Talk about a title that jumps up and grabs you THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR SADIST is one of those titles conjuring all sorts of images of depraved physical and sexual violence - until you stop to consider it's from 1967 and stars Christopher Lee which means you should be expecting something along the lines of a Hammer horror film and indeed we're shown a pre title opening hook followed by a stranger entering a 19th Century town that is surrounded by forests and have inns that don't have many strangers same as in Hammerland . Much of the early exposition takes place on a coach just like in the Hammer films
The above sounds like it plays out like the much remembered Hammer horror films but the crucial difference is TORTURE CHAMBER is a German production and this means if you're watching it in English then it's dubbed . This gives an unnatural character to the actors voices , but that's not so much the problem . The problem is that it sounds like the original German has been too literally translated in to English . Try this sample for instance " Oh we went over the root of a tree , lucky the driver didn't stop , highwaymen are common in the forest , that's why it's dangerous to be caught napping " Does that sound like natural dialogue ?
It also exposes another great weakness in the film - the exposition is over emphasised to the point where everything becomes quite ridiculous . You watch a film like Leslie Norman's DUNKIRK and the dialogue sounds like text from a history book but you're able to forgive that to an extent seeing perhaps that was the film's agenda . In a mere horror film like this one it's rather more difficult to be forgiving . Everything involving backstories such as Roger Mont Elise have to feel the need to state " I am Roger and I came here because.... " at every opportunity . Nothing that happens on or off screen can take place without a character explaining what has happened , why someone is doing something and what motivates them . You'd think this was a production for the blind
This is a pity because being based on a book by Edgar Allen Poe there is a potential for a macabre drama and when the characters arrive at the trademarked spooky castle that only exist in these type of movies then it does concentrate on the bizarre memorably grotesque aspects of a Poe tale but by this stage you're halfway through the film and not really bothered anymore
BTW a number of people on this page and message board have complained how inappropriate the soundtrack is . If that's the case try and track down Michael Mann's THE KEEP , a film not only has an inappropriate soundtrack but visuals that look like they come from another film , kind of like LORD OF THE RINGS on acid
The above sounds like it plays out like the much remembered Hammer horror films but the crucial difference is TORTURE CHAMBER is a German production and this means if you're watching it in English then it's dubbed . This gives an unnatural character to the actors voices , but that's not so much the problem . The problem is that it sounds like the original German has been too literally translated in to English . Try this sample for instance " Oh we went over the root of a tree , lucky the driver didn't stop , highwaymen are common in the forest , that's why it's dangerous to be caught napping " Does that sound like natural dialogue ?
It also exposes another great weakness in the film - the exposition is over emphasised to the point where everything becomes quite ridiculous . You watch a film like Leslie Norman's DUNKIRK and the dialogue sounds like text from a history book but you're able to forgive that to an extent seeing perhaps that was the film's agenda . In a mere horror film like this one it's rather more difficult to be forgiving . Everything involving backstories such as Roger Mont Elise have to feel the need to state " I am Roger and I came here because.... " at every opportunity . Nothing that happens on or off screen can take place without a character explaining what has happened , why someone is doing something and what motivates them . You'd think this was a production for the blind
This is a pity because being based on a book by Edgar Allen Poe there is a potential for a macabre drama and when the characters arrive at the trademarked spooky castle that only exist in these type of movies then it does concentrate on the bizarre memorably grotesque aspects of a Poe tale but by this stage you're halfway through the film and not really bothered anymore
BTW a number of people on this page and message board have complained how inappropriate the soundtrack is . If that's the case try and track down Michael Mann's THE KEEP , a film not only has an inappropriate soundtrack but visuals that look like they come from another film , kind of like LORD OF THE RINGS on acid