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Publicity and Reviews
Star Paul T. Taylor, director Joe Manco and Little Spark Films appeared on the Clive Barker Podcast, which you can listen to here.
Reviews:
You can listen to reviews of The Torturer on both the Clive Barker Podcast and the Hellraiser Podcast (above). Thea links to these are here and here.
‘A man wakes up in a cell and is interrogated for information he claims he doesn’t have. But as the torture escalates, it becomes apparent that there is something else happening aside from his battle of wills… Paul Kane adapts his own short story from 2017 collection Nailbiters for this grisly 40 minute short. And it’s pretty bleak. Andy Brooks (Paul T. Taylor, Pinhead in Hellraiser: Judgment) awakens in a dark cell before being dragged into a torture chamber presided over by an unnamed torturer, a menacing Lawrence Varnado… and then the nightmare begins. For the next half hour we witness Brooks being subjected to an increasingly hideous series of tortures due to his unwillingness to reveal whose side he’s on and who he’s working for. One genuinely believes he’s initially telling the truth, though as time goes on, the visits from dead people seem to be awakening something within him. Nails hammered under fingernails and the hacking away at a wrist are just two of the miseries plied on Brooks – what will make him break? When finally the resolution comes, it’s not so much a killer twist as a logical explanation as to what’s been going on… Director Joe Manco manages to create tension and genuine unease with his limited shooting time and resources, and kudos to Paragraph Taylor for a growling, pulsing score.’
(Nick Joy, Sci-Fi Bulletin)
‘If the grit of Se7en had a baby with the torturous heart of Clive Barker, and the child was raised by Jigsaw, with Grandpa Argento decorating the nursery, and that being could be trans-mutated into a short film, it would be Joe Manco’s masterful interpretation of Paul Kane’s story: The Torturer. I will admit, I went into this with little expectations, as many shorts fall flat, due to time and budget constraints. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I walked away from this feeling like I had sat through a full-length feature, that had my attention from opening to closing credits. The film begins with a vague introduction to our main character, Andy, being captured and thrown into a dark room. Many suspense/thriller types that try this leave the audience too confused to get into the unfolding plot until much further in the film. Not this one. The intensity of the interrogation consumes you, despite not knowing anything about the lead’s back story.
The ambiguous nature of the story is the fuel for the cinematic wildfire. As soon as we are drawn into the passionate queries of the Torturer (“Who do you work for and what do you do?!?”), we are smashed in the face with some of the best, lower-budget torture effects I’ve seen. Far from being “torture-porn” the violence takes you right to the edge of unbearably gruesome, only to let you breathe for a bit, before the next round. This is the kind of ebb and flow that genre films have lacked for far too long. Ambience, emotion, isolation and atmosphere are the main tools that comprise the cinematography, which could be best described as visual and visceral poetry. The extreme, uncomfortable closeups tug the strings attached to the part of my heart reserved for the love of this Fulci-esque style. It is absolutely gorgeous. Rhythmic dialogue is the melody, enhanced by the harmony created with superb sound design. Without giving away too much of the plot, I have to touch on the surrealistic sequences with what we would call “The Victims.” Again, ambiguity prevents us from being able to put our finger on whose victims these people are and what relation Andy has to them. The effects here harken back to splatter films of the 80s, but with the Giallo-esque lighting, they are used with excellent precision. At no point is anything gratuitous. On the contrary, it is painful, it is gory, it is art imitating life.
The major arc in the story is obviously the relationship between the Torturer and Andy. It is in no way like Hostel or Saw, as it is not done in a sadomasochistic way or as means of moral teaching, it is that of the cerebral kind. Questions are asked, no clear answers are given and as a result, the Interrogated is punished. Let’s say Lawrence Varnado’s performance is more reminiscent of a vengeful God or perhaps a Cenobite, without the supernatural element. I am reminded of the early Nine Inch Nails home video for the Broken EP, especially the sequence for “Happiness in Slavery”. If you can imagine Michael Madsen from Reservoir Dogs torturing the police officer, except he’s a little more of John Doe from the movie Se7en, all in the realm of psychological horror, you’re getting close.
I give this film 4 1/2 Evil-Ed-Heads, shy of five ONLY because I would have love to have seen it stretched to a full-length (could be done easily with the character depth and the passionate plot) and I would like to go further with the visual effects. I’m a SFX Makeup nerd, what do you expect?’
(Demons of Celluloid)
‘This short is based on a story that was written and adapted by Paul Kane from his collection Nailbiters. I’m not too familiar with Kane’s work but after watching this beautiful piece of cinema from Joe Manco I’m about to take a deep, dark dive into his writings. I’ve watched and reviewed thousands of movies over the decade that I’ve been doing this and I’ve never seen a film with a title that perfectly sums up a movie before like The Torturer. Not only the basis for the film but the plot twist at the end. This short is a powerful one that you really have to see to get it. No words can do this one justice. The acting in this one is absolutely astounding. Paul T. Taylor and Lawrence Varnado are absolutely brilliant. They work so well together which makes the scenes even more powerful. The intensity Taylor brings to the scene is unrivaled in movies with a budget like this.
The story for this one is in your face, beautifully written, and the ending makes it all come full circle. After a few minutes I was convinced this was another boring entry in the torture porn sub-genre of extreme horror and was ready for it to be over, then the beauty in the story started to shine through. I was not expecting the ending nor was I ready for the story to come around like it did. I’m glad I stuck with it and let it finish telling me everything it had to say. Finally, this is a beautifully bloody film with some downright amazing practical effects. The make-up effects on the dead look fantastic but the highlight of the film is the effects used during the torture scenes. They are beautifully done and very effective. Overall, The Torturer is a short that shows there is beauty in depravity. It makes you think it’s just another mindless torture porn but then gives you something very different. I highly recommend checking this one out if you ever get the chance.’
(The Horror Society)
The soundtrack to the movie by Paragraph Taylor is available from Bandcamp (above). You can buy that here.
The original short story can be found in Nailbiters (the hardback of which contains the DVD of The Opportunity), and you can buy that here, here, and here.
And the script for the play version of The Torturer can be found in the back of Traumas which you can buy here, here, and here.