Chamber of Horrors (film)
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| Chamber of Horrors | |
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| Directed by | Hy Averback |
| Produced by | Hy Averback |
| Written by | Stephen Kandel |
| Music by | William Lava |
| Cinematography | Richard H. Kline |
| Editing by | David Wages |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Chamber of Horrors is a 1966 horror film directed by Hy Averback and starring Patrick O'Neal, Cesare Danova, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Laura Devon.
The film was released to theatres but was originally shot as a television movie and a pilot film for a proposed series called House of Wax. Danova and Hyde-White are proprietors of a wax museum in Baltimore who along with Tun Tun aka José René Ruiz are also amateur sleuths. They are drawn into the investigation of Jason Cravatte (O'Neal), an insane murderer who kills women and then "marries' them. They help the police capture him but he escapes and vows vengeance on all who "betrayed" him.
The film used the gimmicks of the Fear Flasher and the Horror Horn to alert viewers to grisly moments in the film. Although made for television, this was released theatrically because it was too intense for television. The gimmicks were added (along with a few star cameos like Tony Curtis, Suzy Parker, and Marie Windsor) to increase the running time. There are plot similarities between this film and Dark Intruder which released the previous year.
Despite its origins and gimmicks, the film is an engrossing thriller ( written by Ray Russell and Steven Kandel) with O'Neal giving a great Vincent Price-like performance and others keeping the tone light and humorous in spite of the grisly and sordid subject matter. It even has an ironic ending played out in the "House of Wax".
The film was narrated by William Conrad.
For unknown reasons, this film has never been released on video or DVD.
