The Torturer

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

Aspiring actress Ginette (amazingly hot Russian stunner Elena Bouryka) attends an audition with underground director Alex Scerba (Simone Corrente), who wastes no time in getting his lovely young performer to strip for him. While on stage (on all fours, in her undies), Ginette discovers an earring identical to one worn by her friend Marzia, who has been missing for several days. After a one-night stand with Alex, Ginette accompanies the luck S.O.B. on a visit to his studio where she meets his mother, who is barking mad; while there, she finds a second matching earring on the ground. Suspecting that Alex has something to do with Marzia's disappearance, Ginette breaks into the house after dark to investigate. Meanwhile, a gloved maniac is auditioning three sexy babes for a special one-night-only performance—as the stars of a snuff video!

The Torturer sees director Lamberto Bava cashing in on the success of gruelling gore-fests like Saw and Hostel, presenting 100 minutes of insanely hot women being stripped and mutilated at the hands of a sadistic maniac; before the opening credits have even finished, a whimpering victim has had her breast impaled on a hook and her leg roasted with a blowtorch, and the nastiness continues throughout, with other deviant delights on display including electrocution, flogging, and a nasty instance of nipple mutilation. It's exploitative, misogynistic trash devoid of artistic merit or anything resembling a decent plot, with characters who behave in an extremely illogical manner; but while no means a great film, it's far from Bava's worst (if you want to know the true meaning of torture, try a triple-bill of Devouring Waves, Graveyard Disturbance and The Ogre!). The director at least delivers what the title promises: lots and lots of mean-spirited violence. The fact that all of the victims are female, drop dead gorgeous and mostly naked is just the icing on the whole sleazy cake.

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.

Even though "The Torturer" certainly doesn't qualify as a great horror movie, I would still like to use this opportunity to state: Thank you for doing it again, Mr. Bava! Thank you for demonstrating to us that the Italian horror industry is not yet dead, despite the severe lack of genre outings during the past two decades. Thank you for showing that 'Grand Guignol' make-up effects still exist in Italy and - most of all - thank you for continuing to exploit popular horror themes. During the 70's and 80's, the Italian horror & cult industry became notorious because they gratuitously imitated films that were extremely popular overseas. The Italians blatantly copied the basic story ideas of these films and simply added a whole lot of extra gore and sleaze, which worked just fine for me as well as for many other fans of the genre. Lamberto Bava's "comeback" movie (nearly 15 years after "Body Puzzle") still thrives on the same principle. "The Torturer" cashes in on the contemporary hype of sadistic torture movies, like "Saw" and Eli Roth's "Hostel". The film somewhat neglects logic and story building and puts the emphasis on sadistic and shocking images of mutilation, sexual aggression and purely relentless agony. Bava's venture opens marvelously, with very cruel images of a scarcely dressed and tied-up girl being submitted to vile torture by an unidentifiable person whilst adrenalin-rushing music bursts through the speakers. The faint-hearted as well as people with a weak stomach will already have difficulties enduring this footage and the movie only just started. The actual plot is, understandably, quite skimpy and the events aren't very likely to happen in real life. The gorgeous young actress Ginette auditions for the lead role in the first long feature film of the controversial artist Alex Sherba and she's almost immediately submitted to a long series of harassing questions and indecent proposals. Alex quickly turns out to be a mentally unstable and potentially dangerous man, and when she finds an earring belonging to a missing friend of hers, Ginette even suspects that he might be a killer and starts her very own private investigation. Meanwhile, the torturing of other poor girls cheerfully continues in the dungeon of Alex' parental house. The plot is quite stupid, but it's praiseworthy how Bava tries to implement typical Giallo-elements (like the childhood traumas and the twisted ending) and several scenes DO contain a fair amount of good suspense. Unfortunately, it's a little slow in places and the grand finale is sadly too idiotic and embarrassing for words. Also, the wannabe actresses that end up gruesomely tortured are just a tad bit too naive and dumb to be believable. I don't care how desperately you want to make it in the movie-industry, if your audition is with a perverted guy whom you can't see, talks through a voice-adapter and demands you to assume awkward positions ... you just get the hell out of there. And if you stay, don't be surprised when you end up dead in a spiked chest. They are exceptionally beautiful and sexy, however, and they're definitely not the worst actresses I've ever seen. Especially leading lady Elena Bouryka is truly ravishing and if she stars in a couple of more films, she might even become a good actress.

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.