Best movie of this year hands down!

Great Film overall

A Masterpiece!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Richard Carlson always looked worried at the best of times, and he sure has plenty to worry about here. In the hands of a really creative director some of the shock scenes in this film - as when Carlson's dead mistress gatecrashes his wedding - could have made this a classic. Instead it has Bert I. Gordon (who turns 95 in a couple of weeks) - the very poor man's William Castle - whose direction ironically manages to be both over-emphatic (exacerbated by an annoyingly noisy jazz score lifted from Castle's 'House on Haunted Hill') while failing to generate real atmosphere. But it holds your attention for the duration and you settle down to enjoy the ride in pleasurable anticipation of the next shock effect that you know is just round the corner.Gordon (like Castle) obviously saw and was impressed by Clouzot's 'Les Diaboliques', and probably knows his Poe, since the plot in places strongly recalls the 'The Tell-Tale Heart', while the basic premise of a jealous dead lover who won't lie down anticipates Roger Corman's 'The Tomb of Ligeia' (1964). (The presence of Joseph Turkel - now 90 years old - similarly evokes memories of his spine-chilling presence twenty years later as Lloyd the bartender in Kubrick's 'The Shining'.) As the discarded Vi, Juli Reding is already scary enough when still alive, as a ghost she's in her element arranging nasty surprises like cattily dumping wet seaweed on her rival's wedding dress.

Tormented could have been a very good horror movie....When the "tormenting" begins, it's pretty creepy. The footprints in the sand, the record player, the photograph. But when the main character picks up the ghost's head and drops it down the stairs, it just kills the mood. It doesn't feel like a horror movie anymore, but a supernatural black comedy. Maybe it is supposed to be a black comedy?It doesn't ruin the entire movie though. The plot is interesting enough, and you want to see how it ends. Too bad the about the ridiculous head scene...But, it's still better than most of the crap they call horror movies these days. It's a short movie too, so if you're bored and got nothing else to do, grab yourself a bag of potato chips and watch Tormented.

Extremely poor quality photography and a tinny sound make this barely watchable, saved by the content going on rather than what was going on with the technicians. The film really starts with a thud (literally) when a beautiful woman falls to her death with a shattering scream from a lighthouse and isn't helped by the man she's involved in an argument with. This sequence is ultra disturbing because you know this woman is terrified for an extended period of time and knows she's on the verge of an accidental death. She may not be murdered, but the man who could have saved her (Richard Carlson, a minor matinée idol from the late 30's/early 40's) seems thrilled by her sudden departure from his life. She doesn't leave him alone, however, and when he's suddenly engaged to another woman, she begins haunting him, although whether or not it is her ghost or just his conscience is never determined.There are some genuinely spooky moments here, and if you can get past the cheap look, you might find it thrilling. The special effects aren't extraordinary, although what they do use actually might bring shivers down your spine. This doomed young beauty's ghost is a frightening presence, and as her "visits" to Carlson continue, they get more and more threatening, setting up for a conclusion which proves to be both horrific and even slightly profound. The cast tries to do what they can to overshadow the weak camera work and poor sound equipment, but they seem a bit amateurish under the circumstances. Still, there's some genuine frights to be found here, and some of them might bring on a few nightmares of your own.

I do not understand how people found this movie scary or even vaguely engaging. The script, acting and effects all compete for last place. If I had been young enough to be scared by this, I would have been put off by the mushy parts. What age group was this aimed at? Were we really that unsophisticated in 1960?Spoilers (coincidentally also known as my favorite parts): The screaming detached head. The crashed wedding where the spirit wilts the flowers. The guide dog which leads in random directions with respect to the blind woman. The cool talking ship captain. It just gets better as it progresses. Set the bar low and prepare to be entertained. Ed Woods would be proud!