Fear Chamber (1968)

Wonderful character development!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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.

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!

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(?)!