Rent Tower of Evil (1972)

Spoilers follow ... - Tower of Evil review by NP

As evil towers go, the one featured in this film certainly earns its stripes in the opening scene. Stabbings, spiders, dismemberment, naked corpses and lots of blood ensure our attention is immediately grabbed.

So too are the familiar faces for the time – Anthony Valentine, William Lucas, Derek Fowlds and Dennis Price head a superficially impressive cast. Superficial, because the younger characters, the ‘kids’ are neither so well-known nor as compelling. Wrestling with dialogue that makes the excesses of ‘Dracula AD 1972’ positively conservative, these kids are a dull, casually randy bunch (the cod American accents don’t help). The females are especially tiresome – as part of a group sent to investigate grisly murders on Snape Island, they are only ever concerned with the sexual failure of their partners and the affairs they plan to have. Who thought Free Love could be so spite-fuelled?

One reason why the opening sequence is effective is because the island, and the waters surrounding it, are swathed in foggy darkness. Exposed to ‘daylight’, the cheapness of the sets and back-projection becomes hugely apparent. A cut-price film is no bad thing, but when the characterisations and plot is equally threadbare, attention falls away pretty quickly, despite the cackling killer-on-the-loose.

The frank attitude to sex is surprising for a British 1972 film. The feeling I get is that Director Jim O’Connolly over-spiced the dialogue with references to sex and drugs in a bid to compensate for the lacklustre budget and plot. Despite an effectively fiery ending and the reveal of a secondary killer, the 90 minutes running time seems a lot longer.

Neither Good Or Bad. - Tower of Evil review by Spoons

I'm not going to say anything about this film as the previous reviewer has summed it up perfectly. However as you can see I've given it three stars which indicates that I thought it was good which it certainly isn't, neither is it bad which brings me to star ratings. Two stars indicates that you don't like the film. It's just a suggestion but couldn't two stars mean that the movie is average, which Tower Of Evil most certainly is.

Effective - Tower of Evil review by sb

FILM & SHOCTOBER Obscure but effective British horror set on a remote fogbound lighthouse island. It’s opens with two sailors finding a severed hand, then it’s male naked bloody corpse, a naked female with a severed head , another male impaled to a door with a golden spear and a naked girl who stabs the older sailer to death…all in the first five minutes… The girl is committed to an asylum and using drugs recreate the events of the night. Meanwhile the golden spear has attracted the attention of a group of archaeologists who arrrive on the island looking for more gold - but of course whatever murdered the teenagers is still lurking somewhere. After the initial opening it builds slowly and it seems the locals who are hired as porters know more than they are saying as the body count mounts. It’s very well done on it’s small budget and it’s solid cast allows the action to proceed along various threads - well worth seeking out - 4/5