The tower of the living corpses
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The tower of the living corpses |
| Original title | Tower of Evil |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1972 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jim O'Connolly |
| script | Jim O'Connolly |
| production | Richard Gordon |
| music | Kenneth V. Jones |
| camera | Desmond Dickinson |
| cut | Henry Richardson |
| occupation | |
| |
The Tower of Living Corpses , also called Devil's Tower (Original: Tower of Evil ) is a British horror film from 1972. Directed by Jim O'Connolly , who wrote the screenplay based on a story by George Baxt .
The film was mainly shot at Shepperton Studios in the English county of Surrey . The fictional Snape Island used in the film is by no means the Canadian Snap Island of the same name , an island of the Belcher Islands in the southeast of Hudson Bay .
action
On the rumored lighthouse island of Snape Island, a mist-shrouded island off the British coast, two local fishermen find three cruelly battered bodies. The victims, two befriended American tourist couples, were killed by two family members of the sailors who were believed to be dead, who once lost their minds and have since slaughtered everything human that dares to venture onto the small island with the lighthouse. Only the 21-year-old American Penelope Reed, an eyewitness to the massacre, managed to escape the bloodbath on the islet. Since then, the survivor has been hiding unclothed in an adjacent shed of the lighthouse. Unfortunately, when the Fischers arrive, the mentally disturbed woman fatally injures one of her rescuers.
The traumatized girl is admitted to the psychiatric ward with catatonic symptoms and questioned by the police around Inspector Hawk. Due to her lack of memory and profound disorders of her musculoskeletal system, however, she is unable to fully reconstruct the sequence of events. For the police, she is therefore the main suspect in this mysterious case.
Penelope's parents commission private detective Evan Brent to investigate the allegations against their daughter, who is suspected of murder. Brent joins a research expedition made up of archaeologists who suspect a Phoenician tomb on the lighthouse island with a golden image of Baal , the Phoenician god. The group of five is accompanied by the surviving fisherman and ferryman Hamp Gurney, whose father was previously killed by the confused Penny, along with his impulsive nephew Brom. In the course of his investigation, the skeptical detective Brent learns that the island was inhabited by a deranged lighthouse keeper named Saul Gurney, who and his family have been mysteriously lost for years. Hamp is the brother of the missing guard. However, it soon becomes clear to the researchers and members of the expedition that they are not alone on the stony island, at the latest after a stranger denies them any opportunity to escape from the island. Brent, who sees the recent events in connection with the latest murder cases, instinctively suspects clues and traces under the island's extensive system of tunnels.
In the dark corridors under the lighthouse, the expedition members will find a place of worship of the god Baal. At different times, the expedition members are gradually butchered by the neglected Saul, who was believed to be dead, and his son Michael. At the end of the film, Brent Saul manages to shoot in a scuffle, while the murdering Michael explodes together with the lighthouse and the underground tunnel system and burns miserably in it. Brent and two scientists survive the adventure.
Reviews
"Swirling fog, lousy backdrops, coarse, long-worn horror images, made-up bargain sex and a few brisk (tired) slogans are by no means able to lure the audience's 'screams' promised by the advertising. Here a third-rate director completely succeeds in battering his [...] 'script' without success [...] Not to mention the 'performing arts' of individual batches. "
"Horror film with a preference for bloody scenes and sex, only exciting in parts."
Web links
- The tower of the living dead in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Tower of Living Corpses in the online movie database
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Ronald M. Hahn & Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Horror Films , Bastei-Lübbe, 1985, page 442
- ↑ The Tower of Living Corpses. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .