The Torturer

A distorted 'torture' video is shown to prospective actresses and the interviews take place in a theatre which looks like a multiplex with a circle(my favourite species of multiplex). The video is nearly monochrome with bright red blood. The cinematic story is interesting as are the actresses who make their characters credible. The reality of the story comes to light in the second half where the effects are far more realistic, and this main body of the film is done very well indeed, and even the rough sex does not look ugly. There are three prints to choose from: an Italian print classified 14, which I haven't seen so cannot say if it is cut, a South American print, and a Dutch Eurocult print which impressed me and which is definitely uncut. This isn't quite torture porn perfection like Martyrs and Pernicious, but it is a worthwhile contribution to the subgenre and is presented as a modern Gothic Giallo. This is another film which attracts a lot of unconstructive critiscism, mostly because of its violence. It isn't actually happening, guys.

Good old Lamberto Bava - he may not have the film-making talent of his father, but you can always count on him to come up with something sleazy and violent! That's exactly what he's done here, as although The Torturer is pretty crap really, it's graphic and violent enough to please fans of this sort of stuff (people like me, then). In true Italian style, The Torturer would appear to be Lamberto's way of cashing on the successful snuff-themed films of late, which includes the likes of Saw. It would seem that he didn't really have time to come up with a viable plot in his rush to rip these successful films off, and the result is a more than somewhat lacking thriller. The film focuses on a casting director, who gets beautiful but dumb as two short planks girls down to his studio for their auditions. The auditions he gives aren't exactly orthodox, although the girls don't seem to mind much until he starts to brutally torture them! We then focus on one slightly smarter girl who gets wind of what is going on.

The cinematography is glossy, but the film very much feels like it was made for television (except for all the blood and gore). This low quality feel goes on throughout the film, and while this same thing has often gone on to make several seventies films more of a blast; somehow the same just doesn't apply to most modern day films. The torture scenes are fairly good, however, and without doubt the most realistic thing about the film. Most of it feels fairly standard, but there is a sequence involving a nipple piercing that is bound to make some viewers squirm! Lamberto Bava seems to have an eye for the ladies, however, and the film isn't exactly short on buxom women for the slaughter! The actresses auditioned by the casting director are extremely nice to look at, and this bodes well with the ghoulish torture sequences! Most of the film is nothing to write home about (at all), but one thing that stood out for me was the music played while the torture is going on - Bava proves that heavy rock can sometimes be just right! Overall, I can't recommend this film really - but it's not too bad, and it's likely to entertain anyone with a will to track it down.

This is only the fourth effort from Bava Jr. that I've watched – not counting the co-directing credit on his father Mario's last film, THE VENUS OF ILLE (1978); the others were BLASTFIGHTER (1984), DEMONS (1985) and DELIRIUM (1987). I hadn't been impressed thus far, and this latter-day giallo with the current (regrettable) torture-porn mentality certainly didn't improve his lot – if anything, it further sank his chances of ever hoping to equal his old man's influential achievements!

Being shot on Digital, the film displays no style whatsoever and looks ugly into the bargain; as for the plot, it's strictly by-the-numbers fare and, therefore, wholly uninvolving. A handsome young man is revealed to have had a disturbed childhood – cue an excruciatingly annoying and recurring ditty – so that we're led to believe that he's the titular figure (especially since the victims are aspiring actresses who had just been auditioning for the would-be boy genius). Then comes the admittedly stunning heroine – who's really there to probe into the fate of a friend who's gone missing but, lo and behold, she instantly falls for the hero. Also involved is his domineering father-in-law/agent and mother (a Daria Nicolodi wannabe) who's all-too-obviously crackers.

Needless to say, Bava Jr. lazily opts to pile up, and linger on, the gore (and nudity) rather than – pardon the pun – pump new blood into the exceedingly tired situations. As I said, the revelation – of both the reason behind our hero's torments and the villain's identity – provides no surprise at all, nor the fact that the heroine is rescued (by her lover's mother, who suddenly regains her senses!) in the nick-of-time from a fate worse than death. For what it's worth, I have a bunch of other titles by Lamberto on hand – namely GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE (1987), UNTIL DEATH (1987), THE PRINCE OF TERROR (1988) and THE OGRE (1988) – which I may or may not get to in time for this Halloween challenge

The twenty-four year-old aspirant actress Ginette Cazonni (Elena Bouryka) goes to an audition with the underground director Alex Scerba (Simone Corrente) and they have one night stand. Ginette finds one earring identical to the one that belongs to her friend Marzia Foster that has been missing for three days on the stage and keeps it with her.

Alex invites Ginette to go to his studio and they go to an isolated house where she meets Alex's deranged mother and his stepfather and producer, but soon Ginette returns home. When she calls Marzia again, she learns that her friend had also gone to an audition with Alex and has never returned home. Ginette suspects that Alex might have abducted her friend and she decides to break in Alex's parental house to investigate and to find Marzia's fate. Meanwhile three other women go to the theater to have an audition with Alex and they are tortured. Will Ginette have the same destiny of the other women?

"The Torturer" is a trash combination of giallo with exploitation by Lamberto Bava with sexy women and torture. The stupid story shows female characters that are dumb sluts and the identity of the torturer is totally predictable. The Russian model Elena Bouryka is very hot and makes the film worthy with her sensuality and erotic scenes. The DVD released in Brazil does not have the original Italian audio and is awfully dubbed in English. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Tortura" ("The Torture")

The Torturer is an Italian rip-off, knock-off in the torture mainstream movies trend that Saw and Hostel begins. This time, Lamberto Bava (the son of the great Mario Bava and the maker of the amazing gore movie Demons) directs this movie about beautiful babes being tortured by a psycho snuff filmmaker. Thats all about the plot, and, who needs a plot in this kind of movies? nobody. The main problem with The Torturer is that its like a PG-13 movie. Not much blood or gore here, not a lot of nudity or sex. The girls are really beautiful, porn star-looking some of them and models others(the main babe is really beautiful) but this movie is too bland. And thats a shame because Italian cinema uses to make rip-offs with lots of gore and T & A. Not the case here, just an average movie, nothing memorable here.