THE FEAR CHAMBER (1968)
Article 2956 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-11-2009
Posting Date: 9-17-2009
Directed by Jack Hill and Juan Ibanez
Featuring Boris Karloff, Julissa, Carlos East
Country: Mexico / USA

A scientist discovers a living rock in the depths of the earth, and connects it to computers in the hopes of discovering its secrets. However, in order to keep it alive, it has to be fed with a substance that is only produced in the bodies of people in mortal terror. Eventually the scientist ends the experiment, but two of his assistants decide to continue…

This is the last of the four Mexican films Boris Karloff made at the end of his life that I’ve covered for this series. If anything, I’ve been a little too nice to these awful movies, and I’ll probably be so with even this one, which is the one I loathe the most. Visually, it’s the most interesting; in fact, it’s almost arty at times. I also like the concept of scientists attempting to converse with an intelligent rock. Nevertheless, beneath the novel concept, we have that basic concept of scientists driven to commit atrocities in the pursuit of knowledge. Furthermore, the idea that people (usually beautiful young women in various states of undress) must be nearly frightened to death to produce a substance to feed the rock is extremely contrived, and that idea contributes to the sadistic mean-spiritedness of the movie that renders it rather repellent; it’s this joyless nastiness that makes me loathe the movie. In short, this movie has none of the charm I would associate with either Boris Karloff movies or Mexican horror movies. Karloff does what he can, but it’s not enough.