I am not very familiar with Lamberto Bava oeuvre, but after 'The Torturer' I don't know if I want to become familiar with it. Story, if there is any, revolves around young director whose work is in vein of grand guignol, and his new mistress - a wannabe actress. She shows up for an audition, but eventually they become lovers. In the background there is plot about mysterious torturer, who does couple of nasty things to some fine looking young woman. But it is really irrelevant, as the main point of the movie is to show some nudity and sex, and a little bit of torture. Movie is done in porno aesthetics - camera focuses on women's breasts and crotches (nothing hard core of course), and the viewer isn't spared camera angle from between one heroine's legs. Acting is completely lame, plot laughable, so it's hard to sit through it. Of course nudity and violence compensates a little the rest of the movie, but only a little bit. Nods to gialli (especially Argento's work) are completely redundant, as they don't add up to the story. Yet violence sometimes becomes very graphic and nasty. and actresses are really good looking. nothing really catchy in here, but one can give a look.
14 Reviews
A Trash Combination of Giallo with Exploitation by Lamberto Bava with Sexy Women and Torture
claudio_carvalho11 November 2012
The twenty-four year-old aspirant actress Ginette Cazonni (Elena Bouryka) goes to an audition with the underground director Alex Scerba (Simone Corrente) and they have one night stand. Ginette finds one earring identical to the one that belongs to her friend Marzia Foster that has been missing for three days on the stage and keeps it with her.
Alex invites Ginette to go to his studio and they go to an isolated house where she meets Alex's deranged mother and his stepfather and producer, but soon Ginette returns home. When she calls Marzia again, she learns that her friend had also gone to an audition with Alex and has never returned home. Ginette suspects that Alex might have abducted her friend and she decides to break in Alex's parental house to investigate and to find Marzia's fate. Meanwhile three other women go to the theater to have an audition with Alex and they are tortured. Will Ginette have the same destiny of the other women?
"The Torturer" is a trash combination of giallo with exploitation by Lamberto Bava with sexy women and torture. The stupid story shows female characters that are dumb sluts and the identity of the torturer is totally predictable. The Russian model Elena Bouryka is very hot and makes the film worthy with her sensuality and erotic scenes. The DVD released in Brazil does not have the original Italian audio and is awfully dubbed in English. My vote is five.
Title (Brazil): "A Tortura" ("The Torture")
Alex invites Ginette to go to his studio and they go to an isolated house where she meets Alex's deranged mother and his stepfather and producer, but soon Ginette returns home. When she calls Marzia again, she learns that her friend had also gone to an audition with Alex and has never returned home. Ginette suspects that Alex might have abducted her friend and she decides to break in Alex's parental house to investigate and to find Marzia's fate. Meanwhile three other women go to the theater to have an audition with Alex and they are tortured. Will Ginette have the same destiny of the other women?
"The Torturer" is a trash combination of giallo with exploitation by Lamberto Bava with sexy women and torture. The stupid story shows female characters that are dumb sluts and the identity of the torturer is totally predictable. The Russian model Elena Bouryka is very hot and makes the film worthy with her sensuality and erotic scenes. The DVD released in Brazil does not have the original Italian audio and is awfully dubbed in English. My vote is five.
Title (Brazil): "A Tortura" ("The Torture")
Nice women and violent torture...thanks Lamberto!
The_Void21 June 2007
Good old Lamberto Bava - he may not have the film-making talent of his father, but you can always count on him to come up with something sleazy and violent! That's exactly what he's done here, as although The Torturer is pretty crap really, it's graphic and violent enough to please fans of this sort of stuff (people like me, then). In true Italian style, The Torturer would appear to be Lamberto's way of cashing on the successful snuff-themed films of late, which includes the likes of Saw. It would seem that he didn't really have time to come up with a viable plot in his rush to rip these successful films off, and the result is a more than somewhat lacking thriller. The film focuses on a casting director, who gets beautiful but dumb as two short planks girls down to his studio for their auditions. The auditions he gives aren't exactly orthodox, although the girls don't seem to mind much until he starts to brutally torture them! We then focus on one slightly smarter girl who gets wind of what is going on.
The cinematography is glossy, but the film very much feels like it was made for television (except for all the blood and gore). This low quality feel goes on throughout the film, and while this same thing has often gone on to make several seventies films more of a blast; somehow the same just doesn't apply to most modern day films. The torture scenes are fairly good, however, and without doubt the most realistic thing about the film. Most of it feels fairly standard, but there is a sequence involving a nipple piercing that is bound to make some viewers squirm! Lamberto Bava seems to have an eye for the ladies, however, and the film isn't exactly short on buxom women for the slaughter! The actresses auditioned by the casting director are extremely nice to look at, and this bodes well with the ghoulish torture sequences! Most of the film is nothing to write home about (at all), but one thing that stood out for me was the music played while the torture is going on - Bava proves that heavy rock can sometimes be just right! Overall, I can't recommend this film really - but it's not too bad, and it's likely to entertain anyone with a will to track it down.
The cinematography is glossy, but the film very much feels like it was made for television (except for all the blood and gore). This low quality feel goes on throughout the film, and while this same thing has often gone on to make several seventies films more of a blast; somehow the same just doesn't apply to most modern day films. The torture scenes are fairly good, however, and without doubt the most realistic thing about the film. Most of it feels fairly standard, but there is a sequence involving a nipple piercing that is bound to make some viewers squirm! Lamberto Bava seems to have an eye for the ladies, however, and the film isn't exactly short on buxom women for the slaughter! The actresses auditioned by the casting director are extremely nice to look at, and this bodes well with the ghoulish torture sequences! Most of the film is nothing to write home about (at all), but one thing that stood out for me was the music played while the torture is going on - Bava proves that heavy rock can sometimes be just right! Overall, I can't recommend this film really - but it's not too bad, and it's likely to entertain anyone with a will to track it down.
Lamberto Bava returns with something cheap and nasty
Red-Barracuda26 October 2016
Like most of his Italian contemporaries Lamberto Bava's career as a feature film director more or less ran into the ground by the end of the 80's. The money in the Italian industry moved into the television environment and subsequently most of the film-makers who had worked in cinema started making stuff for the small screen. Bava was no different and seems to have operated in TV oblivion since those days. So it was good to see that he had stepped back into making cinematic output in 2005 with this film, The Torturer.
Having just seen it, it seems quite obvious that the level of production value available to Italian genre film-makers had dropped dramatically over the intervening years and consequently this comes across as a very cheap movie indeed. It follows the trend of the day in that it is a torture flick that revels in sadistic violence in a similar way to the American big hitters Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005). I don't particularly have any objection to this, nor do I mind that it is shamelessly derivative. Copycat movies can often be a lot of fun and sometimes more of the same is kind of what you want. What was an issue here though was the sheer cheapness of the production and the general resultant ropiness that comes along with this. The story-line is half-hearted to say the least and isn't really worth restating. The plot-line is really no more than an excuse to show half-naked women being tortured and terrorised. It sounds quite sleazy and it is really but its alleviated a lot by its general low quality presentation. The dubbing is atrocious, more like the level of a 70's chopsocky production that an Italian film, while there is more or less a complete absence of style not helped by the whole thing seeming to have been shot on digital video. So what we have is ultimately a pretty unpretentious and straightforward bit of horror trash. It's difficult to recommend this one too much on account of its significant deficiencies. It's not in the same league as Bava's better work clearly but it was still good to see him at least make a newer horror film even if it's a not very good one.
Having just seen it, it seems quite obvious that the level of production value available to Italian genre film-makers had dropped dramatically over the intervening years and consequently this comes across as a very cheap movie indeed. It follows the trend of the day in that it is a torture flick that revels in sadistic violence in a similar way to the American big hitters Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005). I don't particularly have any objection to this, nor do I mind that it is shamelessly derivative. Copycat movies can often be a lot of fun and sometimes more of the same is kind of what you want. What was an issue here though was the sheer cheapness of the production and the general resultant ropiness that comes along with this. The story-line is half-hearted to say the least and isn't really worth restating. The plot-line is really no more than an excuse to show half-naked women being tortured and terrorised. It sounds quite sleazy and it is really but its alleviated a lot by its general low quality presentation. The dubbing is atrocious, more like the level of a 70's chopsocky production that an Italian film, while there is more or less a complete absence of style not helped by the whole thing seeming to have been shot on digital video. So what we have is ultimately a pretty unpretentious and straightforward bit of horror trash. It's difficult to recommend this one too much on account of its significant deficiencies. It's not in the same league as Bava's better work clearly but it was still good to see him at least make a newer horror film even if it's a not very good one.
THE TORTURER (Lamberto Bava, 2005) *1/2
Bunuel197623 October 2008
This is only the fourth effort from Bava Jr. that I've watched not counting the co-directing credit on his father Mario's last film, THE VENUS OF ILLE (1978); the others were BLASTFIGHTER (1984), DEMONS (1985) and DELIRIUM (1987). I hadn't been impressed thus far, and this latter-day giallo with the current (regrettable) torture-porn mentality certainly didn't improve his lot if anything, it further sank his chances of ever hoping to equal his old man's influential achievements!
Being shot on Digital, the film displays no style whatsoever and looks ugly into the bargain; as for the plot, it's strictly by-the-numbers fare and, therefore, wholly uninvolving. A handsome young man is revealed to have had a disturbed childhood cue an excruciatingly annoying and recurring ditty so that we're led to believe that he's the titular figure (especially since the victims are aspiring actresses who had just been auditioning for the would-be boy genius). Then comes the admittedly stunning heroine who's really there to probe into the fate of a friend who's gone missing but, lo and behold, she instantly falls for the hero. Also involved is his domineering father-in-law/agent and mother (a Daria Nicolodi wannabe) who's all-too-obviously crackers.
Needless to say, Bava Jr. lazily opts to pile up, and linger on, the gore (and nudity) rather than pardon the pun pump new blood into the exceedingly tired situations. As I said, the revelation of both the reason behind our hero's torments and the villain's identity provides no surprise at all, nor the fact that the heroine is rescued (by her lover's mother, who suddenly regains her senses!) in the nick-of-time from a fate worse than death. For what it's worth, I have a bunch of other titles by Lamberto on hand namely GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE (1987), UNTIL DEATH (1987), THE PRINCE OF TERROR (1988) and THE OGRE (1988) which I may or may not get to in time for this Halloween challenge
Being shot on Digital, the film displays no style whatsoever and looks ugly into the bargain; as for the plot, it's strictly by-the-numbers fare and, therefore, wholly uninvolving. A handsome young man is revealed to have had a disturbed childhood cue an excruciatingly annoying and recurring ditty so that we're led to believe that he's the titular figure (especially since the victims are aspiring actresses who had just been auditioning for the would-be boy genius). Then comes the admittedly stunning heroine who's really there to probe into the fate of a friend who's gone missing but, lo and behold, she instantly falls for the hero. Also involved is his domineering father-in-law/agent and mother (a Daria Nicolodi wannabe) who's all-too-obviously crackers.
Needless to say, Bava Jr. lazily opts to pile up, and linger on, the gore (and nudity) rather than pardon the pun pump new blood into the exceedingly tired situations. As I said, the revelation of both the reason behind our hero's torments and the villain's identity provides no surprise at all, nor the fact that the heroine is rescued (by her lover's mother, who suddenly regains her senses!) in the nick-of-time from a fate worse than death. For what it's worth, I have a bunch of other titles by Lamberto on hand namely GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE (1987), UNTIL DEATH (1987), THE PRINCE OF TERROR (1988) and THE OGRE (1988) which I may or may not get to in time for this Halloween challenge
Sadistic director.
morrison-dylan-fan18 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
With the October Horror Challenge taking place on the IMDb Horror board,I decided to take a look at film maker Lamberto Bava's IMDb page,where I discovered that Bava had made a torturer horror which appears to have not come out on non-Italian DVD. Talking to a DVD seller,I was pleased to discover that he had recently tracked down the movie,which led to me getting ready to face the torture.
View on the film:
Stabbing the torturer horror set pieces,co-writer/(along with Diego Cestino/Luciano Martino/Dardano Sacchetti/Michele Massimo Tarantini & Andrea Valentini) director Lamberto Bava and cinematographer Ugo Menegatti drizzles the sequence in stylish silver which allow for the blood to burst across the screen.
Stepping out of the torture chamber,Bava clouds Ginette (played by a cute Elena Bouryka) in moody low-lighting,which thanks to shooting the film on grainy digital,gives the title an unexpectedly icy Gothic atmosphere.
Displaying a desire to stray away from the torture horror foundations,the writers attempt to give the film a Giallo bite in the search for the missing Foster,which sadly dries up due to the title having to go back to the gore. Whilst they are unable to torture the Giallo,the writers give the terror a sly satirical edge,as each of the actresses sees the gory acts as the demands of a "sadistic" director,as the torturer gets tortured.
View on the film:
Stabbing the torturer horror set pieces,co-writer/(along with Diego Cestino/Luciano Martino/Dardano Sacchetti/Michele Massimo Tarantini & Andrea Valentini) director Lamberto Bava and cinematographer Ugo Menegatti drizzles the sequence in stylish silver which allow for the blood to burst across the screen.
Stepping out of the torture chamber,Bava clouds Ginette (played by a cute Elena Bouryka) in moody low-lighting,which thanks to shooting the film on grainy digital,gives the title an unexpectedly icy Gothic atmosphere.
Displaying a desire to stray away from the torture horror foundations,the writers attempt to give the film a Giallo bite in the search for the missing Foster,which sadly dries up due to the title having to go back to the gore. Whilst they are unable to torture the Giallo,the writers give the terror a sly satirical edge,as each of the actresses sees the gory acts as the demands of a "sadistic" director,as the torturer gets tortured.
Beautiful and VERY dumb women deserve to be tortured. End of story.
Vomitron_G24 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
After 14 (!) years of hanging around quietly on TV-sets and directing things unknown to the masses, Lamberto Bava finally shows some signs of life again by returning to familiar horror-territory. Yay! Only... it's damn sad to see it's only an unimaginative twitch and a pathetic attempt to ride the successful wave of torture-horror à la SAW and HOSTEL and the recent outbreak of fake-snuff related horror-flicks.
Cinematographically speaking, Lamberto Bava sure tries to do his best with the very low budget this movie had. Seemingly shot on video, the movie shows us examples of original and even captivating framing (like the one shot were you see a dead girl's body laying in the mud on the foreground when Elena Bouryka is pulling electrical wires out of the ground in the background) and Bava also used a lot of contemporary editing-tricks to make it all look a bit more modern and slick. The lighting wasn't bad at all, really, but the few daylight scenes looked awful.
Now as far as the story goes: It's retarded. They might have gotten away with a "plot" like this during the 70's, but having to sit through something like this these days, simply is an insult. The women are all such stupid and dumb characters you just want to hit them in the head with a blunt object yourself and get it over with. They're just too dumb to realize what they are getting themselves into, while any person with at least the braincells of a frog would realize that they should get themselves out of the situation they have gotten themselves mixed up in. I really scratched my head numerous times.
The scriptwriters (including Bava) didn't even try on this one. They tried to disguise this torture-movie as some sort of Nu-Giallo movie, but they failed to insert any kind of red herring and you just know right away who's doing the killing. It can be only one person, really. And then there's this totally pointless and ridiculous sub-plot about 'traumatized mommy' babbling nonsense and a kiddies song with the lyrics "this door stays locked" (or something like that). It doesn't even lead to anything. And what about a hero who saves his girl, then walks by a female victim who's still alive and tied to a cross, simply ignores her, leaves her in pain, walks outside the building, closes the door, holds his girl and says "I'm glad it's all over now"??? I think "OMG" would be slightly appropriate... And what about the previous scene where our hero pulls his girl out of the water after she had drowned like 30 minutes ago... and then after 5 minutes of violin-music she opens her eyes again...??? Come on, please... I rolled my eyes on that one.
I have to admit Elena Bouryka is quite pleasing on the eyes as the leading lady... even for a skinny blonde bimbo, ehrr... I mean: Lady. And she can even act a bit... but only when she does NOT speak and looks scared or is investigating things. Seriously, her high-pitched, squeaky (dubbed, probably...?) voice had me convinced she was born in the wrong era. She should have been an actress back when they were still making silent movies... Well, yeah, I'm being a bit harsh on the lady probably. She's still young and I'd like to hear her talk once with her real voice (preferably with a sexy Italian accent), instead of this dubbed one. The dubbing was quite good in this film, actually. But really, it should be in this day and age.
So were the several gruesome and bloody make-up effects. Good and numerous enough to please any gore-hound or torture-fan. And that brings us to the only point this movie has to make: coming up with as many inventive ways to torture attractive women to death and try to get them all to take their clothes off in front of the camera. And that's all this movie is about. It's pretty sick, yes. It has a lot of beautiful women showing skin, yes. I even liked it for that. But it's a very bad film, children.
Cinematographically speaking, Lamberto Bava sure tries to do his best with the very low budget this movie had. Seemingly shot on video, the movie shows us examples of original and even captivating framing (like the one shot were you see a dead girl's body laying in the mud on the foreground when Elena Bouryka is pulling electrical wires out of the ground in the background) and Bava also used a lot of contemporary editing-tricks to make it all look a bit more modern and slick. The lighting wasn't bad at all, really, but the few daylight scenes looked awful.
Now as far as the story goes: It's retarded. They might have gotten away with a "plot" like this during the 70's, but having to sit through something like this these days, simply is an insult. The women are all such stupid and dumb characters you just want to hit them in the head with a blunt object yourself and get it over with. They're just too dumb to realize what they are getting themselves into, while any person with at least the braincells of a frog would realize that they should get themselves out of the situation they have gotten themselves mixed up in. I really scratched my head numerous times.
The scriptwriters (including Bava) didn't even try on this one. They tried to disguise this torture-movie as some sort of Nu-Giallo movie, but they failed to insert any kind of red herring and you just know right away who's doing the killing. It can be only one person, really. And then there's this totally pointless and ridiculous sub-plot about 'traumatized mommy' babbling nonsense and a kiddies song with the lyrics "this door stays locked" (or something like that). It doesn't even lead to anything. And what about a hero who saves his girl, then walks by a female victim who's still alive and tied to a cross, simply ignores her, leaves her in pain, walks outside the building, closes the door, holds his girl and says "I'm glad it's all over now"??? I think "OMG" would be slightly appropriate... And what about the previous scene where our hero pulls his girl out of the water after she had drowned like 30 minutes ago... and then after 5 minutes of violin-music she opens her eyes again...??? Come on, please... I rolled my eyes on that one.
I have to admit Elena Bouryka is quite pleasing on the eyes as the leading lady... even for a skinny blonde bimbo, ehrr... I mean: Lady. And she can even act a bit... but only when she does NOT speak and looks scared or is investigating things. Seriously, her high-pitched, squeaky (dubbed, probably...?) voice had me convinced she was born in the wrong era. She should have been an actress back when they were still making silent movies... Well, yeah, I'm being a bit harsh on the lady probably. She's still young and I'd like to hear her talk once with her real voice (preferably with a sexy Italian accent), instead of this dubbed one. The dubbing was quite good in this film, actually. But really, it should be in this day and age.
So were the several gruesome and bloody make-up effects. Good and numerous enough to please any gore-hound or torture-fan. And that brings us to the only point this movie has to make: coming up with as many inventive ways to torture attractive women to death and try to get them all to take their clothes off in front of the camera. And that's all this movie is about. It's pretty sick, yes. It has a lot of beautiful women showing skin, yes. I even liked it for that. But it's a very bad film, children.
Sleazy, exploitative torture nonsense from Lamberto Bava.
BA_Harrison5 October 2015
Aspiring actress Ginette (amazingly hot Russian stunner Elena Bouryka) attends an audition with underground director Alex Scerba (Simone Corrente), who wastes no time in getting his lovely young performer to strip for him. While on stage (on all fours, in her undies), Ginette discovers an earring identical to one worn by her friend Marzia, who has been missing for several days. After a one-night stand with Alex, Ginette accompanies the luck S.O.B. on a visit to his studio where she meets his mother, who is barking mad; while there, she finds a second matching earring on the ground. Suspecting that Alex has something to do with Marzia's disappearance, Ginette breaks into the house after dark to investigate. Meanwhile, a gloved maniac is auditioning three sexy babes for a special one-night-only performance—as the stars of a snuff video!
The Torturer sees director Lamberto Bava cashing in on the success of gruelling gore-fests like Saw and Hostel, presenting 100 minutes of insanely hot women being stripped and mutilated at the hands of a sadistic maniac; before the opening credits have even finished, a whimpering victim has had her breast impaled on a hook and her leg roasted with a blowtorch, and the nastiness continues throughout, with other deviant delights on display including electrocution, flogging, and a nasty instance of nipple mutilation. It's exploitative, misogynistic trash devoid of artistic merit or anything resembling a decent plot, with characters who behave in an extremely illogical manner; but while no means a great film, it's far from Bava's worst (if you want to know the true meaning of torture, try a triple-bill of Devouring Waves, Graveyard Disturbance and The Ogre!). The director at least delivers what the title promises: lots and lots of mean-spirited violence. The fact that all of the victims are female, drop dead gorgeous and mostly naked is just the icing on the whole sleazy cake.
The Torturer sees director Lamberto Bava cashing in on the success of gruelling gore-fests like Saw and Hostel, presenting 100 minutes of insanely hot women being stripped and mutilated at the hands of a sadistic maniac; before the opening credits have even finished, a whimpering victim has had her breast impaled on a hook and her leg roasted with a blowtorch, and the nastiness continues throughout, with other deviant delights on display including electrocution, flogging, and a nasty instance of nipple mutilation. It's exploitative, misogynistic trash devoid of artistic merit or anything resembling a decent plot, with characters who behave in an extremely illogical manner; but while no means a great film, it's far from Bava's worst (if you want to know the true meaning of torture, try a triple-bill of Devouring Waves, Graveyard Disturbance and The Ogre!). The director at least delivers what the title promises: lots and lots of mean-spirited violence. The fact that all of the victims are female, drop dead gorgeous and mostly naked is just the icing on the whole sleazy cake.
Pretty nice movie
Kanzaki_ken6 October 2021
You don't need to go to a Hostel to get tortured
Coventry23 May 2007
Even though "The Torturer" certainly doesn't qualify as a great horror movie, I would still like to use this opportunity to state: Thank you for doing it again, Mr. Bava! Thank you for demonstrating to us that the Italian horror industry is not yet dead, despite the severe lack of genre outings during the past two decades. Thank you for showing that 'Grand Guignol' make-up effects still exist in Italy and - most of all - thank you for continuing to exploit popular horror themes. During the 70's and 80's, the Italian horror & cult industry became notorious because they gratuitously imitated films that were extremely popular overseas. The Italians blatantly copied the basic story ideas of these films and simply added a whole lot of extra gore and sleaze, which worked just fine for me as well as for many other fans of the genre. Lamberto Bava's "comeback" movie (nearly 15 years after "Body Puzzle") still thrives on the same principle. "The Torturer" cashes in on the contemporary hype of sadistic torture movies, like "Saw" and Eli Roth's "Hostel". The film somewhat neglects logic and story building and puts the emphasis on sadistic and shocking images of mutilation, sexual aggression and purely relentless agony. Bava's venture opens marvelously, with very cruel images of a scarcely dressed and tied-up girl being submitted to vile torture by an unidentifiable person whilst adrenalin-rushing music bursts through the speakers. The faint-hearted as well as people with a weak stomach will already have difficulties enduring this footage and the movie only just started. The actual plot is, understandably, quite skimpy and the events aren't very likely to happen in real life. The gorgeous young actress Ginette auditions for the lead role in the first long feature film of the controversial artist Alex Sherba and she's almost immediately submitted to a long series of harassing questions and indecent proposals. Alex quickly turns out to be a mentally unstable and potentially dangerous man, and when she finds an earring belonging to a missing friend of hers, Ginette even suspects that he might be a killer and starts her very own private investigation. Meanwhile, the torturing of other poor girls cheerfully continues in the dungeon of Alex' parental house. The plot is quite stupid, but it's praiseworthy how Bava tries to implement typical Giallo-elements (like the childhood traumas and the twisted ending) and several scenes DO contain a fair amount of good suspense. Unfortunately, it's a little slow in places and the grand finale is sadly too idiotic and embarrassing for words. Also, the wannabe actresses that end up gruesomely tortured are just a tad bit too naive and dumb to be believable. I don't care how desperately you want to make it in the movie-industry, if your audition is with a perverted guy whom you can't see, talks through a voice-adapter and demands you to assume awkward positions ... you just get the hell out of there. And if you stay, don't be surprised when you end up dead in a spiked chest. They are exceptionally beautiful and sexy, however, and they're definitely not the worst actresses I've ever seen. Especially leading lady Elena Bouryka is truly ravishing and if she stars in a couple of more films, she might even become a good actress.
Lamberto and the boys in the band do a good job
renezelwe1 June 2016
A distorted 'torture' video is shown to prospective actresses and the interviews take place in a theatre which looks like a multiplex with a circle(my favourite species of multiplex). The video is nearly monochrome with bright red blood. The cinematic story is interesting as are the actresses who make their characters credible. The reality of the story comes to light in the second half where the effects are far more realistic, and this main body of the film is done very well indeed, and even the rough sex does not look ugly. There are three prints to choose from: an Italian print classified 14, which I haven't seen so cannot say if it is cut, a South American print, and a Dutch Eurocult print which impressed me and which is definitely uncut. This isn't quite torture porn perfection like Martyrs and Pernicious, but it is a worthwhile contribution to the subgenre and is presented as a modern Gothic Giallo. This is another film which attracts a lot of unconstructive critiscism, mostly because of its violence. It isn't actually happening, guys.
pretty bland exploitation...
ultra_tippergore19 October 2010
The Torturer is an Italian rip-off, knock-off in the torture mainstream movies trend that Saw and Hostel begins. This time, Lamberto Bava (the son of the great Mario Bava and the maker of the amazing gore movie Demons) directs this movie about beautiful babes being tortured by a psycho snuff filmmaker. Thats all about the plot, and, who needs a plot in this kind of movies? nobody. The main problem with The Torturer is that its like a PG-13 movie. Not much blood or gore here, not a lot of nudity or sex. The girls are really beautiful, porn star-looking some of them and models others(the main babe is really beautiful) but this movie is too bland. And thats a shame because Italian cinema uses to make rip-offs with lots of gore and T & A. Not the case here, just an average movie, nothing memorable here.
Lamberto Bava aims at Saw and Hostel. And Misses.
spetersen-79-96204426 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
My favorite director of all time is Mario Bava. As such, I have a guilty admiration for the movies of his less-talented son, Lamberto. Lamberto has a pretty leaden eye when it comes to film-making, and really he has only a couple of quality films on his resume.
The Torturer is his attempt to make a torture-horror type movie, and he does so in a pretty straightforward fashion. An insane villain tricks women into coming to his deserted studio for "acting tryouts" and then he gets them to climb inside scary boxes and such, and then he tortures them to death.
The torture is a little gory, but it's actually less impressive than the kind of stuff we used to see in the 60s, with films such as the Coffin Joe series. The cheesecake isn't bad (if there's one thing Italian films do right, it's having attractive women), but you don't really see anything X-rated. And not enough of the R-rated, if you're a fan.
The plot does manage to thicken a little in the last 20 minutes of the film, and some interesting action takes place. Bava, presumably to save money, set most of the film in one single set which looks suspiciously like a normal movie studio. Bava almost always makes one horrible misstep somewhere in each of his movies. In this one, it is the conceit that the demented killer stays hidden from view for most of the movie - he's just a voice over a speaker. And there is no reason for this - his identity is not a secret - he's just a madman. But it removes any chance for the characters to interact.
The Italian cinema has decayed mightily since its glory days in the 1970s. I respect Bava for trying to bring it back even with this no-budget exploitation trash. So for that reason, if no other, I recommend the movie.
The Torturer is his attempt to make a torture-horror type movie, and he does so in a pretty straightforward fashion. An insane villain tricks women into coming to his deserted studio for "acting tryouts" and then he gets them to climb inside scary boxes and such, and then he tortures them to death.
The torture is a little gory, but it's actually less impressive than the kind of stuff we used to see in the 60s, with films such as the Coffin Joe series. The cheesecake isn't bad (if there's one thing Italian films do right, it's having attractive women), but you don't really see anything X-rated. And not enough of the R-rated, if you're a fan.
The plot does manage to thicken a little in the last 20 minutes of the film, and some interesting action takes place. Bava, presumably to save money, set most of the film in one single set which looks suspiciously like a normal movie studio. Bava almost always makes one horrible misstep somewhere in each of his movies. In this one, it is the conceit that the demented killer stays hidden from view for most of the movie - he's just a voice over a speaker. And there is no reason for this - his identity is not a secret - he's just a madman. But it removes any chance for the characters to interact.
The Italian cinema has decayed mightily since its glory days in the 1970s. I respect Bava for trying to bring it back even with this no-budget exploitation trash. So for that reason, if no other, I recommend the movie.
At least the title fits...
valairke22 June 2008
Really, the only positive thing I can tell you about the entire torturing movie is that the name definitely fits perfectly. The movie being the torturer and anyone watching it being the tortured. Plot, the lighting, camera-work, acting, everything... just utter crap. I guess you could call it original seeing as it's the only movie that was bad enough to make me not want to turn it off (which I don't often do I might add) but keep watching for laughs at it's creators. This also is the only movie that has actually managed to make me want to register and write a comment here about it, especially after reading some semi-positive replies about it.
This movie was rock bottom, and watching it might cause brain damage.
Watch at your own risk.
This movie was rock bottom, and watching it might cause brain damage.
Watch at your own risk.
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