That’s not too suggestive, is it?
Tower of Evil (1972) features T&A, slaughter of the promiscuous, and is a run of the mill example of the horror fare of the 1970s.
In other words, it’s quite exploitative.
Is it worth summarizing? The parents of a young woman accused of killing three of her companions during a visit to Snape Island, a barren bit of Scottish – I’m guessing – rock, are trying to clear her of the crimes. They hire a private investigator to this end, who teams up with a group who wants to search the island for archaeological remains. Between flashbacks, current character friction, and a lusty seaman, we get plenty of sex and distrust.
If you were permanently stuck down in some Scottish island cavern, you’d be giving everyone the finger as well. While you shivered. From the cold. Ba’al is a tropical denizen, after all. He felt cold and lonely, lording it over that God-forsaken rock and some maniacs. That’s merely an imaginative epithet, of course, the “God–forsaken” bit, Ba’al being a God and all that. Or at least a demon, which is, oh, God-like in its way – abrupt tempers, cruelty to strangers, not too nice to worshipful followers sometimes, disrespectful of rival supernatural divinities, it’s really just a matter of semantics. But, still, one must strongly believe that mere epithets don’t define reality, as I’d really hate to have Ba’al disappear in a puff of existential logic, because that would positively ruin this picture and therefore this Ph. D. thesis on 1970s horror movies.
Add in a couple of deranged inhabitants who are under the influence of a standard issue idol of Ba’al, the ancient and cruel God of Canaan – it’s not entirely clear if their relative has been bringing them groceries or if they’re eating kelp when they’re not brooding over dead Mama – and it turns into a rough ride for the group.
For the curious who have actually read this far, and I must say shame on you, the tower, besides an overt symbol of the real purpose of the movie – selling sex – is a lighthouse, long inactive.
Failing to build empathy for the victims or motivations for the nutters, we only watched out of morbid curiosity. But if you want to watch it – perhaps for your thesis on horror flicks of the seventies – here it is.
Oh, and, yes, this is the movie review to which this whale was referring.
