Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is an exploitation film. It has a whole raft of things that would feed the prurient. We watch a torture show with no holds barred. Someone decided to throw the whole sink at the audience. I'm amazed that the content was able to be put into the mainstream. It is uncomfortable to watch and has little redeeming in its entirety.

Slave trader by day, sadistic theatre impresario by night, Sardu kidnaps a famous ballerina and forces her to dance in his latest production, bringing down the wrath of her superstar footballer boyfriend and a corrupt cop.Yes, it is that bonkers - and enjoyable too.The acting is mostly weak, but the lead performance is suitably camp. And the pace is good. Above all the humour - not a laugh a minute, but there are genuinely funny moments. Plus a rather good scene with a guillotine.I often find this type of film dull, but they got the right balance here. The gore was campy enough not to make me turn away, and while there was plenty of nudity and s&m the film didn't have a mean bone in its body. Apart from all the torture, murder and dismemberment.One oddity: the actor playing Sardu was murdered in the following year, which fits with the sordid atmosphere of New York in the '70s.

In New York's Soho district, the master of ceremonies Sardu runs the Theater of the Macabre, which specializes in acts where people are tortured and dismembered. The audiences dismiss it as fakery but the gore is real. Behind the scenes, Sardu and his dwarf assistant Ralphus torture and mutilate women for their own pleasure, as well as sell girls they have abducted into slavery. When the critic Creasy Silo contemptuously dismisses the show, Sardu has him abducted and tortured. At the same time, Sardu also abducts the ballerina Natasha Di Natalie and determines to break her will in order to make her agree to perform in his new show.What could be better than naked hot chicks getting tortured until they are dead as door nails in a movie directed like it's 1070s porn?Well that's exactly what you get here. Distributed by Troma these days. Originally shot under the title Sardu: Master of the Screaming Virgins, it was retitled The Incredible Torture Show during its original theatrical run.It's surprisingly well acted and done for the genre. The story line keeps your interest and frankly it's way better than any of the splatter films of today. Especially the ones like Hostile. In fact this is a great movie, for what it is.

'The Incredible Torture Show', retitled 'Bloodsucking Freaks' by Troma for its 1980s re-release, is a difficult film to rate. Technically, it is dreadful; amateurish filmmaking at its worst. It is also incredibly depraved and debases and insults women. But at the same time, there is a vein of black, black humour running through the amoral proceedings which makes the film entertaining in a very perverse sort of way.Master Sardu (Seamus O'Brien) runs a theatre which offers a grand guignol show to the unsuspecting public. What they do not realise is that the murders 'depicted' on stage are actually real. Sardu keeps a group of naked women imprisoned backstage; these female actors are promoted on the film's poster as the 'caged sexoids'. I would love to hear feminist author Camille Paglia's take on this film! Upon the film's theatrical release in 1976, it was picketed by the women's group Women Against Pornography (WAP), who were outraged at the movie's blatant sexism and misuse of females. Along with the humour, there is a very nasty misogynistic streak about this film. A case in point: at one stage Sardu is eating his dinner. Sounds fairly innocent, right? It is, except that his 'table' is the back of a naked woman upon her hands and knees. To add insult to injury, Sardu has a candle burning, and its hot wax is running directly onto the poor woman's bare flesh. Then he slaps her irritably and tells her to keep still! A date movie this most definitely is not.Niles McMaster appears as Tom Maverick, a professional footballer whose partner (Rita Montone), a ballet dancer, has been kidnapped by Sardu and his midget assistant Ralphus (Luis De Jesus, credited as Louie de Jesus). Sardu brainwashes her and forces her to dance in his twisted show. McMaster played Dominick 'Dom' Spages in Alfred Sole's underrated horror film 'Alice, Sweet Alice' AKA 'Communion' AKA 'Holy Terror', and Rita Montone appears as a hooker in the horrific 'Maniac'.Sardu is also involved in white slavery, and at one point transacts business with a white slave dealer played by Alphonso DeNoble (credited simply as Alphonso). Like Niles McMaster, DeNoble was also in 'Alice, Sweet Alice'; he played the sweaty, obese landlord who is graphically stabbed to death.'The Incredible Torture Show' is a notorious film - notorious for its graphic violence and relentless humiliation and torture of women. It deserves every bit of its notoriety. This film will offend and disgust, so proceed at your own risk. In one memorable scene, a disgraced doctor performs a little do-it-yourself brain surgery upon a hapless victim; this is just a taste of what to expect from this movie.Do not worry, though, because the evil Sardu does get his comeuppance in the final reel. Just when you thought the film could not get any worse, we are treated to the coup de grace: a filthy, naked woman biting ravenously into a 'sandwich' whose meat is Sardu's severed penis! Like I said, proceed at your own risk.