Excellent but underrated film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

With a title like Torture Chamber I assumed this was a torture porn effort but it's something even worse.Torture Chamber tells the fragmented story of a horribly burnt child who his mother claims is pure evil. He has rounded up the other children from the burns unit and goes on a murder/torture spree with them.Trouble is it's all so very bad. Kids are simply not scary, apparently the child has powers but it's neither explained how or exactly what they are and the whole thing is just a bit of a mess.Production values are there alas the competent writing staff clearly weren't.The Good: I'll get back to you on that one The Bad: Dreadful sound balancing in places Messy storyline Bland cast Things I Learnt From This Movie: One line of the lords prayer will get a car started Kids are not and will never be good antagonists

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.

Its been said of director Quentin Tarantino that he devours past genres and films in whole, and regurgitates chunks of them into his own films. that is simply not true, as I tell you...on the QT, that Tarantino is only referencing the films he loved-many of which were none to great to begin with-and payimg tribute to them in his own films. His films are puzzle boxes full of references to titillate film enthusiasts and he has succeeded -in his own brilliance-to give us some of the greatest modern genre films of the past 20 years.Tomaselli's latest-Torture Chamber-is set apart from his previous 3 films , all of which were of a trilogy in themes and characters -again, very much like Argento with his Mothers trilogy (inclusive of Suspiria, Inferno and a recent one whose title Im at a loss to remember ), but certainly not purposeful as much as he had a story to tell of Catholic demoralization that could not be summed up in one film . Spoiler Alert!A clever touch has director Tomaselli killing off actor Danny Lopes-the young, charismatic star of his 3 previous films, be killed off in the beginning almost as a prologue and as matter of factly as Janet Leigh in Psycho. This was Dantes way of letting his many rabid fans know Torture Chamber will be unlike his first films as Lopes literally falls into an abyss and fades out of memory for the viewers so used to seeing him as Tomaselli's Avatar in his other works. After this neat prologue, of which Tomaselli also introduces into his bag of tricks a sensuality that was all but absent from his other films, the film grabs you and never lets you go.Tomaselli has presented us with a familiar gialo premise, complete with a detective, a murder mystery and a bluish color scheme that belies the term Gialo (meaning yellow) as it should be called Azzures. Yet, thats where the similarities end. The Sopranos' irrepressible Vincent Pastore (Pussy on that ingenious , lamented show)has one of his best roles in a long time in which he sheds his usual Italian American mannerisms. He adds a sardonic humor to a detective who almost doesn't believe what is going on around him. Its a nicely written role that adds a bit of humor to the bleakness engulfing it. Tomaselli uses the detective as both a commentary on and a reflection of the atrocious way the little boy, Jimmy is treated. Its the character of Jimmy that the audience is both repelled and compelled by. He is the most sympathetically hideous creation since the baby in Its Alive, so the audience is torn on what to think at every moment. He is a despicable little boy-deformed in a way you must watch to understand-and the setpieces with Jimmy go beyond extremes to the points that you sometimes have to divert your eyes from the screen. This abused young boy hides behind a mask -a mask unlike Meyers in Halloween that gave that killer a human quality, its a mask that itself can induce nightmares. Its an ancient artifact of what seems like a lost civilization as it masks the deeply disturbed young mans true motives. Jimmy is a complexly written character. We cannot associate with him as the cold blooded killer he is, and yet the director goes to lengths to add a layer of sympathy to him that belies our understanding. The director uses the viewer as a psychological voodoo doll, pinning and poking us at will to provoke our emotions in ways in which HE HIMSELF manipulates us. We are prodded to see only what the director makes us see all the while in the compositions he has made gives us much more information in the parameters of the scenes that on second viewing, when we are not as tricked as in the first, a whole world is created unlike any we have seen in recent films. tomaselli is a suggestive director, and while there is no outright nudity or sexuality on the screen, there is a subversive tingle of eroticism that permeates the scenes. He has dared take us into and S and M world of which we would normally resist, but, instead we succumb. Its director as seducer, and in a horror film such as this , feels so right. We are watching a film called Torture Chamber-knowing full well its not a Disney movie-yet we are Frozen in suspense.He is the old fashioned barker daring us to pay a buck to see whats behind the curtain -sometimes horrific visions such as The Elephant Man, other times hoaxes such as the Bearded Lady- and once we pay, it is up to us that what we have seen was worth the price of admission. In Torture Chambers case-it certainly was.Special mention must be made of the still bewitchingly beautiful Lynn Lowry. Tomaselli bathes her in the only light in the film - understandably so as this unique actress truly shines. Her character is the catalyst of the Mask that Jimmy wears and she captures the little nuances of the art teacher in details that only a skilled actress with years of experience can muster up. She is a setpiece all her own. She as in Rebecca DeMornays class of beauty and always added something to any film she was in-no matter how small the part. She doesn't disappoint in Torture Chamber in that respect. Nor does this amazing film disappoint its horror films. It has propelled Tomaselli into a different league of extraordinary independent gentlemen.

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.