Tower of Evil (1972) from Tuna


Tower of Evil (1972), AKA Horror of Snape Island is a terribly underrated British slasher film which takes place on and abandoned small island with a lighthouse. As the film opens, a father and son fishing team go to the island in dense fog, though we don't find out why until much later. They find two dead guys, a decapitated woman, and Candace Glendenning, who kills the father before she is knocked unconscious by the son. She becomes catatonic, but the police are convinced she murdered her three friends. A psychiatrist is trying a combination of drugs and hypnosis to reach her.

Starting for the island is an expedition consisting of a museum team, and a private investigator hired by the parents of Glendenning, who don't want to believe she committed the murders. Seems one of the dead guys was impaled by a solid gold Phoenecian sword, and the museum postulates that the Phoenicians must have buried a ruler there, and that there will therefore also be a large gold statue of Baal, and other priceless artifacts to be found nearby. The same fisherman is to take them there. We learn that his brother, sister-in-law, and their child had lived there, and that the family moved there because the brother was insane.
People start dying, and the smell of it is that Baal is doing them in, but, in fact, the ending follows the natural laws of the universe, which is one of the reasons why I enjoyed it, and why I wouldn't really classify it as a horror film. It has atmosphere, Seretta Wilson was still working as of 1998, so this film clearly didn't hurt her.

NUDITY REPORT
  • breasts and buns from Candace Glendenning
  • breasts from Seretta Wilson as the decapitated girl.

DVD info from Amazon

  • widescreen letterboxed

  • no meaningful extra features

IMDB readers have it at 3.9 of 10, but many of those who commented agreed with me, that this was an entertaining example of 1972 era British horror. Obviously, the effects were not up to today's quality, but it was a pretty good yarn set in a pretty good location, and the acting ranged from adequate to pretty good.

The Critics Vote ...

The People Vote ...

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a C-.

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