Fear Chamber

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Juan Ibanez and Jack Hill; Produced by Luis Enrique Vergara, for Azteca Films, released in America by Columbia Pictures. Screenplay by Luis Enrique Vergara and Jack Hill; Photography by Raul Dominguez and Austin McKinney; Edited by Felipe Marino; Music by Enrico Cabiati; Dialogue Director: Stillman Segar. Starring: Boris Karloff, Julissa, Isela Vega, Carlos East, Sandra Chavez and Eva Muller.

Silly sci-fi/horror exploitation film, integrating some of Karloff's last live-action footage into an incredible plot. Vega plays a fellow mad scientist who with big K is feeding a living volcanic rock blood from busty young women after scaring them in the title area. Oddly, Vega's famous frame is kept under wraps until her finale, being fed to the rock herself. Wide-angle lenses and flashy lighting effects do not hide the absence of development in the subplot of rocks from the center of the earth trying to learn to survive on the surface and take over.

When Karloff completed work on The Curse of the Crimson Altar for Tigon in the UK, many believed it would be his last film. He had spent some time in hospital during the shoot, and there were a few teary eyes when the shoot was finally over and he flew home. So imagine the surprise of everyone concerned when it turned out he was already contracted to appear in another four films! This group of Mexican horrors included such near-classics as The Fear Chamber, The Incredible Invasion, Isle of the Living Dead and House of Evil. These films were all shot in a matter of weeks, with Karloff's scenes shot in California, and the rest down in Mexico. He was obviously quite frail by this point. The majority of his sixties films featured him either in a wheelchair or at least sitting/ lying down for the majority of the time, and The Fear Chamber is no exception. Despite the obvious limitations however, he still puts in a great performance.

The Fear Chamber has one of the most ludicrous plots I have come across, which given the amount of "bad" films I've watched is really saying something. To summarize: a telepathic rock which feeds on the chemical produced by fear is kept alive by an ambitious scientist and his misfit band of assistants, including his insipid daughter and her heroic boyfriend, Mexico's answer to Tor Johnson, who from now on will be referred to as Lobo, a sex-maniac dwarf, a predatory lesbian with a predilection for torture, and some kind of turban-wearing hippy guru, reminiscent of a young George Harrison.

Now that sounds like a great basis for a movie, and it certainly starts off strong. Disguised as a refuge for women looking for work, the scientists force one after another into the Fear Chamber, which is what a bad acid trip in a ghost train must be like. It is full of cobwebs, snakes, skeletons and satanic rituals, and the women finally scream themselves into unconsciousness. The precious fear juice is then extracted in the lab and fed to the hungry rock. Carried back to their beds, they wake up believing it was all a bad dream. Meanwhile Lobo develops an obsession for diamonds and has some sort of telepathic link with the rock. He also sports a lobotomy scar, which leads you to suspect that the casting sessions for this film were held at the Mexican Insane Asylum.

Karloff's character sustains an injury early on in the film, conveniently (for him) leaving him bedridden until the final reel. This is unfortunate, as when he's off the screen the films dips low, and I mean really low. The assortment of unusual characters manage to entertain some of the time, but when the focus is on the burgeoning love story between Karloff's daughter and her boyfriend you feel yourself reaching for the fast forward button.

This film has been released on DVD before, but this is the version to pick up. Not only does it feature an excellent transfer and soundtrack, it also comes with a deleted scene (see a Mexican go-go dancer get savaged by a tentacled rock!) and an excellent commentary by the writer and director of the American half, Corman veteran Jack Hill.

So in a nutshell, this is a film worth purchasing as a)it stars Boris Karloff, who is worth watching in any old rubbish (which is just as well, as he never seemed particularly picky with his roles) b)It's cheap c)It's a fascinating insight into the world of low budget movie making and in case I forgot to mention it, d) It features half-naked Mexican women being tortured in the haunted house ride from hell.

Five days ago, House of Evil replaced The Invisible Menace as Boris Karloff's worst film. Today, House of Evil was just replaced by Fear Chamber(viewings of The Snake People and The Invisible Invasion are pending as of now, hoping they are a little better). The only halfway decent thing about Fear Chamber is Boris Karloff, he doesn't have a lot to work with but he still delivers with conviction and dignity which is more than the material deserved. The rest of the acting is atrocious, especially from Isela Vega and Yerye Beirute, the latter bringing unintentional humour to his part. The production values are amateurish, the photography really does look as though it was shot in a matter of days, the effects are slipshod and the sets look like the film was shot in a basement. The music is at best shrill, though a marginal improvement over the music for House of Evil, at least it isn't as annoying. The biggest failings are the script and story. The script often doesn't make sense and written and delivered in such a wooden, stilted way. The story is just as incoherent, laboriously paced and more uncomfortably weird than creepy or suspenseful(and there was me thinking The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Zombies was weird). All in all, love and have a lot of respect for Karloff but Fear Chamber was just awful. 1/10 Bethany Cox

The "Torture Zone" version of this film released by Rhino has between 10-15 minutes cut from the Mexican version. No significant scenes are missing (except for the original credits which have a live-action background); most of the cuts are trims to existing scenes. However, the English-language version does feature Karloff's own voice, which is a bonus.

One of those dreary Mexican productions that Boris Karloff made toward the end of his career, "The Fear Chamber"'s only attraction for the great but now aged and ailing star must have been the paycheck. The plot, already described elsewhere, is ludicrous, the set looks like somebody's basement, and the effects are cheap.

It's always worth seeing Karloff, but otherwise the only attraction is the supporting cast which includes various beautiful women, including Isele Vega (best known for "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"), who are called upon to add some sex to the mix. The lesbian scenes make no sense within the context of the story, but they may at least prevent you from fast-forwarding to the conclusion.