Tormented (Film Masters) Blu-ray Review + 1080p Screenshots + Packaging Shots

Film Masters brings one of Bert I. Gordon's lesser known films, Tormented, and we have the blu-ray review.

Studio: Film Masters
Release Date: September 22nd, 1960 (theatrical) / April 23rd, 2024 (blu-ray) (Tormented) / September 26th, 1992 (original air date) (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)
Run Time: 1 hour 14 minutes 29 seconds (Tormented) / 1 hour 31 minutes 42 seconds (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)
Region Code: FREE

Disc Count: 1 (BD-50)
Picture: 1080p (1.85:1 aspect ratio) (Tormented) / 480p (1.33:1 aspect ratio) (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)
Sound: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (Tormented), Dolby Digital 2.0 (both films)
Subtitles: English SDH (Tormented), English (for the commentary), English (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)
Slipcover: No
Digital Copy: No
Starring: Richard Carlson, Susan Gordon, Lugene Sanders, Juli Reding, Joe Turkel (Tormented) / Trace Beaulieu, Joel Hodgson, Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Frank Conniff (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)
Written by George Worthing Yates (Tormented) / Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy, Frank Conniff, Joel Hodgson, Paul Chaplin, Bridget Jones, Mary Jo Pehl (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)
Directed by Bert I. Gordon (Tormented) / Kevin Murphy (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)
Rating: Approved (some scary scenes) (Tormented) / TV-PG (some language) (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)

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Poster

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What's It About?

On an island community off of California, Tom Stewart is preparing to marry the woman he loves. His plans are threatened by his old girlfriend, Vi, who shows up secretly. During a confrontation at the top of the island's lighthouse, the railing breaks and Vi falls. Tom has a chance to save her but doesn't. Tom's relief at Vi's accident soon fades when her vengeful spirit begins showing up wherever he goes... (Tormented)

In Tormented (1960), a pianist thinks he has finally escaped his demanding mistress when she dies after a fall but her ghost comes back to haunt him and his fiancée. Joel gets stuck in a ventilation duct and the Bots are no help. But Joel has the last laugh later when Crow and Tom pretend to be headless ghosts. (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tormented)

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Video/Audio

TORMENTED looks pretty damn good. A thin layer of grain gives some impressive detail while also giving the film a very organic film-like feel. Blacks are nice and deep, whites are never overblown, and grayscale is nice and consistent. Towards the end of the film, the lead guy is talking to a little girl and there is a ripple effect on the guy's face. It's the right side and it looks weird. It's there when he gets up too. That's really the only imperfection I saw. I would say it looks better than SKI TROOP ATTACK and THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (also released by Film Masters) but not as good as BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE or THE TERROR (which I think is their best looking release to date). We also get the film in its original aspect ratio which is always appreciated.

TORMENTED is divided into 8 chapters and has English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

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Extras/Packaging

Commentary on Tormented by Gary B. Rhodes - These are usually my least favorite kind of commentary track: the film historian. Sometimes they get it right and shine. Then there are times they get it wrong. This time they got it wrong. This guy is a bore. This was hard to sit through. This track has its own subtitle track. I wish more companies would do this. Bravo, Film Masters.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Tormented (1h 29m, SD, 1.33:1) Thank you Film Masters for including this. This is honestly the only way anyone should watch the film.

Bert I. Gordon: The Amazing Colossal Filmmaker interview (7m 52s, HD, 1.78:1) Gordon sits down to talk about his childhood, how his love for movies came to be, making short films as a kid, he opened a business but soon closed it to move to LA so he could make movies, made his first film independently, didn't make any money off his first film because the financier ran off with the money, how he quickly moved to bigger budgeted films because of his success with the smaller ones.

Bigger Than Life: Bert I. Gordon in the 1950s and 1960s documentary (39m 25s, HD, 1.85:1) C. Courtney Joyner sits down for a retrospective of Bert I. Gordon's film released in the 50s and 60s. He covers, King Dinosaur, Beginning of the End, The Cyclops, The Amazing Colossal Man, War of the Colossal Beast, Attack of the Puppet People, The Spider (aka Earth vs the Spider), The Boy and the Pirates, Tormented, The Magic Sword, Village of the Giants, Picture Mommy Dead.

The Spirit is Willing visual essay (20m 13s, SD, 1.85:1) This wasn't for me. The narrator was putting me to sleep and there are a lot of times where they just play a random scene from the movie with no narration. It's kind of weird. I am sure there are those out there who love this feature and I am not trying to shit on what you like, but it's just not for me.The was also hard to get through.

Famous Ghost Stories unaired pilot (4m14s, SD, 1.33:1) Text before the feature reads: The following is an unreleased TV pilot originally masterminded and directed by Bert I. Gordon, and the folks at Herts-Lion International. Vincent Price hosts and plays a poltergeist, while introducing the ghost story to follow, which turns out to be an edited version of Gordons' "Tormented", Price comes back at the end to wrap things up and tell us about the next week's episode.

Original 1960 raw 35MM Tormented trailer (2m 11s, HD, 1.33:1) Can we get of more of these raw scans for trailers. This is pretty damn cool.

2024 re-cut Tormnented Trailer (2m 1s, HD, 1.85:1) The same trailer just re-edited using the footage from the 4K restoration.

The packaging for the blu-ray is nice and simple. The cover features the film's original poster art. We get a black blu-ray case which is very nice and fits these Film Masters blu-ray just right. I hope they use these cases going forward. Inside the case is a single Blu-ray featuring the same art as the blu-ray case. There is also a 24-page booklet an essay about the film by writer Tom Weaver along with one by novelist/filmmaker John Wooley about star Susan Gordon.

The disc is REGION FREE

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Overall

I was bored watching TORMENTED. The film has a cool premise but it presents it in the blandest way possible. There are some cool visuals but nothing more.

The blu-ray for TORMENTED fares much better. The picture and sound are great. While I didn't like the commentary or the visual essay, I loved including the MST3K episode. I had a lot of fun going through this episode and have concluded that this is the only way I will watch TORMENTED from now on. I can recommend this release even if it is mostly because of the MST3K episode.

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