VividSimon Simply Perfect

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

moonspinner55 Richard Carlson, a sturdy, reliable B-list actor, acquits himself well with this melodramatic thriller involving a jazz pianist involved in the death of his revenge-seeking ex-girlfriend; he hopes to walk away from his dirty deeds, but soon finds the dead woman's spirit haunting him (during one supernatural visit, it's just her head that appears!). Island-set ghost story of blackmail and guilt makes up for its low-budget with some intriguing (and outrageous) ideas, also a great dilapidated lighthouse at the center of the action. Co-feature isn't particularly witty (and the blaring saxophone on the soundtrack is mildly irritating), but it's still a lot of low-brown fun. Producer Bert I. Gordon also directed, and had a hand in the script and the visual effects. **1/2 from ****

sol ***SPOILERS*** Just when things were starting to go great for jazz pianist Tom Stewart,Richard Carlson, all of a sudden an old flame of his pooped into Tom's life. The sexy voluptuous and always gets what she want's Vi Mason, Juli Reding. Vi had gotten the news from the local society page in the newspaper that her ex-boyfriend Tom is going to be hooked up or married to sweet and pretty Meg Hubbard,Lugene Sanders, and the hurt and feeling rejected Vi don't like that one bit! Sneaking onto the off shore island where the wedding between Tom & Meg is to take place Vi threatens to expos Tom's affair, even though at the time he wasn't even married, in the hot & steamy love letters he sent her and thus put a damper on the happy couples wedding ceremony.While having it out with Tom at the island's lighthouse Vi slips and fall through the railing to her death on the rocks below. Now free and able to marry Meg and pursue his career as a top flight jazz pianist Tom's conscious starts to take control of him. Not that he had anything to do with Vi's death, it was an accident, but what Tom seems to think it's Vi's ghost vindictive who's hunting him throughout the entire film! Not only that his fiancée Meg's kid sister Sandy, Susan Gordon, as well as the island caretaker the blind Mrs, Ellis, Lillian Adams, soon discover Tom's secret in Vi's disappearance, her body was never found,and that drives him psycho! And later when the boat captain who ferried Vi to the island Nick, Joe Turkel, start putting the squeeze on and blackmailing him Tom goes homicidal.It takes a while for Tom to realized that it's only him and no one else who's seeing things in the late Vi's head an hand as well as jewelry popping up all over the place and driving him nuts. But when little Sandy catches him murdering Nick at the lighthouse he really goes off the wall. ***SPOILERS*** Fearing life in prison or even worse the death penalty or gas chamber Tom decides to do little Sandy in, who in fact loves her future brother in law, the same way he did, or accidentally did, Vi in. fortunately for everyone involved, except Tom, things don't turn out the way Tom planned them to. By the time the film is over Tom is finally reunited with Vi, just as she had planned from the world beyond, for all eternity.

cshep Bert I. Gordon strikes again, or is that strikes out...What could have been a fairly entertaining spooky film, becomes a noisy over-bearing attempt at creepiness. Tom Stewart(Richard Carlson) a would be jazz musician and entertainer of multiple female relationships, is about to be blackmailed by Vi Mason(Juli Reding) of all places an abandoned lighthouse. When the railing gives way, and she is left hanging for her life, Tom gets cold feet, uh, cold hands and decides to let gravity take over, bye bye Vi...but only for awhile, as her ghost returns to haunt the guilt-ridden Tom. The sound is scratchy and grating. The dialog childish and goofy, which makes the movie more fun. Is this a terrible film, no, but it is disappointing. 2 stars out of 10, for Actors Richard Carlson,Susan Gordon, Joe Turkel,Gene Roth, as they try and make the film work, but Mr. BIG has already sealed that fate. Beware of the Floating Fake Head...silly...

Scarecrow-88 From director Bert I Gordon, I was surprised to find in TORMENTED a rather competently made little thriller about a troubled jazz pianist whose lover falls to her death from the top of a lighthouse accidentally..hanging for dear life from the lantern room's Astral bars, Vi calls for Tom Stewart to help, and yet he allows her to fall, crashing to the rocks below. Tom's actions were out of fear that she'll do as she threatened, informing his fiancé of their affair. This act will be quite a burden as Vi returns as a tormenting spirit, haunting him(..could it be his guilty conscience or was Vi so determined to have him, her vengeful spirit would rise from the watery depths to stake her claim at owning him?). Tom's life grows even more complicated when a blackmailer, Nick(Joe Turkel, most know him as Lloyd, the bartender in Kubrick's THE SHINING), who boated Vi to his location, wants compensation due to her never paying him for his services. When Tom makes a decision regarding Nick, his fiancé Meg's(Lugene Sanders) little sister, Sandy(Susan Gordon)catches him in the act only adding to an already difficult situation. The planned wedding could be in danger as Tom's pressures at concealing a secret slowly lead him down a dark path to no return..You know director Gordon is known as a schlock filmmaker, but I think this is one of those times where the story is told in a rather effective way, although his special effects featuring Vi, the ghost, might induce chuckles, such as when her disembodied head and hand appear to him, when her ghostly apparition often pops up unannounced at inopportune times, or a photo taken featuring her face along with Tom and Meg. Unlike other films, though, they aren't as corny(..or, at least I didn't think so, but you be the judge) and the story regarding a man's sins returning to him over and over, never letting go, due to his own mistakes, isn't a bad one. Bottom line..this kind of film has a concept that could work if the filmmakers had the kind of effects which exist today. But, Gordon didn't, so many will have a bit of fun at his expense. I actually liked the movie if just for the finale when a wedding service is actually interrupted by the slamming opening of the church doors accompanied by withering roses, leading up to a disturbing close as Tom contemplates murdering young Sandy because of seeing too much. The final image is a dandy, probably one of Gordon's most compelling closings to any film he's made..a wedding ring lost, and found, with a proclamation actually coming true. Understandably, movies like FOOD OF THE GODS & EARTH VS THE SPIDER would almost make any film look like a masterpiece, but still those didn't feature a story with some merit to it and Carlson is the anchor holding the dramatic elements together. Plus, Carlson's character is quite a noirish archetype..the kind of flawed victim of circumstances, most his own making, who, instead of coming clean to the woman he loves, continues to create a worsening situation for himself. By the end, he's quite scary, especially if you take into count his willingness to possibly throw Sandy from the top of the lighthouse..also his end is quite tragic, but Gordon allows the character to suffer for his bad decisions.