5
(supernatural elements)
6
(mild violence, minor strong language)
5
(see once)
Tormented is an old black-and-white ghost story that attempts to avoid the typically flat characters by giving good people desperate situations and to question reality by adding a touch of Poe influence. What is a person to do when evil corruption beings to overtake their lives? Does a happy ending justify dark deeds?
Tom and Meg are engaged to be married, but their happiness is threatened when Vi, Tom’s ex, shows up wanting him back so badly that she’s ready to blackmail him if need be. When an accident threatens Vi’s life Tom must choose to save her or not. It wouldn’t be much of a ghost story if he chose the former option. As people find out what he’s done he turns to actual murder to keep his secret. When one of those people is Meg’s little sister whom he loves, Tom must decide if he’s willing to kill someone so young and innocent to have a chance at marital bliss.
I was very iffy about this movie when it began. I expected a lot of cheese and weak romance. Not that it doesn’t have some cheese, but the focus actually becomes a full-fledged ghost story with some murderous intrigue and some good conflict. Is there a real ghost or is it all in Tom’s head? How is Tom going to resolve this with the little girl knowing of his deeds? Can he really kill his fiancée’s kid sister and live with himself afterwords?
What helps the movie is that it goes for being ghostly. It could have been a whole lot of Tom acting like he sees something that we don’t or describing things that happen off screen. Instead we get to see what he sees (or thinks he sees depending on your viewpoint). At the same time it is not pure teenscream horror. It attempts to build strong characters and troubling decisions.
What hurts it is that the effects are dated which causes some of the graphics to be campy. I’m sure they were a big deal back in the day, but now they just show the movie’s age. Still it comes across as a good attempt.
Some of the acting is pretty good. Richard Carlson sells the character of Tom quite well. Joe Turkel has a small but solid part. While other actors are sometimes rather weak it’s overall good enough to keep the movie entertaining.
The ghostly parts aren’t really played for scares. I suppose it could be a little creepy to sensitive viewers, but the scare factor is low. Rather this is more like a Tell-Tale Heart kind of idea tormenting the main character without frightening the viewer.
Morality
There is some lethal but bloodless violence, ghostly moments of horror, and minor strong language.
There’s nothing sexual or revealing. Like most black and white horror movies it’s quite tame.
Spirituality
The story involves ghostly hauntings although it is entirely possible to take the position that there is no supernatural element at all, but rather it's all in Tom's head thanks to a guilty conscience.
On a thematic level we see the corruption that begins to overtake an otherwise decent man – decent as far as we know, at least. He wants happiness with the woman he loves which is endangered by his past coming back to haunt him (following his dead ex doing the same thing). He bears some responsibility for having a dark past about which he obviously hasn't been forthcoming, but if left alone he might have gone on to be a model husband and father.
He doesn't set out to do Vi any harm, but after making the wrong choice he then covers it up with additional evil deeds. If he had repented and rectified the situation honestly at the beginning it might have thrown his plans awry, but he could have overcome that. By delving further into sinful acts he brings death and destruction into all the lives connected with him.
Final Thoughts
I think Tormented is a movie well worth seeing. No, it’s not going to match a more modern movie visually, but it’s got an enjoyable ghost story to it and some depth to the story not always found in movies old or new.
Buying Guide
If you thought you would come away feeling tormented after trying to look up all the releases "Tormented" has to offer you might be right, but rather than having to deal with mountains upon mountains of various editions your headaches may very well come from the other films going by the same name that get them all mixed up. The 60's film did not star any Asian actors - don't believe the listings that tell you that.
There are a number of unremarkable DVD's, but surprisingly few multi-movie packs showed up in my search although there is a Blu-ray including it. I know of at least 2 so I'll tell you all about them below. The only release that stands out is a 3D version.
There's nothing to get excited about. All releases list the same specs with no mention of remastering or extras. The only exception is, of course, the 3D release although I could not find a single positive review of this version. Be forewarned, viewing requires the proper glasses which do not come with the DVD.
The Attack of the B's Blu collection seems to be part of a slowly growing trend (or perhaps attempt at a trend) of using Blu's storage capacity to fit a lot of movies on a single disc. 18 public domain films (some very common, some fairly rare) reside on a single disc in standard 480i definition (no HD here). The best I can say for these is that they seem to occasionally present the original image ratios and may be very slightly improved quality over some of the cheaper DVD budget packs. Otherwise they offer nothing special aside from being exceptionally self-space friendly. They offer no extras and can be somewhat hard to find.
Final Recommendation:
So as far as I can tell you're not going to find a truly “good” presentation of this movie so go with the best deal you find. Of my two the 50 Horror Classics version is better but not by much. It's probably tolerable if you're just looking to check out the film.
I have a couple of copies that I'll compare although they are very similar. First up is the “Horror Classics” 50 pack.
Video
1.33:
There is no widescreen version. It contains a fair amount of trash and is a little fuzzy.
Audio
2.0 mono:
It sounds muted and a little distorted rendering some of the off-screen lines hard to make out. There is surprisingly little white noise.
Packaging
This particular disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve contained in a Velcro-fastened box. You can read about the set as a whole in great detail in the Horror Classics (50 pack) guide.
Extras
There are none.
The “Chilling” 20 pack is up next.
Video
1.33:
This image is also trashy. The image shifts and is very grainy which makes it even worse.
Audio
2.0 mono:
Again, there's not much white noise but it suffers from the same muted and distorted dialogue.
Packaging
The disc comes in a paper sleeve that lives in a plastic case. You can get more details about the set as a whole by checking out the Chilling (20 pack) guide.
Extras
None for this one, either.