Chamber of Horrors (1966) Scream Factory

[jaws3dfan]

Prepare yourself for a chilling tale of terror and unspeakable vengeance inside the Chamber Of Horrors. The condemned maniac Jason Cravatte (Patrick O'Neal) escapes capture from the authorities at a bloody cost – by chopping off his manacled hand! Free to kill once more, he outfits his gruesome stump with tools designed to chop, rip, and skewer a new batch of victims as he embarks on a bloody spree of death!

Employing not one, but two infamous gimmicks – "The Fear Flasher" and "The Horror Horn" – to warn audiences in advance of its most shocking moments, Chamber Of Horrors is a Grand Guignol cult favorite that's every bit as twisted as its villain's tortured soul!

[tangerinewolf]

Simply love this film. Patrick O'Neal is great in this. Thanks Scream Factory!

[Starman22]

I saw this on Scream Factory Facebook page earlier and I never heard of it.

[Jobla]

This film was pretty popular back in 1966. It was actually a pilot for a proposed TV mystery series that didn't sell, so Warner released it theatrically.

Those who like mysteries set in wax museums would probably enjoy this.

There's very little gore, despite the horror horn and the fear flasher, two gimmicks from the Willam Castle School of Ballyhoo.

The term "fear flasher" spawned numerous jokes among school-age boys.

[Mystic]

This is a fun little Horror film that I remember well from late night TV back in the 1970s. Despite the film's hokey gimmicks, its still an enjoyably stylish and atmospheric horror film that I'm looking forward to adding to my movie library this Summer.

[vortexx]

I really like it myself. Those attachments that he sticks on his stump and the wax museum setting as well Patrick O'Neil are great. Considering it's from 1966, I wouldn't expect much gore. Gore was still pretty rare back then.

[Skorpius]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp1z...ature=youtu.be

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Noice! Maybe Shout also has the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu films (one of them was a double feature with this) Warner owns in the US.

[cakefactory]

I vividly remember the movie poster to this, from looking at my parents' old Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion book when I was a really little kid - it was a large illustration in that book, probably under "gimmicks" or something. That guy with the meat cleaver hand scared me! The HORROR HORN and FEAR FLASHER didn't seem quite as hilarious to read about when I was 5, they sounded like a good idea.

I never saw the movie, nor did I ever really hear anything about it again except for capsule reviews that mainly mentioned the gimmicks. It's always been there in the back of my memory, though!

[Rayjg]

I hoped they grabbed Ultimate Warrior from Warner too.

[Suspiria7]

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

Noice! Maybe Shout also has the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu films (one of them was a double feature with this) Warner owns in the US.

Warner only owns the 1st three Fu Manchu Films not the 4th and 5th one. Indicator put out an excellent Box set of all 5 films on Blu Ray with great extras last year.

[Member-222782]

So this was a failed pilot? With a title like Chamber of Horrors, anyone going into this blind, like me, might expect a gory exploitation flick, or at least a serious horror film with some violence but I doubt a 60's network executive would go for something like that. The fact that it was made for TV suggests a fairly tame affair - is this the case?

[Jobla]

Pretty accurate. The film does have a lot of fun "period" atmosphere, rather than overt horror.

If you've seen Kino's disc of the unsold Universal TV pilot DARK INTRUDER, you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Oddly, the proposed TV series would have been titled HOUSE OF WAX, a nod to Warner's 1953 film of the same name.

[Jobla]

Originally Posted by vortexx

I really like it myself. Those attachments that he sticks on his stump and the wax museum setting as well Patrick O'Neil are great. Considering it's from 1966, I wouldn't expect much gore. Gore was still pretty rare back then.

The major studios didn't offer a lot of gore back then. Gore was mainly found in low-budget independent productions, such as THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, THE FLESH EATERS, and the like. Hammer Films of England and Herschell Gordon Lewis demonstrated that gore could sell lots of tickets. Foreign imports such as BLACK SUNDAY and BLOODY PIT OF HORROR offered more horrific content than the US majors in those days.

Then there was the "mini-major," AIP, that offered some gore in their Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, as well as lower budget films like DEMENTIA 13.

[Doc Moonlight]

I remember seeing this in a theater on it's original release, and there's a scene where a couple (I believe it was Cesare Dinova and Suzy Parker) were kissing. As they came away from the kiss, you could see a trail of saliva between their faces. It's the type of thing that wouldn't have been visible on TV, but on the big screen it was, ewww gross! I believe it has been digitally cleaned up since.

[vortexx]

Originally Posted by Jobla

The major studios didn't offer a lot of gore back then. Gore was mainly found in low-budget independent productions, such as THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, THE FLESH EATERS, and the like. Hammer Films of England and Herschell Gordon Lewis demonstrated that gore could sell lots of tickets. Foreign imports such as BLACK SUNDAY and BLOODY PIT OF HORROR offered more horrific content than the US majors in those days.

Then there was the "mini-major," AIP, that offered some gore in their Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, as well as lower budget films like DEMENTIA 13.

After HG Lewis did what became known as the gore trilogy of Blood Feast, 2,000 Maniacs, and Color Me Blood Red, he toned things down for a bit because his movies were partially responsible for the rating system that was later adopted, but at the time he was concerned about what the outcome might be. He got even gorier later when it was decided that this films could be released legitimately with an X Rating.

[babybreese]

Originally Posted by Doc Moonlight

I remember seeing this in a theater on it's original release,
and there's a scene where a couple
(I believe it was Cesare Dinova and Suzy Parker)
were kissing.
As they came away from the kiss,
you could see a trail of saliva between their faces.

Why surely you don't mean us?

[TravelSteveR]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

So this was a failed pilot? With a title like Chamber of Horrors, anyone going into this blind, like me, might expect a gory exploitation flick, or at least a serious horror film with some violence but I doubt a 60's network executive would go for something like that. The fact that it was made for TV suggests a fairly tame affair - is this the case?

It was made as a TV pilot but considered too gruesome for TV audiences, so, instead, it was released to theaters. The Fear Flasher and Horror Horn were added as a nod to King of Exploitation William Castle. Although the film is by no means a gorefest, it is disturbing with subjects such as necrophilia, self-mutilation, and the like. To me it has something in common with another of my favorites--THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES. Like Phibes, it's beautiful to look at, capturing Baltimore at the turn-of-the-century and giving it a Victorian Era/Jack the Ripper spin. It has a great cast--Patrick O'Neal, alone, is worth the price of the disc. His smooth-talking turn as Jason Cravatte is too cool for words, and I love anything Wilfrid Hyde-White does. Also Wayne Rogers, who went on to play Trapper John on TV's M*A*S*H, plays a policeman here. I think my favorite after O'Neal is Jeanette Nolan (so funny as Dirty Sally on GUNSMOKE) here as a cigar-smoking blueblood who happens to be related to Patrick O'Neal's character. I've been waiting for it to be released on blu-ray (I have it on DVD where it's paired with THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU).

[Wtdk]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

I hoped they grabbed Ultimate Warrior from Warner too.

Watched that recently (well 2019) on of all places Criterion channel

[Wtdk]

Originally Posted by Suspiria7

Warner only owns the 1st three Fu Manchu Films not the 4th and 5th one. Indicator put out an excellent Box set of all 5 films on Blu Ray with great extras last year.

Sadly, after the first couple films, the later Fu Manchu films were not very good.