Very well executed

Overrated

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

In New York's Soho district, the master of ceremonies Sardu runs the Theater of the Macabre, which specializes in acts where people are tortured and dismembered. The audiences dismiss it as fakery but the gore is real. Behind the scenes, Sardu and his dwarf assistant Ralphus torture and mutilate women for their own pleasure, as well as sell girls they have abducted into slavery. When the critic Creasy Silo contemptuously dismisses the show, Sardu has him abducted and tortured. At the same time, Sardu also abducts the ballerina Natasha Di Natalie and determines to break her will in order to make her agree to perform in his new show.What could be better than naked hot chicks getting tortured until they are dead as door nails in a movie directed like it's 1070s porn?Well that's exactly what you get here. Distributed by Troma these days. Originally shot under the title Sardu: Master of the Screaming Virgins, it was retitled The Incredible Torture Show during its original theatrical run.It's surprisingly well acted and done for the genre. The story line keeps your interest and frankly it's way better than any of the splatter films of today. Especially the ones like Hostile. In fact this is a great movie, for what it is.

"Bloodsucking Freaks", the alternate title for this sick bit of cinematic sleaze, is not that accurate since there's really only one blood sucking freak in this thing. "The Incredible Torture Show", now THAT'S a better summation of what goes on here. Seamus O'Brien plays Master Sardu, a master of the macabre who puts hapless victims through unspeakable acts of brutality, content to have his audience think it's all just special effects and trickery. He's assisted by the demented Ralphus (Luis De Jesus) and assorted other cretins, and abducts ballet dancer Natasha D'Natalie (Viju Krem) so that she can be a part of his theatrical antics; critic Creasy Silo (Alan Dellay) also becomes a part of the act. Meanwhile, Natasha's boyfriend Tom Maverick (Niles McMaster), a football player, tries to track her down with the help of a sleazy detective, John Tucci (Dan Fauci). Even knowing that "The Incredible Torture Show" is clearly made with its tongue in its cheek, it's obviously going to have a somewhat limited audience. Yet these hardcore exploitation devotees are likely to be satisfied with what they see here. There ain't much in the way of story, just a lot of nasty, nasty depravity (and enough female nudity to make some viewers VERY, VERY happy) that ultimately becomes a little numbing. Still, there are some undeniable highlights, as heads, feet & hands get severed, teeth get extracted, a lady is electrocuted, etc. One's gotta love that one "doctor" character (Ernie Pysher) who goes to great pains to torture one victim; this guy is such a nut that even Sardu and Ralphus think, "This guy's too crazy, even for us!" A strong indicator of this movie's tone is when good old Sardu is having a meal that's precariously balanced on the back of a babe who's obliged to play the role of table, yet humour is added when he snarls, "Don't you DARE ruin my dinner!" O'Brien gets into the grim and goofy Grand Guignol spirit of writer / director Joel M. Reed's concoction, hamming it up quite nicely, as does the diminutive De Jesus. Fun gore effects abound, and the cage full of naked wild women is a Hell of a nice touch. In the end, Reeds' sense of bravado has to be admired, as he goes just as far as he can. The result is a truly trashy bit of insanity certain to give its audience some appreciative chuckles. Seven out of 10.

Lets face it, for 1976 there were probably no movies around like this. The exploitation and overall rediculousness of the movie is quite ahead for the time. The movie has an insane amount of torture and nudity, which is... OK? The movie did not have good acting, and I thought the plot was weak. There's over the top movies, and then there's the point where your skipping ahead cuz its getting too repetitive.In the end, if you wanna see a movie with 1976 grade torture effects and lots of nudity and over the top exploitation. See it. If you're looking for a movie with decent acting, plot, or simply diversion its not your movie.

Jesus H. Christ!! What on Earth was that I just watched?!?Sardu is a sado-masochist who just happens to run a stage show called The Theatre of the Macabre. Ralphus is his assistant, a midget with a sadistic streak and a taste for blood. Together they prepare shows which the audience think are make believe, but which are in fact (drum roll please), reality. Women - usually naked - are tortured and dismembered live on stage, and the audience applaud wildly.None stop sleave, gore and violence from start to finish, if you can cope with the extreme levels of misogyny on display, you're in for a treat.Distributed by Troma - truly the masters of the exploitation flick - this is a tour de force of bad taste: Feral women in a cage eating human flesh, thumb screws, dismemberments, whipping, beheadings, this has the lot. The lead characters are a joy, and really seem to be having a good time in their roles. There's a good line in black comedy too, and the matter of fact way they carry on with their sick and sordid business is nothing if not entertaining. Not for the faint hearted, this is an exploitation cult classic.Loved it.