Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon

Director: Juan López Moctezuma Juan López Moctezuma

Overview

This bizarre Mexican production is loosely based on The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather by Edgar Allan Poe. The story involves a visit from a newspaper reporter (Claudio Brook) to a sanitarium in 19th century France, where he eventually comes to realize the asylum is being run by one of its own inmates, a megalomaniac, who allows the others to play out their basest fantasies and urges. More stylish and creative than its exploitative American-release title implies (the original Mexican title translates as Mansion of Madness), this is an interesting surrealist spin on the Poe tale from the producers of Jodorowsky's El Topo.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/13/2015
UPC:	0644827801428
Original Release:	1972
Source:	Reel Vault
Language:	English
Sales rank:	33,395

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Dumont	Actor
Claudio Brook	Doctor
Arthur Hansel	Le Blanc
Ellen Sherman	Elizabeth
Martín LaSalle	Couvier

Technical Credits

Editorial Reviews

This phantasmagoric adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather has 19th century French journalist Arturo Hansel traveling to a remote asylum to interview its director (Luis Bunuel regular Claudio Brook, whose echo-heavy dubbed voice is amusingly reminiscent of TV horror host Zacherle's) about his controversial techniques. His inquiries uncover a bizarre collection of characters and situations, some comic or erotic, others dangerous, culminating in a shocking discovery regarding the true identity of the asylum head. Viewers expecting a low-budget shockfest will be pleasantly surprised (or completely disoriented) by this rarely seen Mexican production's surreal imagery and set pieces, and its often unsettling mix of the grotesque and absurd. Director Juan Lopez Moctezuma produced Alexandro Jodorowsky's cult epics El Topo and Fando and Lis before embarking on his own behind-the-camera career; his subsequent genre efforts, which include Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary and Alucarda/Sisters of Satan (which also features Brook), are recommendable for horror fans seeking imaginative and offbeat fare.