Torment
Directed by Steve Sessions
Brain Damage Films

Clowns and horror go together well, always have and probably always will. 100 Tears certainly raised the bar for low budget horror featuring a crazed killer clown and while Torment doesn't quite have the same visceral impact, it is an effective albeit light on plot horror film. This is a simple story and in reality you normally don't watch a movie like this for an involved plot, but a bit more padding would have been nice. It's the type of movie where absolutely no motive or reasoning is given and you just happen to have a killer clown torturing people in ghoulish ways. So the film is entertaining, but it doesn't require much in the way of brain power to digest.

A woman recently released from a mental hospital is taken to a cabin in the woods by her husband to get away from everything and try to relax. It is quite clear that the woman is troubled yet the husband doesn't seem to quite understand how to deal with the situation which in turn leads to fighting. She believes what she is seeing is in fact real yet the husband believes she is only hallucinating. Aside from a few actual hallucinations, she also believes that she is seeing a clown outside of the cabin and peering into the bedroom window. The viewer of course knows that the clown isn't a hallucination, but the husband essentially thinks his wife is crazy.

That essentially is the plot of the film, the wife seeing the clown and searching for him outside until finally he proves to the husband in bloody detail that he is indeed real and very dangerous. The climax is by the books and lacks a bit of oomph in its delivery. The same could be said for the entire movie actually. It's well made, but the story just doesn't jump out at you. It is in no way a snoozefest, yet it has a slightly slower pace than similar films.

There really isn't much in the way of gore. A tongue is ripped off in fairly graphic detail, and a hand is chopped off. You also see a freezer full of chopped up body parts which is well done. Aside from that there isn't much else in the way of bloodletting. I also think it was fairly strange that there were cockroaches and bugs in the clown's home but the home itself looked very clean. I know that I am being overly anal, but that just seemed to stand out as odd to me.

The full screen transfer is of surprising quality. The colors are vibrant which is enhanced by the fact that the clown is wearing a very colorful outfit. You'll probably never lose sight of the fact you are watching a low budget film, but there are certainly much worse looking films out there. It doesn't quite have that cinematic sheen, but it also doesnt have the obviously shot on video look either, it fits somewhere in between the two.

Torment is a simple yet effective horror film that doesn't break the mold in any way shape or form. Essentially it is taking an idea like Hostel, throwing in a clown and making it much less gruesome. Don't expect to be wowed and you won't be disappointed.

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