Torture Garden

February 07, 2007

Torture Garden (1967) starring Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, and Peter Cushing is my Halloween left over thanks to Netflix. I took notice of the film on Comcast’s FEARnet (www.fearnet.com).

Several people walk to into Burgess Meredith’s torture garden and are given the chance to see something truly horrific.

This is very much in the vein of “Tales from the Crypt” and Creepshow. Meredith is our “crypt keeper” and invites us to see our futures. Now these stories have to do with greed, strange objects, and immortality. So there is nothing really here that you haven’t seen before, maybe back in 1967 it was fresh.

The only story that makes this series of tales worth watching is of course the last one. It also stars to of the film biggest stars. Palance is man obsessed with Edgar Alan Poe. Cushing is a man who is equally obsessed. The two have a meeting and Palance learns that Cushing has something that he doesn’t unpublished works. The end result is frightening and truly worth watching.

So fast forward to the last story and be freaked out with this tale about Edgar Alan Poe.