Fear Chamber (1968) watch online HD

When Karloff completed work on The Curse of the Crimson Altar for Tigon in the UK, many believed it would be his last film. He had spent some time in hospital during the shoot, and there were a few teary eyes when the shoot was finally over and he flew home. So imagine the surprise of everyone concerned when it turned out he was already contracted to appear in another four films! This group of Mexican horrors included such near-classics as The Fear Chamber, The Incredible Invasion, Isle of the Living Dead and House of Evil. These films were all shot in a matter of weeks, with Karloff's scenes shot in California, and the rest down in Mexico. He was obviously quite frail by this point. The majority of his sixties films featured him either in a wheelchair or at least sitting/ lying down for the majority of the time, and The Fear Chamber is no exception. Despite the obvious limitations however, he still puts in a great performance.

The Fear Chamber has one of the most ludicrous plots I have come across, which given the amount of "bad" films I've watched is really saying something. To summarize: a telepathic rock which feeds on the chemical produced by fear is kept alive by an ambitious scientist and his misfit band of assistants, including his insipid daughter and her heroic boyfriend, Mexico's answer to Tor Johnson, who from now on will be referred to as Lobo, a sex-maniac dwarf, a predatory lesbian with a predilection for torture, and some kind of turban-wearing hippy guru, reminiscent of a young George Harrison.

Now that sounds like a great basis for a movie, and it certainly starts off strong. Disguised as a refuge for women looking for work, the scientists force one after another into the Fear Chamber, which is what a bad acid trip in a ghost train must be like. It is full of cobwebs, snakes, skeletons and satanic rituals, and the women finally scream themselves into unconsciousness. The precious fear juice is then extracted in the lab and fed to the hungry rock. Carried back to their beds, they wake up believing it was all a bad dream. Meanwhile Lobo develops an obsession for diamonds and has some sort of telepathic link with the rock. He also sports a lobotomy scar, which leads you to suspect that the casting sessions for this film were held at the Mexican Insane Asylum.

Karloff's character sustains an injury early on in the film, conveniently (for him) leaving him bedridden until the final reel. This is unfortunate, as when he's off the screen the films dips low, and I mean really low. The assortment of unusual characters manage to entertain some of the time, but when the focus is on the burgeoning love story between Karloff's daughter and her boyfriend you feel yourself reaching for the fast forward button.

This film has been released on DVD before, but this is the version to pick up. Not only does it feature an excellent transfer and soundtrack, it also comes with a deleted scene (see a Mexican go-go dancer get savaged by a tentacled rock!) and an excellent commentary by the writer and director of the American half, Corman veteran Jack Hill.

So in a nutshell, this is a film worth purchasing as a)it stars Boris Karloff, who is worth watching in any old rubbish (which is just as well, as he never seemed particularly picky with his roles) b)It's cheap c)It's a fascinating insight into the world of low budget movie making and in case I forgot to mention it, d) It features half-naked Mexican women being tortured in the haunted house ride from hell.

A truly horrible movie, with no production quality whatsoever and Boris is immensely wasted in a small role as a scientist who conveniently becomes bedridden before the movie kicks into sadistic gear. A live rock is found under a volcano and Boris and his assistants set up a fear chamber to terrorize young girls. They then take the blood of the girls to feed the rock. Boris gets stressed out, bows out for a while, and his assistants proceed without him, kidnapping girls, whipping them, all sorts of sadistic merriment for fans of this stuff. There is even a strip tease for the rock! I can't say to avoid this movie, there are unintentionally hilarious moments, especially the character of Roland. But extreme fans of Boris will be shocked and outraged, to say the least.

With all due respect to the review above, I found this psychotronic classic delightfully fun. This is a Mexican-American co-production with the usual bad dubbing and cheesy sets, but if you love late '60's drive-in horror trash in the Joe Bob Briggs mold, you will NOT be disappointed! See! A rock monster who communicates in Moog™ noises! See! A goofy lug named Roland display his talents as a Tor Johnson wannabe! See! A Vegas style big band strip tease with breasts and bare white walls for a backdrop! See! Boris Karloff do his level best to bring some class to this low budget, bloody romp...and succeed!

One final note of warning...this film is currently offered as part two of a double feature DVD that RetroMedia has put out (it's also available for rent on Netflix); the first flick, "Island Monster," (1954) is absolutely terrible. Do NOT watch "Island Monster"!! It has NO redeeming value WHATSOEVER! You have been duly warned.

I recently bought a Boris Karloff DVD collection, containing four of Karloff's infamous last movies on two DVDs: "La Muerte Viviente" aka. "Snake People", "House Of Evil" aka. "Dance Of Death", "The Incredible Invasion" aka. "Alien Terror" and "The Fear Chamber" aka. "The Torture Zone", all of them directed by Juan Ibánez and Jack Hill.

I was prepared for extremely trashy stuff, but after watching the extremely crappy, but extremely hilarious "Snake Peolple" I was sure I had found the epitome of a 'so bad it's good' kind of movie (I already wrote a review). Then I watched "The Fear Chamber", just to find out it is even a better example for how great awfulness can really be.

Horror icon Boris Karloff's very last movie, "The Fear Chamber" was released in 1972, three years after Karloff's death. Not only am I a big Boris Karloff fan, but I also have utmost respect for Director Jack Hill for his great exploitation classics (like "Coffy" with Pam Grier for example). If you are a fan of unintentional comedies, "The Fear Chamber" should be your kind of movie.

Near the earth's core, scientists discover a rock that is obviously alive! Hoping that the rock will reveal "all secrets of the universe", they bring it to a laboratory to examine it. But since the living rock feeds on human fear, they have to torture young women in a special fear chamber, in order to gain fear hormones and keep the rock alive.

"The Fear Chamber" is an extremely poorly produced flick and apart from Karloff and Isela Vega (who played Warren Oates' girlfriend in Sam Peckinpah's surreal masterpiece "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia"), the acting is pretty bad too. The lab and the attached fear chamber look extremely ridiculous and resemble of the Ufo in Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space". The movie's crappiest (and most hilarious) aspect, however is its script, especially the dialogue. The head scientist Dr. Carl Mendel (Karloff) assumes, for example, that the living rock could reveal "all secrets of the universe" and "the secret of our very existence", although none of the scientists seems to have the slightest reason to make such an assumption.

This may be one of the crappiest Sci-Fi Horror flicks ever, but it is also one of the most hilarious unintentional comedies I have ever seen. The great Boris Karloff makes anything worth watching, this, however, also has a big value for it is probably one of the most absurd movies ever, and for its (unintentional) fun factor. If you had fun watching "Plan 9 From Outer Space", I can guarantee that you will laugh your ass of watching this. Very bad, But I loved it!

Kindly scientist Dr. Carl Mandel (the ever-dignified Boris Karloff in one of his final film roles) discovers an evil sentient rock deep within the bowels of the earth. The foul thing needs blood in order to live. So Carl and his loyal assistants abduct lovely young ladies, scare them almost to death, and feed the vile beast their precious body fluids. Ineptly directed by Jack Hill & Juan Ibanez, this baby provides plenty of unintentional belly laughs. This flick hits its uproariously ludicrous sleazy zenith when a sexy brunette performs a smoking hot striptease in front of the rock. The colorful array of strikingly grotesque secondary characters are amusing in their extreme depravity: Isela ("Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia") Vega as the cruel, wicked Helga, Yerye Beirute as the greedy, leering, moronic Roland, and Santanon as a crazed bald dwarf. Nice supporting performances by the lovely Julissa as Mandel's spunky daughter Corinne and Carlos East as Corinne's likable boyfriend Mark. Some mild gore, an overwrought score by Enrico C. Cabiati, a little lesbianism, a handy helping of sadistic torture, and the lurid cinematography by Raul Dominguez and Austin McKinney add considerably to the enjoyably tacky fun of this undeniably awful, yet still immensely entertaining trash.

With its rep as one of Karloff's worst, I expected something drab and stilted (like CAULDRON OF BLOOD, '67) so was surprised to find this quite colorful, albeit in a tacky way. While it lacks subtlety (and often coherence), the film delivers sufficient sleaze to please prurient drive-in dwellers.

The haphazard script provides much to mock. Spellunking scientists discover and attempt to communicate with a tentacled, "intelligent" rock. That's all of the plot you need...it's raw gibberish. Amoral researchers stop just short of human sacrifice in their experiments, and place blind faith in primitive, printout-spitting computers. Rants from Roland, the diamond-obsessed comic relief, beg for MST3K skewering, and Karloff's scientific theories are the daffiest heard since mad docs roamed the Monogram lot.

Most commenters cluck about "Poor Boris." Granted, he isn't tossed one morsel of decent dialogue, but he just phones his part in. (The young leads, on the other hand, are quite likable, even though their characters are not.) Upon his passing, rummagers of Karloff's effects discovered that his check for this flick was uncashed...perhaps he expected it to bounce.

If you like old and strange movies this is your movie.Boris Karloff commands a group of scientists who finds an monster into the volcano. Experiments are made to understand this monster who converts fear in feed, but the monster is a rock!! Very good(?)!

Five days ago, House of Evil replaced The Invisible Menace as Boris Karloff's worst film. Today, House of Evil was just replaced by Fear Chamber(viewings of The Snake People and The Invisible Invasion are pending as of now, hoping they are a little better). The only halfway decent thing about Fear Chamber is Boris Karloff, he doesn't have a lot to work with but he still delivers with conviction and dignity which is more than the material deserved. The rest of the acting is atrocious, especially from Isela Vega and Yerye Beirute, the latter bringing unintentional humour to his part. The production values are amateurish, the photography really does look as though it was shot in a matter of days, the effects are slipshod and the sets look like the film was shot in a basement. The music is at best shrill, though a marginal improvement over the music for House of Evil, at least it isn't as annoying. The biggest failings are the script and story. The script often doesn't make sense and written and delivered in such a wooden, stilted way. The story is just as incoherent, laboriously paced and more uncomfortably weird than creepy or suspenseful(and there was me thinking The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Zombies was weird). All in all, love and have a lot of respect for Karloff but Fear Chamber was just awful. 1/10 Bethany Cox

One of those dreary Mexican productions that Boris Karloff made toward the end of his career, "The Fear Chamber"'s only attraction for the great but now aged and ailing star must have been the paycheck. The plot, already described elsewhere, is ludicrous, the set looks like somebody's basement, and the effects are cheap.

It's always worth seeing Karloff, but otherwise the only attraction is the supporting cast which includes various beautiful women, including Isele Vega (best known for "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"), who are called upon to add some sex to the mix. The lesbian scenes make no sense within the context of the story, but they may at least prevent you from fast-forwarding to the conclusion.

The "Torture Zone" version of this film released by Rhino has between 10-15 minutes cut from the Mexican version. No significant scenes are missing (except for the original credits which have a live-action background); most of the cuts are trims to existing scenes. However, the English-language version does feature Karloff's own voice, which is a bonus.

Measured by modern technical standards, this film is a blast from the past in every way.

Watch this film in expectation of seeing a relaxing entertaining film. It's a bad film done very good. The story doesn't need much or lets better say any brain at all. It's a classic monster horror flick.

It's bad acting at it's best. Even the almighty Boris Karloff doesn't seam to care about his performance. The set design is so trashy, it blows your mind.

But all of that makes this film so mind blowing good. It's part of the Boris Karloff DVD Box Set, Limited Edition together with "Alien Terror", "Dance of death" and "Cult of the dead". I recommend this film as well as the limited steelbox edition.

To all you classic horror movie and trash freaks out there, GET IT. It's a film like they don't make them anymore. Just don't expect to get creeped out.

Although there were a lot of god-awful films of the 1960s, this final film for Boris Karloff would rank as my pick for the worst horror film of the decade. Now I am sure that there still might be a worse one hiding out there somewhere, but considering how many 60s schlock horror films I have seen, by declaring it the worst, I am saying a lot about just how poorly made this mess of a film was. Heck, it was so bad that I doubt if Ed Wood, Hershell Gordon Lewis or Al Adamson could have done worse!! BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN and RAT PFINK A BOO-BOO all are better than THE FEAR CHAMBER--it's THAT bad!!

The biggest problem is that you soon notice that the film's plot, at times, is incomprehensible. Additionally, there are many scenes that simply appear rather randomly as if the film were edited with a meat cleaver! So what's it all about? I'll TRY to tell you, but it won't be easy! The film begins with two people in some sort of heat-resistant suits. How they got to where they are and what they are doing is completely unknown, though the female is apparently talking to her father (Karloff) who is apparently miles away in a comfortable office while the two are in a Hell-like place full of flames and bathed in orange. Suddenly, and rather inexplicably, the scene abruptly changes to a laboratory where sick and horrible demonic human sacrifices are made. However, after seemingly killing an innocent lady, you find out it's all a ruse to scare the woman--thus producing some unknown liquid from her body that they feed to a rock creature. The creature is one of the cheesier looking "monsters" of the age--that's for sure. It seems that it lives off the fluid and they are trying to make the rock-thing grow. However, when a lady is REALLY killed by the rock-thing, Karloff calls off the experiment.

The next section seems as if perhaps Karloff was too sick to work further, as the action then switches to two of his depraved assistants. It seems that they want to continue feeding the creature because it has apparently made them promises of power and wealth. I don't know about you, but if a rock promised me ANYTHING, I'd be a bit skeptical! However, to apparently please the rock (!?), they hire more unsuspecting ladies--including a stripper who takes off her clothes for no reason whatsoever. While the lady looked really weird with her makeup, she did have a nice body and so she was apparently a cheap attempt to wake up the bored audience!! There's a little more to it than this, but frankly none of it made any sense, the sets were cheap and garish and the dubbing was bad--even Karloff's own dialog!! Throughout the film, his lips and what he says are at least a second or two out of sync--which is odd, because is IS his voice and that IS what he's saying but it just isn't at all coordinated. Plus, even if this had been competently done, how dumb is it to have what looks like a house of horrors in a modern computer lab?! The acting is rotten, the direction is indifferent and the entire film looks cheap and stupid. Sadly, though, it's just bad---not bad in a funny way that might make it fun to laugh at with friends.

What makes this whole mess so appalling, however, is that it was a horrible conclusion to a great actor's career. Karloff deserved better and I have no idea why he chose to make this Mexican mess. Could he have needed the money that badly?! Karloff should have called it quits with TARGETS or "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"--both of which were exceptional efforts from his final years in film.

Poor, old Boris Karloff. Reduced to appearing in a string of wretched Mexican horror films just before his death. I'm not sure what made him decide to do it, but this is not the way for a horror legend to go out. Fear Chamber is plain old bad. The plot makes little or no sense at all. Scenes and character seem to exist in a vacuum in that things happen that have no relation to what came before or what comes after. The cinematography and editing are shoddy. The acting is abysmal. Suffice it to say that everything I could mention is horrible. The reason I haven't rated the film any lower and the only reason to watch Fear Chamber is the curiosity value.

One of the handful of dirt-cheap American / Mexican horror films headlined by Boris Karloff before the horror legend passed away, "Fear Chamber" a.k.a. "Torture Zone" is "good" schlocky fun. As long as viewers go in knowing to expect an over the top level of cheese and a complete dearth of quality, they can have some fun with this. Whatever one may think of these movies, it's admirable that Karloff kept soldiering on, despite being in weak health.

The main reason to watch is to see Karloff once again give his all, even to movies that really didn't deserve his level of professionalism. Written by American cult favourite Jack Hill ("Coffy", "Spider Baby") and Luis Enrique Vergara, it tells of scientists discovering a "living rock" within a volcanic crevice. Dr. Karl Mantell (Karloff) deduces that it needs to feed upon people when they are at their most terrified.

Directors Hill and Juan Ibanez don't concern themselves with being terribly coherent, instead just throwing wacky characters into the mix to keep it just odd enough. Yerye Beirute is a hoot as an utterly demented goon named Roland, a guy who's given to uttering "I'm the king of the world" long before Leo DiCaprio made the phrase famous. Mexican superstar Isela Vega is likewise fun as a determined, cold-blooded scientist named Helga. Carlos East is okay as another of the eggheads; Julissa plays Mantells' daughter.

Stupid, poorly filmed, and indicative of its (lack of) budget at every turn, "Fear Chamber" still manages to entertain fans of this type of thing, despite itself. It's really Karloff that makes the big difference. Even in light of the "quality" level here, and his own ailing health, he remains compelling.

Five out of 10.

One of the god awful Mexican horror films that Boris Karloff made in his final years and which were released after his death. Karloff was paid to shoot sequences for four films in Hollywood because Karloff was too ill to travel. These sequences were written and directed by Jack Hill who then handed the film over to a Mexican producer. The footage was then cut in with stories with actors who were filmed in Mexico and had nothing to do with the English footage. The result was pretty much truly awful films with Karloff seeming to have come in from a different planet because his performance was so much better then everything else. Here the plot has to do with some living rock found in a volcano deep that needs the hormones secreted by frightened women in order to stay alive. So the scientists make a chamber and scare unsuspecting women. Add in some other soap opera type stuff and you have a really bad movie.This is one of those turkeys that even bad film lovers like me stare at with slack jawed wonder and ponder if its worth continued viewing or if we should just hang it up. (not to mention its another of those films that makes you ponder why Ed Wood is the king of bad movies) For masochists or Karloff completeists only.1 out of 10

Thankfully, he didn't live to see this turkey released.

The plot is simple. A scientist (Boris) finds a living rock from the center of the Earth that promises the secrets to the universe, but requires the adrenaline of terrified women to live. He realizes that the rock is a murdering creature, and suffers an episode (excusing him from having to appear in the rest of the movie until the very end.) The rest of the film is filled by bad Mexican actors and strippers wearing granny panties. Which just goes to prove, illegal aliens are just doing JObs Americans won't do, because I couldn't imagine any American wanting to appear in this tripe.

This movie would have been lost to history had it not had Karloff's scenes in it. It's too bad the Karloff estate, which jealously guards his image today, can't get this and other dubious works pulled from distribution.

Pretty bad, even for a Mexican horror film. Boris Karloff plays a scientist trying to keep a mysterious life form alive by feeding it a brain chemical released by humans when they're terrified. A promising idea, but a woefully put together patchwork of a film. Jack Hill wrote the screenplay and directed Karloff's scenes and they're spliced together with scenes shot in Mexico. Hill's direction of Karloff is pretty bland stuff and the Mexican scenes hold no interest at all, certainly not the few decidedly out of place shots of women being tortured. Isela Vega (electrifying in Peckinpah's "...Alfredo Garcia") appears as "Helga" and shows absolutely zero charisma. This is one US/Mexican tapestry that's shy of quite a few threads.