Torture Garden

Torture Garden (1967)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Freddie Francis

Starring: Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Maurice Denham

From: Amicus

A few years ago I randomly purchased the Mill Creek Blu-ray set Psycho Circus, which had this film, The Brotherhood of Satan and The Creeping Flesh; the main reason was its low cost... and currently, it can be purchased dirt cheap from Amazon. As I am me, it was only last night that I finally watched the disc; as it is Mill Creek, it was a budget release where the picture and sound are not spectacular, and all three movies are on one disc. The only things that these three have in common is genre and Sony owning the rights to them in the United States.

This being an Amicus anthology directed by Freddie Francis and written by Robert Bloch piqued my interest; so did a cast comprised of the likes of Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, and Peter Cushing. I discovered this was an interesting anthology which had more complex stories than you'd expect and a wraparound story that featured the likes of a sideshow run at a fairgrounds hosted by Dr. Diabolo (Meredith) and the shears of Atropos, a Greek goddess that cut through the strands of time. If that wasn't odd enough, another figure from Greek mythology shows up in the segment that has the most outlandish premise.


All the stories are interesting-not to mention chilling-with their various twists and turns, no matter how improbable they may get. They are all ghoulishly delightful and contain such things as satirical barbs against Hollywood & its stars and one tale is a love letter to Edgar Allan Poe. The other stories involve a greedy man's attempt to get an inheritance and a woman falling in love with a famous concert pianist.The movie was filmed well in lavish locations and whether or not I recognized the cast, all were at least fine. For those that love these old anthologies... however, I do have to give the warning that if you do purchase this Blu-ray in the future, do NOT read the plot synopsis on the back of the case: this is because it literally gives away the entire plot!