The witch hunter's torture chamber
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The witch hunter's torture chamber |
| Original title | The Haunted Palace |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1963 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Roger Corman |
| script | Charles Beaumont |
| production |
James H. Nicholson Samuel Z. Arkoff Roger Corman |
| music | Ronald Stein |
| camera | Floyd Crosby |
| cut | Ronald Sinclair |
| occupation | |
| |
The Witch Hunter's Torture Chamber is an American horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price and Debra Paget in their final role. The film is based on the novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (written in 1927, published in 1941) by the American writer HP Lovecraft .
action
The small town of Arkham in New England in eastern North America. Here in 1765 ominous things happened - young girls are said to have disappeared without a trace. Soon the residents unmasked Joseph Curwen as the guilty party and as a sorcerer who actually, together with his lover Hester, performs peculiar rituals on the girls. However, even the last girl remains unharmed. Nevertheless, a lynch mob gathers together and moves, armed with torches, to the Curwen palace, where the sorcerer is supposed to keep the girls as willing slaves. Curwen is dragged along by the villagers and then burned on a stake , while Hester is spared. But Joseph Curwen does not leave this world without casting a final curse on those who have promoted him to hell, above all the beefy leader of the mob, Ezra Weeden. From now on, only misshapen children are born in Arkham.
110 years later, in 1875. A stranger arrives in Arkham who turns out to be Curwen's direct descendant: his name is Charles Dexter Ward, who has brought his pretty wife Anne with him and is moving into Curwen's former castle. He doesn't know any details about Curwen's connection with the diabolical forces. The reception of the couple by Arkham's citizens is not exactly warm-hearted, because over generations, thanks to the pronounced curse, Curwen's face, which looks confusingly similar to the Ward, has been burned into the collective memory of the Arkham. Indeed, Ward is soon under the spell of his ancestors and uses a magical book to establish contact with the dark forces. At the same time, Charles Dexter is becoming increasingly estranged from his dear wife, who cannot quite understand the reasons for the change in her husband's personality. Meanwhile, panic is spreading in the town itself. In a mixture of real fear and medieval superstition that Curwen may have returned from hell to take revenge on Arkham and its inhabitants, one feverishly ponders how to get rid of Curwen's descendants as quickly as possible.
Charles and Anne make friends with the local doctor, Marinus Willet. As an academic, he is much more sensible than the other Arkhamers and explains to the two newcomers where the residents' fear and rejection come from. Now the Ward couple learns of the circumstances that led to Curwen's death and also that the deformities on Curwen's 110 years ago were cursed. There is a black spellbook, the Necronomicon , which the villagers believe was in Curwen's possession and that Curwen used it to conjure up the mythical creature gods Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth . Curwen's plan is said to have been to unite women with these fantastic god beings to create a new race of superman. The experiment could not have worked out completely because the rituals resulted in the known deformities. According to Dr. Willet, terrified that Curwen would have returned in the guise of Charles, not only to get revenge on Arkham and a resident, but also to complete his gruesome experiment. Dr. Willet advises the Ward couple to leave town as soon as possible.
Curwen's mind now takes more and more power over Charles, and he seems to be more and more under his control from day to day. Charles insists that he and Anne stay in Arkham. One night Charles can no longer evade Curwen's will at all and almost merges with him. Curwen's power increases when he teams up with two other warlocks, Simon and Jabez, who have also seized power over the spirits of their two ancestors. They begin to continue their work and plan to revive Hester as well. Curwen's influence on Charles is not yet total, and the dead warlock tells Simon and Jabez that Charles is still resisting spiritually. Nonetheless, Curwen / Charles begins his campaign of revenge. The first thing to do is Edgar Weeden, the descendant of Ezra Weeden, who once had him tied to the stake. He lets his deformed son out of the locked room and incites him on his own father. Peter Smith, descendant of Micah Smith, is attacked with fire so that he burns and Curwen tries to rape Anne in the body of Charles. She, in turn, seeks protection from Dr. Willet while Curwen / Charles tries to make the doctor believe that Anne has gone mad and is fantasizing. With Simons and Jabez 'help, the sorcerer even manages to bring Hester back to life.
After the residents of Peter Smith's charred body found, history repeats itself. Again the citizens of Arkham band together and organize a storm march on the palace of the supposed warlock. Anne organizes with Dr. Want an escape plan to save Charles from the rampaging mob. You want to go through a secret passage to the castle's own underground dungeon in order to escape into the open. But Curwen now has total control of Charles Dexter Ward, and he lies in wait, along with Simon, Jabez and Hester, the doctor and Ward's wife. In the dungeon, the warlock's ritual has progressed so far that a new, monstrous creature has been created. The sorcerers want to give Anne to this being as a bride. Meanwhile, the mob stormed the castle and started to ravage it. When the large portrait of Curwen in the hall is destroyed, Curwen's curse on Charles is broken. He himself sees Charles again, where all the madness has driven him, frees his wife Anne and hands her over to Dr. Will you with the request to get her safely out of the palace. The doctor rescues Anne outside, but returns to the burning palace in order to safely get Ward, who is now temporarily in the clutches of Curwen's cronies, out of the building. The other warlocks flee the flames and mob in the face of their hopeless situation, leaving Charles seriously injured. With an effort, Dr. Willing to escort Charles out of the castle too. In the final scene, however, it becomes clear that Curwen's spirit still has power over the body and mind of his ancestor Charles Dexter Ward.
Production notes
The film was made in the winter of 1962/63 and was premiered on August 28, 1963. The German premiere did not take place until October 24, 1969.
Production management was in the hands of James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff . Daniel Haller designed the film structures .
Reviews
"Good looking but insignificant film."
"Heavy horror comedy, too slow for a chance for a solid cast."
“Formally above the genre's average, but at the same time tasty and drastic; superficial in an attempt to transcend the boundaries between the sensual and the supersensible. "
Individual evidence
- ^ The Torture Chamber of the Witch Hunter in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on November 9, 2018
Web links
- The torture chamber of the witch hunter in the Internet Movie Database (English)