Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon

Not as much a horror movie as the (real cool) Magnum video case lets on, it can be pretty scary and disturbing. Kind of like Gilliam's Baron Munchausen crossed with Fellini Satyricon crossed with any movie where the inmates run the asylum. I'd say it had a pretty high budget and a large cast. I figured it would be some Al Adamson type of film in a cardboard dungeon. Well the atmosphere is great and the shots are cool and very European. Based on a Poe story so the concepts and dialogue are pretty memorable. There are really creative sets and props I never would expect to see. I wonder why more people have not heard of it?

The Mansion Of Madness is a Mexican production of an American story with a French location. It's based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story The Torture Garden Of Dr. Tarr and if not top rate at least it's interesting.

Mexican star Claudio Brook plays the infamous Dr. Tarr who is actually both a master criminal and has a personality that has stepped over the line. He led a revolt of inmates who have taken over the asylum from the real staff. As the asylum is deep in the Ardennes Forest in France the chances of visitors are slim to none. And when visitors do come they get the treatment that the visitors in this story get.

One thing you've got to love about these films is that it gives players a chance to overact outrageously and keep within character. The Mansion Of Madness has to be among the top ten films with overacting as the norm.

Watching this film also made me realize where the plot of a certain Star Trek episode in which Steve Ihnat played a Dr. Tarr like character who took over a futuristic prison came from.

I think fans of Edgar Allan Poe will like this production.

I kinda like this bizarre Mexican flick which was a mix of "Hearts of Darkness" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau". Anyone familiar with these types of movies made south of the border in the seventies know that coherent plots are not to be expected. Gaston LeBlanc has come to witness the revolutionary treatments of Dr. Maillard in his spacious sanitarium. When he is introduced to the Doctor and his lovely niece Eugenie he is taken on a tour which begin an array of odd encounters with the patients who seem to roam free. As Gaston beholds the increasingly eccentric methods of Maillard's "soothing system" he begins to question the mental stability of the doctor. Chicken Man would of had me running out the front door long ago but I guess that's just me. After one of the Doctor's religious ceremonies involving Eugenie almost comes to a murderous end if not for Gaston's intervention she is taken away for punishment which for what he's witness can be just about anything. Gaston saves Eugenie, whom he has fallen for, and she tells him that Maillard is actually an escaped convict named Fragonard who led a revolt by the inmates imprisoning the real Dr. Maillard and his staff. With Fragonard's system for controlling anyone he sets out for, what else, world domination!

I can see how "Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon" can turn people off. If you are expecting a gory exploitation/torture horror film you will be sadly disappointed. This is actually more of a comedy than anything as the sheer lunacy of some of the scenes inspire some serious laughs. Claudio Brook as Maillard/Fragonard is especially entertaining as his rantings and constant cackling convinced me that nobody is more crazy in this asylum than him. It does have some slow moments when the dialogue gets a little to wordy for me but the occasional pair of naked breasts made up for that. I don't know what director Juan Lopez Moctezuma's fascination with bird people was but he definitely had an ample amount in this movie. Not everyone's cup of tea but nonetheless a movie that kept me entertained for most of its 82 minute run time which is a lot more than I can say for most of the other titles in this "Chilling Classics" collection. Give it a shot.

"The Mansion of Madness" is a long forgotten surreal horror comedy from directer Juan Lopez Moctezuma. Most notorious for "Alucarda". "Mansion of Madness" contains a couple cast members from "El Topo" including cinematographer Rafiel Corkidi. The movie is loosely based on a short story from Edgar Allan Poe. The plot concerns a weird and deranged insane asylum where the patients take over and make up their own rules. Doctors out of the way! There's rooms full of crazy lunatics including people who act like chickens. Actor Claudio Brook is in charge of the madness. Fans of Jodorosky, Arrabal, Fellini and Ken Russel will definitely find this film enjoyable. It's also known as "Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon". Not to worry, there's more surreal art than torture in this flick. So why not check in, to the mansion of madness?

This is a 'quirky' (crap) seventies horror film that's eccentrically filmed (the director was on drugs) which idiosyncratic tendencies (penchant for goofy hippy shenanigans)but visually pleasing, in the aesthetic sense (please be drunk before you watch this one), the acting is almost academic in its execution (the actors are so wooden you can buy them from B&Q), the script titillating (like someone tugging your scrotum with a fish hook), and the pacing of the plot erratic (so bad I had to review this one 'live') see below: ...okay now someone's naked...and dancing...no wait she's not naked it's just so dark...why has that woman got a football strapped to her head?...is that a fish?...WHAT IS THIS RITUAL ABOUT?...no wait it's a knife...can't see a thing now...it's a law in the seventies to use xylophone soundtracks when someone has been drugged...?????????...right someone talking Poe again...sounds like that Arthur Pym one...it would help if I could see what's going on...now he's walking up a corridor he just dreamt...and I'm none the wiser as to what I'm meant to see here...'you have three shadows even though you refuse to believe me'...darkness again...that chick's covered in grapes....there's almost a story now...more 'zany' xlyophones...nothing of interest has happened for 20 mins...there's a lot of bare bums in this film...and a naked chick on a horse...wait a minute Peter Greenaway nicked this scene for Prospero's books!...now there's a band where a guy's playing a crab...and people dressed as crows...won't the torture end?