Review Torture Garden (1967)

[Doctor Omega]

Torture Garden is a 1967 British horror film made by Amicus Productions. It was directed by Freddie Francis and scripted by Robert Bloch. It stars Burgess Meredith, Jack Palance, Michael Ripper, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Maurice Denham, Ursula Howells, Michael Bryant and Barbara Ewing. The score was a collaboration between Hammer horror regulars James Bernard and Don Banks.

It is one of producer Milton Subotsky's trademark "portmanteau" films, an omnibus of short stories linked by a single narrative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a30370vviI4

 

[johnnybear]

Torture Garden was the second of Amicus's horror stories and the Jack Palance/Peter Cushing one about the man who collected Poe used to creep me out for years! The actors who never aged plus Balthazar the cat (apparently based on a story about a demon cat called Enoch) who ate human heads provided to it by it's human servant (Michael Bryant) were the stuff of nightmares!
JB

 

[Doctor Omega]

the Jack Palance/Peter Cushing one about the man who collected Poe used to creep me out for years!

Me too. I knew of Poe and this film made his life seem more demonic than ever.

I have read the MAN WHO COLLECTED POE short story since and the film is fairly accurate. The short story is clever in that it takes phrases and passages from Poe's own work and incorporates them into the narrative... "It was a dark dull and soundless day", etc.

I read the short story in this lovely collection that Peter Cushing did....

Hardback and paperback....