Torture Chamber (2013)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

To begin with I will say that I have never written a movie review in my life but I made an account here just to warn others of the 'horrors' they are about to see - mind the pun.Upon reading the description for this film I thought it would be a great horror movie to watch. What I got was in fact a movie that was horrible to watch. From the terrible dialogue to the ridiculous title (for the movie).Also, I'm pretty sure I could get a group of my mates together and we could play out some scenes with better acting than the lot they hired for this film. With no acting experience at all. Dead set horrible.This movie was made in 2013 and I'm sure directors could have made a better horror film in the 70's. The special effects were off putting enough for me to turn it off but since I payed $5 to see this I thought I may as well watch it. I just wasted an hour and a half of my life watching this movie. I do not have a clue how this movie can have a rating of 4.1/10. I don't even know how it made it to DVD in the first place. To anyone wanting to watch this movie - Just don't it may sound tempting but it is really not worth an hour and a half of your life. All in all this is the worst movie I have ever seen in my life and anyone who says it is even half decent is more than likely involved in the production or is one of the actors in this movie.

Jesus , Mary and Joseph , help me!!! I have to write at least ten lines in my review but honestly , there is not much to say about this movie. Simply that it is one of the worst movies of the year and one of the worst things I've seen in my whole my life. Ever. It is not scary in any moment. Nothing at all. It is so ridiculous , that it's funny some moments , making me laugh a lot. At least this... This is the only reason I gave 1 out 10 stars. And for what should be a horror movie , this is really a bad one. The make up is terrible. The gore, weak. The acting very ,very poor. The script , awful. The plot, a shame. I couldn't help but watching this,skipping it. And even this way, it was a torture and a complete waste of time. I even slap my own face trying to wake up from this bad dream.But for my surprise and desolation , I was already awaken. This is what I call " torture porn". From the concepts to the execution , a evil thing. In a real bad sense of the word. Run away from it.

It is ironic that Torture Chamber contains the word I felt most in tune with while viewing – torture. The new horror film from writer/director Dante Tomaselli (Satan's Playground) was so bad it was torturous to watch through 93 minutes. The film opens with our introduction to 13-year-old Jimmy (Carmen LoPorto). For reasons to be explained later, Jimmy's first appearance on screen has him bound in an animal cage. His face appears burned and scared making his blue eyes all that more piercing and ominous. A Catholic priest is present but Jimmy is possessed by an extreme evil and his powers lead to his escape. Jimmy then recruits an army of children who follow his instruction on a murderous rampage on teachers, doctors….just about anyone who ever looked at Jimmy in his past. The victims are dragged to an abandoned hideout where they are tortured until death. The above synopsis may sound like a film full of fun, blood and satanic overtones, but Torture Chamber is handled so ineptly that you can't help but think that being a victim of Jimmy would be less painful than trying to squeeze any drip of entertainment value out of Tomaselli's effort. Most of the faults can be found in the screenplay and the unmotivated actors that were hired to play out Tomasell's script. None of the cast comes out smelling like roses but its Soprano's star Vincent Pastore who has the most egg on his face as Dr. Fiore. The actor says his lines as if he was acting in a high school play without the benefit of a rehearsal. Most of his dialogue sounded as if he was just winging it – forced and awkward. It's been a long time since I have been embarrassed for an actor involved with a paying project, but poor Pastore was in my prayers after screening. When it comes to the horror genre, you can sometimes mask bad acting, a bad script and any misdirection if you have the gore to help you overlook the faults. Not here. Torture Chamber's gore is ridiculously bad. Hardly any blood. Hardly any ingenuity when it comes to the ritual killings. Hardly any fun. All this makes Torture Chamber one of the worst films of the year. A zero out of five stars. That's not to say that we won't have interest to see Tomaselli's next effort, but this one needs to be put in a plastic bag with spray paint fumes and burned.

Dante Tomaselli is one of the most overlooked, and underrated horror directors that I know of. He has consistently put out great movies (Desecration, Horror and Satan's Playground) with barely a whisper from the mainstream. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. On one hand it keeps his maniacal genius to those chosen few lucky enough to find and appreciate his movies. I however, would like to see him strike it big. He deserves it. Not because multi-millions would change his ideas one iota, but because his vision would appeal to the masses. They just don't know it yet.His latest film, Torture Chamber, is just the latest in a line of fever dream films designed to scare us, disturb us, and make us think about the society that we live in. Jimmy (Carmen LoPorto) is a young burn victim who seems to have special powers. He also seems to have a mind and soul that come straight from the bowels of hell. So when he decides to get revenge on everyone who he feels has done him wrong, recruiting and brainwashing a group of other young burn victims to help him in his plan, it seems as if nothing will be able to stand in his way. Jimmy's older brother, a priest, has tried to exorcise him several times without success. And his mother (Tomaselli regular Christie Sanford), is overtly religious as well, trying to find help for her youngest son, even though she was blinded by him. As the bodies pile up, will anyone be able to stop Jimmy's reign of demonic terror? This is a movie that will leave you thinking. It will also immerse you in its intensity, and its atmosphere. It could almost qualify as a "drug movie". You know, Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Wizard Of Oz? That type of drug movie. It transports you. It takes you places. Almost all of his movies do this. There is not as much abstract horror imagery in this film as there is in "Horror" or "Desecration". But what it lacks in imagery, it makes up for in the music (oh, boy does it ever!). The music for the film was also done by Tomaselli, as is it should be. The director of a film should have the best ideas of how he or she wants the music to sound. The soundtrack here is intensely haunting. Voices and screams swirl and moan, and even take over for some of the dialog at points, transporting you into Jimmy's world. A world where hell lives on earth, and God is dead.Also of note for Tomaselli fans is a cameo by Danny Lopes, who has had either major or minor roles in all of Dante's films. Knowing that there are several cast members who have appeared in previous films by the director makes the film seem more welcoming in some way. It somehow feels like we know the actors personally, and wonder what kinds of hell that Tomaselli is going to be putting them through this time. Lynn Lowry (from George Romero's The Crazies) also has a small role as one of Jimmy's school teachers. It's nice to see her getting some good roles recently, as it seemed as if she were away too long.Torture Chamber has not been released yet. But it will be soon. Until then, you have Dante's other three films to digest, and I suggest that you do so at your earliest convenience. He is deserving of much, much more attention than he gets from movie goers. Give him and his new film a chance. I swear that you won't regret it. 9/10.