Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

InjunNose Not quite as successful as "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors", Amicus's previous anthological outing, "Torture Garden" nonetheless boasts its share of chills in four stories penned by Robert Bloch and enacted by a first-rate cast. The wraparound story introduces us to Dr. Diabolo (Burgess Meredith), an oddly but immaculately dressed barker at a carnival spook show...who will, for an additional fee, reveal the future to his customers. Not surprisingly, terrifying things are in store for every one of them! (The twist here is that they're all rather nasty people to begin with, and what Meredith shows them are the consequences of the bad decisions they will soon be making.) The big finish, 'The Man Who Collected Poe', is assigned to Jack Palance and Peter Cushing, but the best tale is the least traditional of the four: 'Terror Over Hollywood' remains startlingly relevant today, examining as it does the ugly soullessness of celebrity. Bloch didn't need to rely on any monster or haunted house gimmick to make this story disturbing; all that was necessary was to exaggerate reality to the slightest degree. Lots of British horror royalty on hand here: in addition to Cushing, the film features veteran performers like Michael Ripper and Niall MacGinnis, and Freddie Francis occupies the director's chair. I'm a big fan of "Torture Garden", despite the fact that it's generally considered to be one of Amicus's weaker fright films.

GL84 Entering a carnival attraction, five customers enter and have a carnival barker reveal their futures, hoping it will help them mend their ways.The Good Stor(ies): Enoch-Summoned out to meet him, a man finds his nearly-dead father hoarding cash, but before he reveals the location, passes on. Spending the night before the funeral, he searches the house systematically for the treasure, eventually finding it in the basement guarded by a devilish cat intent on seeing how far he will go to earn it. This was a highly enjoyable tale that really works. The Gothic atmosphere in the basement, with it's dirt-covered surroundings, coffin and the design of the rooms, are all fantastic and the interplay with the cat is fun. It's the greatest part, as the torture is fun and unnerving, with the final resolution to it all quite chilling. The murders are relatively bloodless, except for the last aftermath shot, but are rather brutal in execution and overall it's quite enjoyable.The Man Who Collected Poe-Meeting at an auction, two friends find a shared bond over a love of Edgar Allen Poe's work. Taking up an invitation to visit his house, he shows him his collection of Poe memorabilia, including many rare and hard-to-find pieces. When he's shown completely new and unknown works, he questions where they came from and finds an answer he wasn't expecting at all. This was a great way to end it all, with a strong showing that works well in here. The love affair is really shown through, with the basement scenes being absolutely prime material. Despite feeling entirely creepy on it's own, there's a big feeling to it that comes from how the artifacts are displayed out, and it's just a strong segment. The ending is Gothic horror at it's best, with the dusty bookshelves, littered surroundings, candle-lit passageways and the creepy realization of what's going on, ending in a climatic blaze with an absolute blast of a twist. This is a rather fantastic segment.The Bad Stor(ies): Terror Over Hollywood-Struggling to break into the movies, an actress and her roommate try to further her acting career with an important dinner. Accidentally ruining her chances, she goes out on the dinner instead and is offered the role, only for the original leading man to wind up murdered. When he returns to the film without a scratch on him, she discovers the real reason why stars never seem to age. There's really only a few moments of horror, all of which are contained at the end with the revelation about what's going on. Once they return to the set, it's all quite good, but unfortunately, what happens before is utter boredom brought about by the dullness of the rest of the segment showcases to set up it's twist. This has been done better in other segments, and is easily skip-able.Mr. Steinway-Arriving at his house, a woman finds that a reclusive piano prodigy is just as smitten with him as he is with her, despite his reluctance to spend time together. Rubbing off the feelings, they continue to see each other only to keep getting the feeling that something is wrong. Blaming it on the piano, she refuses to believe it until it starts to prove his stories true. There's again very little to like here, most of which is based around the final piano attack, which here is really incredible and well-done. The rest of the segment, though, is merely too short to mean anything or done in a haphazard way. The central idea is laughable and consists merely to find ways of getting the piano lid to slam loudly, which is all the segment has. Easily skip-able.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence.

Scott LeBrun "Torture Garden" is, overall, a fun if unexceptional horror anthology from Amicus, a company that specialized in that sort of thing for a number of years. With a screenplay written by Robert Bloch of "Psycho" fame, and efficient direction by Freddie Francis, it's unfortunately a little uneven. It's divided into four segments, and segments two and three aren't quite as punchy, and more amusing than anything; segment one, which is rather leisurely paced, would have been better off as the third in the movie.The ever wonderful Burgess Meredith is a sort of host for the proceedings, playing a sideshow personality named Dr. Diabolo, who takes various customers into his "torture garden" and places them in front of an exhibit that can foretell their futures, and see the darkness buried within each of them."Enoch" stars Michael Bryant as Colin, a man in need of money who thinks he'll get it from his dying uncle (Maurice Denham). After accidentally causing the old man's death, he discovers what kinds of secrets his uncle had been keeping, and they revolve around a spooky "cat" that will develop a powerful hold on him. This is interesting and atmospheric stuff, with a great denouement and enjoyable shock moments.In "Terror Over Hollywood", cunning and ambitious young actress Carla (Beverly Adams) manages to make the acquaintance of some power players in the business, including veteran star & producer Bruce Benton (Robert Hutton). She soon finds out that there's a reason why Benton and company are able to maintain a facade of youth. This leads to a real hoot of a revelation, which gives this episode its element of "horror"."Mr. Steinway" is definitely something different: the only story this viewer has seen that can claim to be a love triangle between a journalist, Dorothy (Barbara Ewing), a star pianist, Leo (John Standing), and Leo's piano. Yup, a musical instrument. This is rather cheesy stuff, and entertaining, but hardly scary.Peter Cushing and Jack Palance star in "The Man Who Collected Poe", about two men obsessed with the legendary author. Ronald Wyatt (Palance) is determined to find out everything that he can about just what kinds of things Lancelot Canning (Cushing) is hoarding. As it turns out, Lancelot truly has the treasure to beat them all. At least we can say that this movie ends with the best story of the bunch.Taken as a whole, the movie is enjoyable for horror fans, although it is somewhat plodding and has its ups and downs. The top notch cast makes it a worthy viewing; John Phillips, Michael Ripper, Bernard Kay, David Bauer, Niall MacGinnis, Hedger Wallace, Clytie Jessop, and Timothy Bateson also appear. It's also noteworthy for having American stars (Palance and Meredith) be top billed. It's not the best of the Amicus anthologies, but it's not bad at all either.Seven out of 10.

The_Movie_Cat One of eight horror portmanteau films that Amicus made over a fifteen year period. None of them are anywhere near the class or quality of Ealing's Dead Of Night, but they all manage to charm greatly.The truth of the matter is that they're all a little campy nowadays, often in ways that wasn't originally intended. Sure, 1973's Vault Of Horror with its voodoo artists and vampire cafés was bordering on spoof, but the perversely-named Torture Garden is quite a serious work at heart.The question is, over forty years later, how seriously can you take telepathic psychotic cats, haunted killer pianos, android actors and "the shears of fate"? The best elements of the film are Burgess Meredith's musings on the nature of time and the final segment with Palance and Cushing as obsessive Poe collectors. In all, not something you'd watch to be genuinely scared, but something you'd watch with a friend and a glass of wine to enjoy in an affectionate way... a film very much of its time.