The Fear Chamber

Rating:
Summary: Very Minor Karloff Vehicle
Review: Boris Karloff plays Dr. Carl Mandel, a scientist who picks up on strange frequencies coming from within the Earth. Mandel ends up discovering living rock that lives underneath a volcano. However, when they bring the rock back to the lab, Mandel and his assistants also discover the living rock feeds off of the hormones produced by humans when they are afraid. Being dedicated scientists, Mandel and his assistants kidnap young girls to sacrifice to the living rock. There are some unintentionally hysterical moments in this film from Yerye Beirute as Roland.

"The Torture Chamber," known as "The Fear Chamber" and "La Camara del terror," is one of the four films Boris Karloff made more Mexican producer Luis Vergara. Because of his emphysema, all of Karloff's scenes for the four films were shot in Hollywood during a five-week period in 1968 before the crews returned to Mexico to complete the films. This film, directed by Jack Hill and Juan Ibanez, was released in 1971. While all of these films are pretty bad, this one is definitely the worst of the bunch. You would be better served tracking down one of Karloff's lesser-known horror films from the early part of his career like "The Ape" instead.

Rating:
Summary: Boris Karloff sacrifices young girls to feed living rock...
Review: Boris Karloff plays Dr. Carl Mandel, a scientist who picks up on strange frequencies coming from within the Earth. Mandel ends up discovering living rock that lives underneath a volcano. However, when they bring the rock back to the lab, Mandel and his assistants also discover the living rock feeds off of the hormones produced by humans when they are afraid. Being dedicated scientists, Mandel and his assistants kidnap young girls to sacrifice to the living rock. There are some unintentionally hysterical moments in this film from Yerye Beirute as Roland.

"The Torture Chamber," known as "The Fear Chamber" and "La Camara del terror," is one of the four films Boris Karloff made more Mexican producer Luis Vergara. Because of his emphysema, all of Karloff's scenes for the four films were shot in Hollywood during a five-week period in 1968 before the crews returned to Mexico to complete the films. This film, directed by Jack Hill and Juan Ibanez, was released in 1971. While all of these films are pretty bad, this one is definitely the worst of the bunch. You would be better served tracking down one of Karloff's lesser-known horror films from the early part of his career like "The Ape" instead.

Rating:
Summary: Very Minor Karloff Vehicle
Review: Dr. Carl Mantel (played by Boris Karloff), an American resident in Mexico, is the world's foremost geo-biologist. He has developed a theory that rock-based forms of life may have developed near the Earth's core and may have been displaced closer to the surface over time. After recording puzzling electronic emanations from a cave complex near an active volcano, Dr. Mantel dispatches his daughter, Corinne, and his research assistant, Mark, to investigate. Corinne and Mark discover what appears to be a rock formation imbued with interior life.

Several months later: Luisa Martinez, a woman lodging at the Beneficent Foundation for Young Girls, wakes up to find that her bed has been transported to an eerie underground region, full of snakes and spiders and leering maniacs. She attempts to flee, only to stumble upon a black magic ritual, during which the head of the coven sacrifices a girl to Satan. The coven leader is Dr. Mantel, and the other members of the group include Corinne, Mark, and Helga, another one of the doctor's assistants. Then Luisa is captured and brought to the altar. As the knife descends, she faints. . . .

And the Satanists strip off their robes to don surgical gowns! They quickly take the unconscious Luisa to an adjacent operating room, where they drain much of her blood. It seems the rock-thing requires certain human hormones to survive'hormones that are secreted only in a state of extreme terror. So Helga has created a psychodrama to induce fear, with victims chosen from the girls at the phony Beneficent Foundation.

Luisia is released the next morning, believing that her experiences in the Fear Chamber were simply part of a nightmare. But the rock-thing, which has been able to establish a partial electronic communication with Mantel's group, demands even more blood.

So another young woman, Sally Random, is selected as the next 'donor'. However, Sally is a thief who has come to the Foundation for larcenous purposes. One night, as she roams the Foundation, looking for items to steal, she blunders into the room where the rock-thing resides. The rock-thing extends a tentacle and attacks, draining her of all her blood.

As a result of this mishap, Dr. Mantel decides to terminate the experiment, but before he can do so, he suffers a mild stroke. While he is recovering, Corinne and Mark leave for a romantic excursion. Helga secretly continues to feed the rock-thing, first with an exotic dancer brought to the Foundation, then with a woman seized at random from a nearby road. Helga is assisted in these nefarious misdeeds by a hulking brute named Roland.

Eventually, Roland comes to believe that the rock-thing is communicating directly with his mind. He feeds Helga to the creature, then sets off in search of a supposed diamond treasure in the caverns near the volcano. Dr. Mantel realizes he has to eliminate the rock-thing somehow, and with some timely assistance from Corinne and Mark, he manages to regress the monster to its original state and then destroy it.

Fear Chamber is a Mexican horror title, one of the last efforts Boris Karloff worked on before he died. The production qualities are low, and the story verges on incoherence at times. Worth watching once'maybe.

Rating:
Summary: clap trap that turned into a masterpiece
Review: I saw this movie late at night when I was young and it thrilled me and tittillated me. Even though I was young, I knew that this was low budget and thought it a joke. Only years later did I realize the absolute treasure that it is. It fits into the genre of "So bad its good". I really recommened this movie for a late late Saturday night. Just as I viewed when I was young It has contrived gratuitous devises in it such as the stripper that is eaten by the monster that make this a unique and twisted thriller. 5 stars!