When one very wrong move comes back to bite you on the ass.
In
a Cape Cod island community, local pianist Tom Stewart (1950's icon
Richard Carlson, from IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and CREATURE FROM THE
BLACK LAGOON)) anticipates marrying his sweet fiancee, Meg Hubbert
(Lugene Sanders), but obsessive previous sexpot girlfriend Vi Mason
(Juli Reding) arrives shortly before the wedding day, threatening to
destroy Tom's potential futre with Meg, even going as far as to threaten
Tom with blackmail. (What Vi has on Tom with which to blackmail him is
not made clear.) The two argue on the matter on the top level of a
beachfront lighthouse and while they squabble the railing Vi is leaning
on gives way, leaving her dangling precariously. Understandably
terrified, Vi pleads with the nearby Tom to pull her up but, realizing
that his predicament is about to solve itself, a nervous Tom allows Vi
to plummet to her death, his inaction thus rendering him a murderer.
Taking the easy way out of conflict resolution.
The
next day, Tom finds Vi's corpse floating off of the beach and when her
hauls her body ashore, before his stunned eyes it turns to a mass of
seaweed. From there, though trying to remain cool, Tom is haunted by
visions of Vi's spectre, eerily showing up at inconvenient moments and
howling "TOM STEWART KILLED ME!!!" with Tom being the only one who
registers her presence. Things only escalate as the day of the wedding
nears, and the question that remains front and center is that of Tom's
sanity. Is he merely losing his mind or is the vengeful shade of Vi
actually driving him to madness and possible further acts of homicide?
"TOM STEWART KILLED ME!!!"
TORMENTED
is an effective little low-budget shocker that plays right into its
era's wave of psychological horror, debuting the same year in which
PEEPING TOM and PSYCHO were unleashed upon a not-ready-for-them public,
and by comparison it's considerably milder meat. That said, it's still
quite spooky, and it wastes no time in getting down to business.
Throughout the narrative Tom's attempts at remaining cool after allowing
Vi to meet her fate as a way of hiding his guilt are rattled by Vi's
ghostly presence, and while there appears to be a good amount of
physical evidence that the haunting is real, there's a strong
possibility that the apparition is all in Tom's mind. As his torment is
noticed by a couple of the ancillary characters, it's made clear that
Tom will do anything to save his own sorry ass, including the murder of
another innocent...
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned (or in this case allowed to plummet to her death.)
TORMENTED's
prolific director, Bert I. Gordon, brought us a number of classic
sci-fi B-movies (and some classic stinkers) including KING DINOSAUR
(1955), THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957), BEGINNING OF THE END (1957),
EARTH VS THE SPIDER (1958), ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958), THE
MAGIC SWORD (1962), VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS (1965), THE FOOD OF THE GODS
(1976), and EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1977), several of which focused on giant
monsters, thus earning him the nickname "Mr. B.I.G." Here he plays very
much against time, offering a shocker that's considerably more mature
in tone than most of his other efforts, concentrating on the unraveling
of its protagonist's psyche instead of some gargantuan whatchamowhoozits
wreaking havoc hither and yon. It's a surprisingly intimate tale,
featuring a number of very memorable ghost sequence, and though the
effects rendering them are rather dated, they are nonetheless eerily
effective, their obvious unreality making them that much creepier.
Now
best remembered due to its lampooning during the the fourth season
(1992) of cult favorite MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, TORMENTED is a
good entry-level ghost story for youngsters that will likewise hold
adults' interest due to the grownup motivations behind its plot. Humble
but solid.
Poster from the theatrical release.
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