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Fear Chamber

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The infamous Mexican horror movies that ended Boris Karloff's career remain among his worst. Filmed in 1968 but released a few years after the veteran actor's death, "The Fear Chamber" is truly wretched cinema and painful to sit through. Regardless of the financial rewards, dear Boris should have stayed home and not subjected himself to this exploitation fodder.

It's pretty wild to think Boris Karloff had a career in film spanning nearly 60 years, even appearing in films after his demise in 1969, his last four films all being primarily Mexican productions, released in the states in the early 1970s. I haven't had a chance to see them all, but I did get to watch this one, titled The Fear Chamber (1968) aka La Cámara del terror aka The Torture Chamber, last night, and it was actually better than I thought it would be...co-directed by Jack Hill (Spider Baby) and Juan Ibáñez (House of Evil), the film features, as I mentioned, Boris Karloff, along with Julissa (Isle of the Snake People), Carlos East (Tintorera), and Isela Vega (The Mushroom Eater). Also appearing is Yerye Beirute (The Incredible Invasion) and the diminutive (in stature only) Santanón (Isle of the Snake People).

Karloff plays Dr. Carl Mandel, an elderly scientist consumed with the cosmic secrets that may be hidden beneath the Earth, so much so he sends his daughter Corinne (Julissa) and assistant Mark (East) to explore some caves near an active volcano. They find what appears to be a living rock containing `pure crystallized intelligence' (it actually looks like a reject from a Sid and Marty Krofft production), and bring it back to Mandel's laboratory/discothèque (okay, it's not really a disco, but it is groovy), and hook it up to a battery of computers, enabling them to communicate with their subterranean find. Turns out the rock creature has specific feeding requirements in that it needs fluids generated by humans during extreme states of terror, or what I call fear juice, so Mandel and his creepy associates have set up an employment foundation for young women, to where they lure them in, give them a place to stay, and then scare the beejesus out of them through extraordinary means (specifically an underground torture chamber mock up), extract their juices, and then convince them it was all a bad dream before sending them on their way. The system works pretty well, but the rock creature requires greater amounts of fear juice as it develops (at one point it grows a feeding tube/tentacle). Dr. Mandel, his daughter, and Mark become concerned and talk about ending the experiments (the rock monster seems to be holding back information), while Nurse Helga (Vega) and Roland (Beirute), the hulking man child assistant, scheme to keep the operation afloat. After Dr. Mandel takes ill, and Corinne and Mark take a vacation, Helga and Roland (the latter sporting a huge, Planet of the Apes lobotomy scar on the side of his head) continue on with the experiments, streamlining the operation by cutting out the middleman (the fear chamber), and giving the girls directly to the rock creature, who uses it tentacle to suck the juices from the women, leaving them old, decrepit, and dead. As Roland, who's become pals with the rock creature, dreams of great wealth (he thinks the rock creature will tell him how to find diamonds), Helga begins to understand the true nature of the beast, and its evil plans. Mark and Corrine receive some troubling news, and return to the institute, but it may be too late as the creature won't be denied...

This film feature one of the more bizarre stories I've seen in a while, featuring some pretty wicky wacky characters. Karloff, looking fairly old and understandably tired (I think he had emphysema at the time), plays a role he was certainly familiar with, that of the altruistic scientist sucked into doing questionable things in his efforts towards the overall betterment of mankind. Even though I've seen it a number of times in the past, I still never get tired of it, and he gave as good as he probably could, given his failing health. As far as the others, Isela Vega gives a strong turn as the sadistic nurse unwilling to let the reluctance of others stand in the way of her getting what she believes she deserves. And then there's Yerye Beirute, who just about stole the show as the oversized man child with lofty ambitions of becoming `king of the world'. His simplistic and often idiotic statements and demeanor provided quite a bit of unintentional humor, as did the revelation of his ultimate ambition. Throw in a cackling, bald-headed dwarf with a penchant for peeping (actually most of Mandel's assistants participated in this activity), some scantily clad females, and a lumpy, semi-sentient heaving, rocky mass of a monster and you've got yourself a real shindig...the whole faux `fear chamber' element of the story seemed a bit convoluted (Mandel and his associates would dress up as Satanists and perform phony baloney rituals), and quickly discarded after the initial sequence, making me wonder if it was really necessary. Also, there was a guy in a turban and John Lennon glasses running around who seemed to have no real purpose other than to be weird. The film did feature some lurid, sleazy qualities, but really not as much as I was expecting, but in retrospect, I suppose it's for the best out of respect for Mr. Karloff that one of his last features not be a skeevy skin flick. The production values were by no means great, but much better than I would have thought featuring some interesting sets. The jazzy, hep cat score was interesting (interesting meaning odd), but not unusual given the time the movie was made. The actual creature is shown in such a way that we never really get a clear, defined look at it, but rather quick, close up shots of something that looks much like a deformed, sickly, pulsating Mayor McCheese (from the McDonald stable of characters) with an appendage growing out of its head. It wasn't particularly scary, as it just sat in one place, making squonking noises, but whatever...in some respects, the film sort of reminded me of a previous Karloff movie titled Die, Monster, Die! (1965), featuring Nick Adams, particularly in the sense of a monster being present, but hardly ever actually shown it in its totality. All in all this isn't a terrible film, as it has its moments, but if you're looking for classic Karloff, there's a slew of other, little seen films currently available on DVD worth checking out first like The Ghoul (1933), The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936), The Man with Nine Lives (1940), The Devil Commands (1941), and The Body Snatcher (1945).

The picture quality on this Elite Entertainment DVD release, presented in widescreen (1.85:1) anamorphic, looks a little grainy, but otherwise comes across well enough. There are two options in terms of audio, one being Dolby Digital stereo, the other being Dolby Digital 5.1, both coming through fine. In terms of extras, included is a commentary track with writer/producer/director Jack Hill and a nearly six minute deleted sequence I like to call `Death of a Striptease Artist'...this was the only bit of nekkidness in the film, and most likely the reason it was removed. I'd suggest watching the film first, and then watching this scene, as you understand better where exactly it was excised from the film.

Cookieman108

Dr. Carl Mantel (played by Boris Karloff), an American resident in Mexico, is the worlds foremost geo-biologist. He has developed a theory that rock-based forms of life may have developed near the Earths core and may have been displaced closer to the surface over time. After recording puzzling electronic emanations from a cave complex near an active volcano, Dr. Mantel dispatches his daughter, Corinne, and his research assistant, Mark, to investigate. Corinne and Mark discover what appears to be a rock formation imbued with interior life.

Several months later: Luisa Martinez, a woman lodging at the Beneficent Foundation for Young Girls, wakes up to find that her bed has been transported to an eerie underground region, full of snakes and spiders and leering maniacs. She attempts to flee, only to stumble upon a black magic ritual, during which the head of the coven sacrifices a girl to Satan. The coven leader is Dr. Mantel, and the other members of the group include Corinne, Mark, and Helga, another one of the doctors assistants. Then Luisa is captured and brought to the altar. As the knife descends, she faints. . . .

And the Satanists strip off their robes to don surgical gowns! They quickly take the unconscious Luisa to an adjacent operating room, where they drain much of her blood. It seems the rock-thing requires certain human hormones to survivehormones that are secreted only in a state of extreme terror. So Helga has created a psychodrama to induce fear, with victims chosen from the girls at the phony Beneficent Foundation.

Luisia is released the next morning, believing that her experiences in the Fear Chamber were simply part of a nightmare. But the rock-thing, which has been able to establish a partial electronic communication with Mantels group, demands even more blood.

So another young woman, Sally Random, is selected as the next donor. However, Sally is a thief who has come to the Foundation for larcenous purposes. One night, as she roams the Foundation, looking for items to steal, she blunders into the room where the rock-thing resides. The rock-thing extends a tentacle and attacks, draining her of all her blood.

As a result of this mishap, Dr. Mantel decides to terminate the experiment, but before he can do so, he suffers a mild stroke. While he is recovering, Corinne and Mark leave for a romantic excursion. Helga secretly continues to feed the rock-thing, first with an exotic dancer brought to the Foundation, then with a woman seized at random from a nearby road. Helga is assisted in these nefarious misdeeds by a hulking brute named Roland.

Eventually, Roland comes to believe that the rock-thing is communicating directly with his mind. He feeds Helga to the creature, then sets off in search of a supposed diamond treasure in the caverns near the volcano. Dr. Mantel realizes he has to eliminate the rock-thing somehow, and with some timely assistance from Corinne and Mark, he manages to regress the monster to its original state and then destroy it.

Fear Chamber is a Mexican horror title, one of the last efforts Boris Karloff worked on before he died. The production qualities are low, and the story verges on incoherence at times. Worth watching oncemaybe.

A lot of people have expressed the wish that horror icon Boris Karloff could have ended his career with Peter Bogdanovich's Targets (1968). But Karloff, on his last leg, pushed himself through six more movies, four of which were the Mexican films for producer Jack Hill and director Juan Ibinez. This last six pack of films is, by consensus, godawful. Why did Karloff do it? According to his biographers, the actor said that he wanted to "die with his boots on." And he nearly did just that.

Karloff's final and bizarre six pack are indisputably awful within the accepted meaning of the word. Several of them, however, are downright bizarre products of their time, which now might be looked at as examples of naive surrealism. The films are: House of Evil (1968), Fear Chamber (1968), Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968), Cauldron of Blood (1970), Isle of the Snake People (1971), and Alien Terror (1971).

Fear Chamber ranks as one of the weirdest of the lot, and that is saying much. It begins with pseudo-torture of scantily clad women. The scene is soaked in garish sixties colors and a "bleepy" soundtrack. The various female victims are tormented by a goateed chap, wearing turban, sunglasses (in an underground cavern), white gloves, and black turtleneck. With "all the macabre horror of Edgar Allan Poe" these poor sixties chicks are subjected to hot coals and boiling cauldrons.

The scene shifts to the crevice of a volcano where two scientists are "worried about strange frequencies!" Psychotronic narration abounds. "I can't believe that there exists an underground form of life. If we find it we can electronically understand their messages!" one scientist tells the other (Julissa), who happens to be the daughter of Dr. Mantell (Karloff).

Karloff performs a subdued variation of his mad scientist archetype. His scenes were shot in L.A., by Hill (who also scripted--sort of), while Ibanez shot the remaining scenes (and actors) in Mexico. Karloff was wheelchair-bound at the time, so most of his scenes are staged behind an office desk or lying in bed. Dr. Mantell heads the expedition which discovers the mysterious life form at the center of the earth! "It's alive!" It's a rubbery rock of pure crystallized intelligence which, for the good of humanity, needs blood--but not just any blood! When Baron Boris von Frankenstein hooks the rock up to his giant office computer, he discovers that the alien rock desires the "pure" blood of frightened young women, enabling it to impart priceless information, mathematical formuli, and secrets of the universe!

So, naturally, Dr. Mantell's assistants, a dwarf (Santanon) and the scarred hunchback brute Roland (Yerye Beirute) go after buxom girls, clad only in their bras and panties. Their job is to put the babes in a state of fright. It's pretty easy to do when you have a created Fear Chamber of tarantulas, pools of bubbling blood, snakes, lizards, watery tentacles, hawks, skeletons, convenient cages, and shifting secret chambers at your disposal. The sets are beautifully cheesy, with a sixties computer room adorned with reel-to-reel tape machines (providing lots of cool noises), seemingly bathed in Christmas tree color wheel lights.

Karloff and his henchman put on a mock black mass act and scare the beejeez out of a girl. Once she passes out, Boris and gang trade their robes for hospital scrubs and do a quickie blood transfusion to the rock, who is now "happy to see them." The rock makes little dog whimpering noises as its being fed the red substance!

The only problem is the rock only makes empty promises, giving no real secrets. As Karloff's assistant says so poetically, "I don't trust that thing." Roland bonds with the rock. The rock bonds with the reel-to-reel computers. The Fear Chamber employees are a tad over zealous in procuring girls. The weird guy in the turban and gloves sneaks into girls' bed chambers, the dwarf laughs and vanishes, and Helga the S & M assistant (Isla Vega) has equal cravings for Roland and girls, girls, girls! All this adds up to disaster, in the form of the rock manufacturing a tentacle in order to grab girls and feed itself! Helga could care less. Those girls are just thieves and tramps! Poor Boris discovers a conscience, and practically keels over.

Roland and Helga join forces and keep the supply of bikini babes a comin'. Roland wants his rock friend to tell about the secrets of diamonds so he can be king of the world! But, Helga warns, "you big fat idiot, it's been lyin' to us! There are no diamonds. Its just been sending messages, messages, messages to more of its kind, more rocks below who want to take over the world!"

The flaming finale, incorporating stock footage of volcanoes, isn't exactly Dr. No or even Edgar G.Ulmer, but it's keeping in spirit with the rest of this mess of a film. The lack of linear narrative in Fear Chamber is actually a plus. One never walked into a 1970s chamber of horrors expecting a coherent experience. Of course, the acting, apart from the ever-professional (but hoarse) Karloff, is, needless to say, atrocious. Additionally, much of it is a lame excuse for late 60's softcore vignettes, and there's even a psychedelic rock and roll dance number with a Nancy Sinatra-esque "these boots are made for walkin'" babe in mini-skirt doing a strip tease. On that level, this flick is a hoot, and best enjoyed as part of a baffling drive-in double feature experience. I watched it with Mad Monster Party (1967) which, to me, made perfect sense given that both are essentially cartoons with Boris Karloff and cleavage.

Would this film retain an iota of interest without Boris' presence? Nah, but I'll take this "pure" Karloffian trash over the mediocre bourgeoisie trash that Hollywood spews out weekly. And I'll certainly take it over the indie horror scene trash, which is rendered irredeemable without the benefit of nostalgia for a genre icon.

Surprisingly, the film has been remastered on the Elite label and it looks and sounds quite good. It's available on Amazon and, even on a decent label, it's still cheaper than the snacks you just gotta have with it.

*my review originally appeared at 366 weird movies.

This isn't a formal review, as others here have said what needs to be said about this film, but be aware that Amazon has TWO listings for this title, both sporting the same reviews. THIS listing, for Fred Olan Ray's RETRO MEDIA release, does NOT contain the Jack Hill commentary. However, it DOES contain the "deleted scene" featured on the pricier Elite release--a smokin' hot striptease number--integrated back into the film, plus a hefty selection of trailers for Fred's breastacular films (as well as the trailer for this film) and the usual Fred & Miss Kim "Drive-In Antics" (and bloopers) involving silly repartee between Fred and his wife, a couple of hot dogs, and some bikini babes flashing their ta-tas out in the parking lot.