Ring of Terror (1962)

User Rating:

1.5/10   

Director:

Clark L. Paylow

Writers:

Lewis Simeon (writer)
G.J. Zinnerman (writer)

Release Date:

February 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A group of medical students undertake some silly and frightening endeavors in order to pledge a fraternity.

Plot Keywords:

Initiation | Fear Of The Dark | Autopsy | Fraternity | Medical Student

Cast

George E. Mather	...	Lewis B. Moffitt
Austin Green
Esther Furst	...	Betty Crawford
Norman Ollestad	...	Lew's Roommate (as Norman Ollstead)
Lomax Study	...	Professor Rayburn
Pamela Raymond	...	Alice Lund
Jerry Zinneman		(as Jerry Zin)
Joseph Conway	...	R.J. Dobson
June Smaney	...	Rag Doll Milford
Ed Erwin		(as Eddie Erwin)
Ann Morgan	...	Coed Waitress
Tom Brandt
Hal Hoover
Charles Martin
Ollie O'Toole	...	Dr. Walsh

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Playstar

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lewis has a bad dream, he awakes to see his roommate standing over the bed. As he discusses his dream, his pajama top repeatedly opens and closes as the camera angle changes.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Being from Another Planet (#5.5)" (1992)

It's not really anything!

As the end credits rolled to the execrable Ring Of Terror the first thing that occurred to me was that it had not succeeded to be any genre of movie at all, and I don't mean that in the good Donnie Darko way either.

The main problem is that it is essentially a Twilight Zone style set-up/payoff story but the film skirts so lightly over the setup (our main character has no fear) that the final pay-off seems utterly unconnected to anything. On top of that the payoff happens so swiftly that there's no dramatic tension at all.

The second problem is the tone. The movie starts off as a horror. Well, if you can class a campy actor looking for his cat (Puma!) in a graveyard while spouting nonsense actually horror. But once the opening credits have played the movie swiftly becomes a teen high school movie, so by the time the climax wrenches the viewer awkwardly back to horror we'd forgotten anything horrible was ever supposed to happen.

All of the other usual b-movie flaws are also evident - the bad acting, incredibly hittable 'comedy' characters, cheesy script. On top of that most of the college kids are played by really old actors. I'm not talking Danny and Sandy old here, these folks are literally in their forties with wrinkles and receding hairlines. It makes it very difficult to get into the story when they're so clearly not college kids.

In short don't think of watching this without the MST3K crew to help you along. It's easily one of the worst I've seen on MST3K.