Irritating

[tiskec · 3/10 · 3 October 2023]

There are several parts in this movie that just plain irritates the heck out of me. The Demon child kills his father, while the brother (a priest) and it's mother (a religious woman) manage to elude it and hide away.

As the movie progresses they decide to go after this demon child. Throughout the movies progression, I endured chopped scenes; the brother (priest) would be killed somehow, then he would wake up inside a cell in an abandon castle. Then the movie would randomly show scenes that occurred in the families past that lacked organization and proper presentation.

After about half way through the film I forgot what the plot was, and I still can't remember. This is usually due to an extremely forgettable and dull movie experience.

If you want something to put you to sleep and act as background music, this might be it. Not recommended.

3/10.

Torturous to watch

[gregsrants · 1/10 · 11 April 2014]

It is ironic that Torture Chamber contains the word I felt most in tune with while viewing – torture. The new horror film from writer/director Dante Tomaselli (Satan's Playground) was so bad it was torturous to watch through 93 minutes. The film opens with our introduction to 13-year-old Jimmy (Carmen LoPorto). For reasons to be explained later, Jimmy's first appearance on screen has him bound in an animal cage. His face appears burned and scared making his blue eyes all that more piercing and ominous. A Catholic priest is present but Jimmy is possessed by an extreme evil and his powers lead to his escape. Jimmy then recruits an army of children who follow his instruction on a murderous rampage on teachers, doctors….just about anyone who ever looked at Jimmy in his past. The victims are dragged to an abandoned hideout where they are tortured until death. The above synopsis may sound like a film full of fun, blood and satanic overtones, but Torture Chamber is handled so ineptly that you can't help but think that being a victim of Jimmy would be less painful than trying to squeeze any drip of entertainment value out of Tomaselli's effort. Most of the faults can be found in the screenplay and the unmotivated actors that were hired to play out Tomasell's script. None of the cast comes out smelling like roses but its Soprano's star Vincent Pastore who has the most egg on his face as Dr. Fiore. The actor says his lines as if he was acting in a high school play without the benefit of a rehearsal. Most of his dialogue sounded as if he was just winging it – forced and awkward. It's been a long time since I have been embarrassed for an actor involved with a paying project, but poor Pastore was in my prayers after screening. When it comes to the horror genre, you can sometimes mask bad acting, a bad script and any misdirection if you have the gore to help you overlook the faults. Not here. Torture Chamber's gore is ridiculously bad. Hardly any blood. Hardly any ingenuity when it comes to the ritual killings. Hardly any fun. All this makes Torture Chamber one of the worst films of the year. A zero out of five stars. That's not to say that we won't have interest to see Tomaselli's next effort, but this one needs to be put in a plastic bag with spray paint fumes and burned.

Terrible movie - Avoid watching it. Even if you feel tempted. I suggest you don't. You will be disappointed

[drunken_wombat7 · 1/10 · 16 September 2014]

To begin with I will say that I have never written a movie review in my life but I made an account here just to warn others of the 'horrors' they are about to see - mind the pun.

Upon reading the description for this film I thought it would be a great horror movie to watch. What I got was in fact a movie that was horrible to watch.

From the terrible dialogue to the ridiculous title (for the movie).Also, I'm pretty sure I could get a group of my mates together and we could play out some scenes with better acting than the lot they hired for this film. With no acting experience at all. Dead set horrible.

This movie was made in 2013 and I'm sure directors could have made a better horror film in the 70's. The special effects were off putting enough for me to turn it off but since I payed $5 to see this I thought I may as well watch it. I just wasted an hour and a half of my life watching this movie. I do not have a clue how this movie can have a rating of 4.1/10. I don't even know how it made it to DVD in the first place. To anyone wanting to watch this movie - Just don't it may sound tempting but it is really not worth an hour and a half of your life.

All in all this is the worst movie I have ever seen in my life and anyone who says it is even half decent is more than likely involved in the production or is one of the actors in this movie.

No. Thank you

[ricardoagulha · 1/10 · 8 September 2014]

Jesus , Mary and Joseph , help me!!! I have to write at least ten lines in my review but honestly , there is not much to say about this movie. Simply that it is one of the worst movies of the year and one of the worst things I've seen in my whole my life. Ever. It is not scary in any moment. Nothing at all. It is so ridiculous , that it's funny some moments , making me laugh a lot. At least this... This is the only reason I gave 1 out 10 stars. And for what should be a horror movie , this is really a bad one. The make up is terrible. The gore, weak. The acting very ,very poor. The script , awful. The plot, a shame. I couldn't help but watching this,skipping it. And even this way, it was a torture and a complete waste of time. I even slap my own face trying to wake up from this bad dream.But for my surprise and desolation , I was already awaken. This is what I call " torture porn". From the concepts to the execution , a evil thing. In a real bad sense of the word. Run away from it.

It's somewhat entertaining

[damnjaguars · 1/10 · 11 August 2023]

You will laugh a couple times, shake your head at the rest of it.

One scene in particular that basically defines the whole thing is where the lady is walking down the hallway, and behind her some kind of trap door slowly opens, keep in mind she's walking away from it. Then, it opens all the way and she catapults head first down some kind of chute or hole that I guess was the trap door, behind her, in the hallway. So she went from walking upright to plunging headfirst down a pit behind her. I think we rewinded that scene ten times to keep the laugh going.

You can tell there was quite a bit poured into this thing, I mean there are quite a few actors in it, lots of different sets, but overall bad. If you wanted this 'quality' but way more gore, look up dard divorce.

A world where hell lives on earth, and God is dead.

[bipbop13 · 7/10 · 23 December 2013]

Dante Tomaselli is one of the most overlooked, and underrated horror directors that I know of. He has consistently put out great movies (Desecration, Horror and Satan's Playground) with barely a whisper from the mainstream. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. On one hand it keeps his maniacal genius to those chosen few lucky enough to find and appreciate his movies. I however, would like to see him strike it big. He deserves it. Not because multi-millions would change his ideas one iota, but because his vision would appeal to the masses. They just don't know it yet.

His latest film, Torture Chamber, is just the latest in a line of fever dream films designed to scare us, disturb us, and make us think about the society that we live in. Jimmy (Carmen LoPorto) is a young burn victim who seems to have special powers. He also seems to have a mind and soul that come straight from the bowels of hell. So when he decides to get revenge on everyone who he feels has done him wrong, recruiting and brainwashing a group of other young burn victims to help him in his plan, it seems as if nothing will be able to stand in his way. Jimmy's older brother, a priest, has tried to exorcise him several times without success. And his mother (Tomaselli regular Christie Sanford), is overtly religious as well, trying to find help for her youngest son, even though she was blinded by him. As the bodies pile up, will anyone be able to stop Jimmy's reign of demonic terror? This is a movie that will leave you thinking. It will also immerse you in its intensity, and its atmosphere. It could almost qualify as a "drug movie". You know, Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Wizard Of Oz? That type of drug movie. It transports you. It takes you places. Almost all of his movies do this. There is not as much abstract horror imagery in this film as there is in "Horror" or "Desecration". But what it lacks in imagery, it makes up for in the music (oh, boy does it ever!). The music for the film was also done by Tomaselli, as is it should be. The director of a film should have the best ideas of how he or she wants the music to sound. The soundtrack here is intensely haunting. Voices and screams swirl and moan, and even take over for some of the dialog at points, transporting you into Jimmy's world. A world where hell lives on earth, and God is dead.

Also of note for Tomaselli fans is a cameo by Danny Lopes, who has had either major or minor roles in all of Dante's films. Knowing that there are several cast members who have appeared in previous films by the director makes the film seem more welcoming in some way. It somehow feels like we know the actors personally, and wonder what kinds of hell that Tomaselli is going to be putting them through this time. Lynn Lowry (from George Romero's The Crazies) also has a small role as one of Jimmy's school teachers. It's nice to see her getting some good roles recently, as it seemed as if she were away too long.

Torture Chamber has not been released yet. But it will be soon. Until then, you have Dante's other three films to digest, and I suggest that you do so at your earliest convenience. He is deserving of much, much more attention than he gets from movie goers. Give him and his new film a chance. I swear that you won't regret it. 9/10.

Torture Chamber is an unrelenting , nerve jangling tale of demonic possession that enraptures you from its opening scene and never lets you go

[ep193577 · 23 March 2014]

Its been said of director Quentin Tarantino that he devours past genres and films in whole, and regurgitates chunks of them into his own films. that is simply not true, as I tell you...on the QT, that Tarantino is only referencing the films he loved-many of which were none to great to begin with-and payimg tribute to them in his own films. His films are puzzle boxes full of references to titillate film enthusiasts and he has succeeded -in his own brilliance-to give us some of the greatest modern genre films of the past 20 years.

Tomaselli's latest-Torture Chamber-is set apart from his previous 3 films , all of which were of a trilogy in themes and characters -again, very much like Argento with his Mothers trilogy (inclusive of Suspiria, Inferno and a recent one whose title Im at a loss to remember ), but certainly not purposeful as much as he had a story to tell of Catholic demoralization that could not be summed up in one film .

Spoiler Alert!

A clever touch has director Tomaselli killing off actor Danny Lopes-the young, charismatic star of his 3 previous films, be killed off in the beginning almost as a prologue and as matter of factly as Janet Leigh in Psycho. This was Dantes way of letting his many rabid fans know Torture Chamber will be unlike his first films as Lopes literally falls into an abyss and fades out of memory for the viewers so used to seeing him as Tomaselli's Avatar in his other works. After this neat prologue, of which Tomaselli also introduces into his bag of tricks a sensuality that was all but absent from his other films, the film grabs you and never lets you go.

Tomaselli has presented us with a familiar gialo premise, complete with a detective, a murder mystery and a bluish color scheme that belies the term Gialo (meaning yellow) as it should be called Azzures. Yet, thats where the similarities end. The Sopranos' irrepressible Vincent Pastore (Pussy on that ingenious , lamented show)has one of his best roles in a long time in which he sheds his usual Italian American mannerisms. He adds a sardonic humor to a detective who almost doesn't believe what is going on around him. Its a nicely written role that adds a bit of humor to the bleakness engulfing it. Tomaselli uses the detective as both a commentary on and a reflection of the atrocious way the little boy, Jimmy is treated. Its the character of Jimmy that the audience is both repelled and compelled by. He is the most sympathetically hideous creation since the baby in Its Alive, so the audience is torn on what to think at every moment. He is a despicable little boy-deformed in a way you must watch to understand-and the setpieces with Jimmy go beyond extremes to the points that you sometimes have to divert your eyes from the screen. This abused young boy hides behind a mask -a mask unlike Meyers in Halloween that gave that killer a human quality, its a mask that itself can induce nightmares. Its an ancient artifact of what seems like a lost civilization as it masks the deeply disturbed young mans true motives. Jimmy is a complexly written character. We cannot associate with him as the cold blooded killer he is, and yet the director goes to lengths to add a layer of sympathy to him that belies our understanding. The director uses the viewer as a psychological voodoo doll, pinning and poking us at will to provoke our emotions in ways in which HE HIMSELF manipulates us. We are prodded to see only what the director makes us see all the while in the compositions he has made gives us much more information in the parameters of the scenes that on second viewing, when we are not as tricked as in the first, a whole world is created unlike any we have seen in recent films. tomaselli is a suggestive director, and while there is no outright nudity or sexuality on the screen, there is a subversive tingle of eroticism that permeates the scenes. He has dared take us into and S and M world of which we would normally resist, but, instead we succumb. Its director as seducer, and in a horror film such as this , feels so right. We are watching a film called Torture Chamber-knowing full well its not a Disney movie-yet we are Frozen in suspense.He is the old fashioned barker daring us to pay a buck to see whats behind the curtain -sometimes horrific visions such as The Elephant Man, other times hoaxes such as the Bearded Lady- and once we pay, it is up to us that what we have seen was worth the price of admission. In Torture Chambers case-it certainly was.

Special mention must be made of the still bewitchingly beautiful Lynn Lowry. Tomaselli bathes her in the only light in the film - understandably so as this unique actress truly shines. Her character is the catalyst of the Mask that Jimmy wears and she captures the little nuances of the art teacher in details that only a skilled actress with years of experience can muster up. She is a setpiece all her own. She as in Rebecca DeMornays class of beauty and always added something to any film she was in-no matter how small the part. She doesn't disappoint in Torture Chamber in that respect. Nor does this amazing film disappoint its horror films. It has propelled Tomaselli into a different league of extraordinary independent gentlemen.