Cheap Torture Garden (Video) (Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith) (Freddie Francis) Price

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Customer Reviews of Torture Garden

A Carnival sideshow run by the Devil
Anyone acquainted with the famous novel by Octave Mirabeau entitled: "Torture Garden" concerning sadistic torture and lascivious encounters will be disappointed upon discovery that this film has nothing to do with the book. Instead we are given a dose of short stories centered around a carnival sideshow and for five pounds more you are taken to the back under the promise of an excellent private show to have your future told. Burgess Meredith is our host who gives visions of future events dominated by the "darkside" to a group of victims. All involve the usual seven deadly sins, especially "Greed". The most interesting story is the last one that concerns an eccentric Poe collector (played by the great Peter Cushing) and a more than curious acquisitor (Jack Palance). Eventually as more and more collectibles are revealed, Cushing is forced to reveal his top "posession" which is the living soul of E.A. Poe himself! All of the stories hint at the "author" and the real object of the presentations center around the question: "Are you willing to sell your soul for more information?" The fact that Meredith is really Satan is not a surprise at the end but the film is entertaining. This work moves a little slower than "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" (The train to hell with your host, the devil)and it lacks the "charm" of "From Beyond the Grave" (the antique shop of the devil, "Temptations" ltd.) Still, a carnival run by old scratch is an interesting idea!

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The sadistic sideshow
This was the second of seven horror anthologies from Amicus films. Their first anthology was Dr.Terrors house of horrors and it had been a surprise success. After a couple of dissappointing sci-fi films, Amicus decided to take another stab at a horror anthology and this film is the result. The framing story has a carnival worker who promises to reveal the future to a small group of people. The first story involves a cat that is inhabited by the spirit of a witch and it eats human heads (no, really). The second one shows hoe some Hollywood stars seem to go on forever and the third revolves around a jeolous piano. The fourth segment is definitely the best of the bunch. In this one Jack Palance finds out Peter Cushing has an Edgar Allan Poe collection that can't be touched. The film is a classic example of the acting being better than the stories. The last story is the only one that is better than average, but a fine cast help make it stronger than it could have been. Not one of the better Amicus anthologies, but certainly worth a look.