This is a particularly interesting film because it is a Mexican production and
we don’t usually see a lot of these. While you might think that since it is a
Mexican production the movie would have been filmed in Spanish and then dubbed
into English, this wasn’t the case. In fact, it was originally filmed in English
and then dubbed into Spanish for cinemas in Mexico after the fact.
The story revolves around a man who has been sent into a forest for the purpose
of investigating some rather bizarre behavior of a certain physician by the name
of Dr. Tarr. What makes the story even more interesting is that the man himself
is also rather mysterious. It would seem that the doctor has established a
torture chamber in the forest, completely away from all civilization. A madman ,
Raul Fragonard, presides over the dungeon, ensuring that the innocent souls who
are brought here meet their hellish end. After being chained in glass cages they
finally become the victims of a rather gruesome slaughter. As it would turn out
the man who stumbles in upon all of this is a journalist new to the area but
before he can unlock the real secrets to this lunatic world (what really
happened to his deceased father) he finds himself on trial and having to deal
with the lunatics who, as it would turn out, are the ones really running the
asylum while the true doctor and his employees are the ones who are being held
prisoners.
If you’re an Edgar Allen Poe fan, you will probably find this movie particularly
interesting, because the story is loosely based on one of Poe’s tales. This is a
fine film set in a Surrealism style featuring great cinematography as well as
excellent performances set amid some fantastic locale.