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The Black Torment
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (13th June 2025). |
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The Film
 Sir Richard Fordyke (The Power of One's John Turner) returns to Fordyke Hall with his new bride Lady Elizabeth (The Phantom of the Opera's Heather Sears) to a chilly reception from the locals after a village girl who had been raped died screaming his name. Although Sir Richard was a hundred miles away during the crime, his paralyzed father Sir Giles' (A Night to Remember's Joseph Tomelty) steward Seymour (Straw Dogs' Peter Arne) informs him of talk of witchcraft and deviltry among the villagers. Worse yet, the villagers have claimed to see Sir Richard on horseback at night being pursued by the specter of his first wife Anne - who supposedly committed suicide when she was unable to bear him an heir - crying "Murderer!" When Sir Richard himself starts seeing the apparition himself and his sleep is constantly disturbed by the banging of the window from which Anne leapt, the seasoned viewer will deduce that a bit of gaslighting. On the other hand, when the members of the household - including Elizabeth, Anne's sister/Sir Giles' caregiver Diane (Screamtime's Ann Lynn) and jittery butler Harris (Hands of the Ripper's Norman Bird) - start encountering Sir Richard in different places simultaneously (and in extremely contrasting moods) and the chambermaids start disappearing, it becomes apparent that something more sinister (or even demonic) may be afoot. Producers Tony Tenser's and Michael Klinger's company Compton-Tekli would also give us Polanski's Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac, but Robert Hartford-Davies' The Black Torment is more indicative of the direction Tenser would take when he formed the company Tigon (Witchfinder General). While Terence Fisher's Dracula and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum are usually regarded as the heavy influences on Italian gothic horror, one can also see the influence of The Black Torment on some later entries like the Spanish/Italian Scream of the Demon Lover and the Italian pseudo-supernatural The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave while the later British Amicus production And Now the Screaming Starts also seems to crib an aspect of the plot in which the recent break in the alternating naming tradition of the first born heir has sinister significance. The film is prettily-photographed by Peter Newbrook (Freddie Young's assistant on Lawrence of Arabia) - who would go on to produce low budget British horror films like Crucible of Terror and direct the The Asphyx (gorgeously shot by Young) - nicely designed and acted, but otherwise clunky like Hartford-Davies' other film like the Newbrook-produced Bloodsuckers. Apart from Compton's follow-up "Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper" film A Study in Terror, the screenplay by brothers Derek Ford and Donald Ford has little in common with the sleazier direction the former's subsequent career including seventies sex comedies like Suburban Wives and Commuter Husbands, José Ramón Larraz's Scream and Die, the hardcore British rarity Diversions, and the slasher Don't Open Till Christmas along with uncredited direction on the Swedish-lensed slasher Blood Tracks. A pre-Doctor Who Patrick Troughton appears as the stable groom and Francis de Wolff (Hammer's Hound of the Baskervilles) plays the surly blacksmith. 
Video
The Black Torment was released theatrically in the states by Compton Cameo and in the U.S. by Governor Films who also picked up most of the "Carry On…" films. The film was released under its original title in the U.K. by Stablecane and Canada by CIC while stateside the Media Home Entertainment-distirbuted VCL put the film out under the title "Estate of Insanity". The film was not available on DVD in the U.K. until 2007 through Odeon while stateside Image Entertainment put it out in 2005 as part of their video deal with Redemption in a fullscreen transfer that Koch Vision reissued in 2009 during their redemption deal. Kino Lorber started issuing Redemption Films titles on Blu-ray in 2013 but their 2014 release of the film was DVD-only although it was an anamorphic widescreen transfer that was presumably from an HD master since Odeon put the film out on Blu-ray in 2015 while Wicked-Vision in Germany put out a mediabook in 2020 that included among the extras the unique West German scrolling title sequence. 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray presumably comes form the same HD master since there is no indication in the specs of a new transfer. The opening Compton-Tekli presentation card seems to be a still frame substitution given what looks like frozen grain and specks but after that the image is clean and brighter than the older video transfers which were nearly impenetrable during the opening stalk and kill teaser with the day-for-night tinting looking a bit gray but still later nocturnal exteriors look a little bluer but the more controlled lighting of the interior night including the climax are more richly blue in the Italian horror style. 
Audio
The sole audio option is an LCPM 2.0 mono track featuring a mix of production audio and post-dubbing. The track is free of damage and the score is nicely-rendered while the sound design is typical of low-budget British productions of the period, supportive but not particularly rousing even in the climax where music does more of the work. Optional English SDH subtitles are free of any noticeable errrors. 
Extras
The film is accompanied by two new audio commentaries… well, one seems to be new and one might be a little older (more on that below). First up is an audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth who describes the film as being "tentative" in its horror elements, competing with Hammer seemingly as much inspired by the forties "Gainsborough Gothic" psychosexual melodramas and recent Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman costume dramas with horror elements as by Riccardo Freda's The Horrible Dr. Hichcock and The Ghost which Compton Cameo had distributed on the bottom halves of double bills with two Hartford-Davis films. Howarth also offers frank assessments of the lead performances of Sears who was actually a bigger name and casting coup than theatrically "shouty" Turner while also praising the supporting cast. He also reveals that the setting of the 1820s was moved back to the late eighteenth century because Tenser felt the wardrobe available for the former did not expose enough cleavage. The audio commentary by film historians Kim Newman and Stephen Jones announces itself as part of a Hartford-Davis boxed set which has not materialized, so it was likely recorded earlier and 88 Films ended up scrapping their plans. The cover art for the film does not advertise itself as being part of any Hartford-Davis line nor as a Tigon production though Jones regards it unofficially as the "first Tigon film." Newman and Jones note the ways in which it differs from its Hammer contemporaries with a greater emphasis on landscape and location shooting over the former's studio-bound shoots and use of Black Park for exteriors. They also note that the film is set in a time period that Hammer rarely utilized, describing it as sort of a "regency romance" and also comparing to the Gainsborough melodramas, Baker and Berman pics – suggesting that Arne was cast here because he had already demonstrated in The Hellfire Club his swashbuckling abilities (noting at the time that academy-trained British actors took courses in fencing, horse riding, and even "wearing" period clothing) – as well as the films of Tod Slaughter. Like Howarth, Newman and Jones remark upon Arne's scandalous private life and murder while discussing the film's supporting cast (also revealing that the first victim was played by model Edina Ronay after whom Jennifer Saunders named her Absolutely Fabulous character).  Ported from the Odean Blu-ray is "In Black Torment: Actors Annette Whiteley and Roger Croucher Recall Working on The Black Torment" (31:29) in which Whiteley reveals that Derek Ford originally wrote the script for her as a film about good and evil female twins but the producers wanted something more conventional; however, Hartford-Davis called her up and wrote a role for her as a consolation with the bonus of a fun week in the country. She ended up playing Mary the maid and recalls shooting on location and getting to joy ride in the film's carriage as well as being called back after dubbing her own role to dub Ronay's panting and screaming for the opening sequence. Croucher recalls the film as his first role and reveals that the casting director congratulated him after seeing the rushes from his first day – leading to more work – with that day consisting of his big emotional scene while the second day he remembers getting to work with De Wolff and how a flub by the actor was muffled in post-production as the practice of Hartford-Davis appeared to be one take at the most unless there were technical issues. He also recalls doubling for the killer and that Hartford-Davis would put his hands on his shoulders during the strangling scenes and act them through him. "Peter Dansie Remembers The Black Torment" (7:59) is a brief interview with the then-seventeen-year-old assistant editor who recalls his apprenticeship under Alastair McIntyre (The Fearless Vampire Killers) and being based at Shepperton Studios but freelancing. He notes that some of the film was shot at the studio and that the girls in the cast played pranks on him. The disc also includes an image gallery (3:35) that Jones and Newman noted heavily-utilized Ronay in the promotional artwork rather than its stars. 
Packaging
The first pressing includes a slipcover and booklet notes by Barry Forshaw (neither of which have been supplied for review).
Overall
The pre-Tigon flick The Black Torment tries to compete with Hammer but shows influences from British costume melodramas and Italian Gothics while also influencing subsequent films in both genres.
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