Review of Tormented

I saw this movie on television in the late Sixties, knowing nothing about it, and was literally scared to the point of having nightmares for the next two months. It's a hokey, campy, overdone film that still manages to be genuinely eerie. There are some truly creepy scenes that will unnerve any viewer, no matter how silly the movie gets at times. WARNING;SPOILERS AHEAD: the scene in which the blind woman is lured up into the abandoned lighthouse is really effective. The best remembered scene has to be the confrontation between Richard Carlson as the guilty man and the floating, disembodied head of the ghost, as he holds her by her long blonde hair and tries to stuff her into a bag, while the head shrieks out " Tom Stewart killed me! Tom Stewart killed me!" As foolish as that sounds, it's a really scary scene. The great scene in which the unseen ghost disrupts the wedding by crashing into the church and causing the flowers to wilt, just at the point where the minister is reading from the wedding ceremony, " if there be anyone present who knows just cause why these two may not be lawfully joined together, let him now speak or forever hold his peace" is a real tour de force. The film has moments of total absurdity, which run up against truly macabre moments that will absolutely chill you. The overall effect is a taut, atmospheric little ghost story that works pretty well. Worth seeing at least once.