Tormented / Revolt Of The Zombies (DVD)

.../> '''Tormented'''

Tormented is the film that makes buying this DVD worthwhile. It tells the story of Tom a jazz pianist (and lighthouse keeper?) who lives on a small island off America. It hosts a small happy population and Tom is engaged. However, one night an old girlfriend of Tom's, Vi, turns up. She still loves him and doesn't want him to get married. When he doesn't show any interest she blackmails him with letters of his she ...
...this film 4 star for Tormented alone. Just ignore Revolt of the Zombies. I bought this DVD with a pile of DVDs in a car boot sale a while ago so I can't give an exact price but it was fairly low and I know you can pick up these double feature horror DVDs for about £1 in places and I think Tormented is well worth it. Therefore bear in mind that all the Did I enjoy the story etc questions are being answered in reference to Tormented

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Okay first of all I have to point that even though I may rate these old horror films pretty badly as films, I love collecting horror DVDs and even enjoy watching the worst of them.

This DVD set is a double feature ma-bobber. It's a double sided DVD which I personally hate because it is really easy for them to get really scraped.

The Revolt of the Zombies

The Revolt of the Zombies is a 1936 film written and directed by Victor Halperin who also created White Zombie with Bela Lugosi. Like White Zombie (the first ever zombie film) Revolt of the Zombies (the 2nd) doesn't have our current perception of zombies in it as created by George A. Romero. These zombies are hypnotised people who have superhuman strength whilst under the command of their master and can't be killed.

So the story starts during World War One on the western front. A French Officer, Armand, tries to inform his commanding officer about the powers of a chaplain from the a French-Cambodian regiment. He can apparently create super-soldiers, robots or zombies by mind control. The commander isn't convinced. However, the Cambodian goes ahead and sends some zombies in against the Austrians to much success. However, this scares the Allied commanders as they see such Cambodian power to be a "threat to the white race" (That's right this film was made way back when racism was cool and the Nazis hadn't given it a bad name yet. (Please note I don't think racism is cool)). Our Camodian hypnotist friend is ordered to be imprisoned for life but is killed by a French Colonel played by Roy D'Arcy.

The Allies then send out an expedition to Cambodia to find the secret of the zombies and destroy it. Armand goes as does D'Arcy's evil Colonel, a friend of Armand's called Clifford and a woman Claire. Armand and Claire meet and get engaged within a few seconds after a very awkward conversation and as soon as she's engaged to him she then leaves him for Clifford. This badly affects Armand and he turns against his friend. Armand then discovers the secret of the zombies and uses it on people to win Claire back. Going a little mad in the process.

This is a pretty bad film. It's incredibly racist. Keeping the Cambodians down and the white man in charge. Also white people squinting don't look like Cambodians. It's also pretty stupid as if the Cambodians really did have these super-soldier zombies how did they get conquered in the first place? The zombies were essentially people who didn't blink none of the partially decayed people we get these days and no where near as scary really. The battle scene with the zombies marching slowly towards the Austrians wasn't bad. The battle sound effects were pretty realistic despite being on a loop and one continuous explosion that sounded like a man hitting a table with a shoe. The zombies turn out to be a lot more dangerous and scary when they stop being zombies (How cool does the letter Z look in Times New Roman?). Claire falls in and out of love incredibly quickly. She has barely just met Armand and in the next scene they're engaged. The sets weren't great but not awful. They were just painted backgrounds (The Wizard of Oz pulled it off). In one scene you can actually see where the two boards meet. (Included a picture of this) But hey it's the 30s, what do you expect? Them to go to Kong island? Or was it called Skull island? The acting was pretty bad I instantly wanted to punch Armand (Dean Jagger) during his scene of laughing and crying at the same time. Terrible, terrible acting. You always find ridiculous things to laugh at in these old films and in one scene a man falls off a scaffold and Armand runs over to him and starts rubbing his hand frantically and shouts for Clifford to get over quickly. "To do what?" I thought "Rub his other hand? The man's just fallen some 30 feet." Clifford ran over to rub his head actually.

This film had a lot of potential. Zombies fighting during World War One and all that jazz but then they got too hung up on the stupid love story. Definitely wouldn't recommend this film to anyone. Roy D'Arcy was pretty good as the evil Colonel who had made a deal with the devil. He really looked the part.

The film isn't in the slightest bit scary and is rated as a PG. It's made in the 30s before sex and violence were invented. (Yet again by the Nazis.)

Tormented

Tormented is the film that makes buying this DVD worthwhile. It tells the story of Tom a jazz pianist (and lighthouse keeper?) who lives on a small island off America. It hosts a small happy population and Tom is engaged. However, one night an old girlfriend of Tom's, Vi, turns up. She still loves him and doesn't want him to get married. When he doesn't show any interest she blackmails him with letters of his she has kept. They argue at the top of a lighthouse when suddenly the rail breaks and Vi falls over. Tom has a chance to save her as she hangs on but decides to let her fall.

The next day he swims out to get her body. When he brings it in it mysteriously turns into seaweed on the beach. Tom then tries to get back to normal. His fiancée's little sister Sandy is constantly pestering him (and me watching it) and strange things start happening to Tom. He keeps smelling Vi's perfume. He sees footsteps following him in the sand. Vi is haunting him, she still won't let him go and Tom starts to go a bit mad from the torment. Added to this we also have a boat driver who drove Vi out to the island he realises that Vi has gone missing and that Tom is engaged and tries to blackmail Tom.

This film is very good. Made in 1960 it is by the same guy who made a whole host of crappy horror films Bert I. Gordon. This film is particularly well directed. The wedding scene at the end was superb. The wonky camera angles on the frightened faces. As the ghost passes flowers die and candles go out. The special effects are passable today and very well done for 1960. Gordon was known for making monster films which involved improvising a lot of special effects. We have a walking hand like It/Thing (whatever) from the Adams Family, a talking head and a translucent ghost. All really well done. The acting was pretty good. Richard Carlson was good as Tom and the lady who played the blind woman Mrs. Ellis was pretty good. Mrs. Ellis was an old maid for the family who has loved on the island a long time and has had experience with ghosts before. The little girl who played Sandy wasn't a bad actress but she was really, really annoying. My favourite character would have had to have been the sailor guy who blackmails Tom and constantly calls him Dad.

This film I strongly recommend. A great film with a great story and I especially loved the ending and the wedding scene. A classic of the horror genre. The film has mild horror. By today's standards it wouldn't really be considered scary at all. Indeed there where bits that were rather funny. Tom gets annoyed with the talking head so takes it and drops it down the stairs. However, a talking head may not go down well with some very young children. There are also murder scenes though not graphic

Over all the DVD is rated PG.

I rate this film 4 star for Tormented alone. Just ignore Revolt of the Zombies. I bought this DVD with a pile of DVDs in a car boot sale a while ago so I can't give an exact price but it was fairly low and I know you can pick up these double feature horror DVDs for about £1 in places and I think Tormented is well worth it. Therefore bear in mind that all the Did I enjoy the story etc questions are being answered in reference to Tormented

Trailers

Tormented = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odG5MixtV_k

Revolt of the Zombies = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odG5MixtV_k

Not real trailers but you'll take what you're given. Whilst looking for those I found out that Revolt of the Zombies is in the public domain so you can watch it for free legally on you tube. If you want to piss away 60 minutes of you're life. It is quite a short film at 60 minutes, Tormented lasts 76 minutes.

'''The Punch".

The punch definitely goes to the little girl Sandy from Tormented. As soon as she said "Tom Stuart fine one you are." I immediately thought upper cut to the jaw. And before anyone goes standing up for her because she is only a little girl she is almost definitely a nazi invention as well.

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