The Sorcerers (1967)

Overrated and overhyped

One of my all time favorites.

Nice effects though.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Yes indeed, the Swinging Sixties were sexy, years before life-threatening STDs, political correctness and exploitative commercialism ruined it all. And pop music was great too, before it was compromised by self-indulgent overproduction and that same rampant commercialism.Ian Ogilvy (much cooler than David Hemmings as a prematurely jaded hipster) and the luscious Euro-babe Elizabeth Ercy make appealing leads, and get to strip down to their undies for a furtive swim that is simultaneously erotic and innocent, like Weissmuller and O'Sullivan before them. She also gets to wear a knockout peekaboo mesh outfit later on. A teenage Susan George shows off her bedroom eyes and flashes her yellow panties to great effect in the film's most effective thrill scene. And pouty-lipped Sally Sheridan (mom of Nicolette) coolly lip-syncs to a great garage tune (actually sung by a wonderfully brassy Toni Daly), with the low-angle camera appreciating how she sports her clingy chiffon mini-dress. Check out all those turned-on necking couples in the background. (By the way, I think Karloff is in the film, too.) It all brings to mind Mimsy Farmer's outrageously provocative LSD-fuelled dance in "Riot on Sunset Strip", Jane Asher's sultry seductiveness in "Deep End", and all those whacked-out Sergio Martino giallos.

Perfecting a mind-control device, a doctor and his wife use it to live vicariously through a youth in mod London but when the results of the control bring about her dark side he attempts to regain control from her before it's too late.Overall there wasn't a whole lot to really like with this one. Among the biggest problems with this was the fact that hardly any kind of horror occurred during the first hour of this one, as this is taken up with the two going over the process for the experiment and how they're going to gather him as a subject before turning to the early parts of their control by letting him go about town meeting up with his friends. Since these are all innocent endeavors, from going out to the club and swimming and then later driving along the freeway on a motorcycle at top-speed, none of these scenes are all that frightening or even designed to be which in turn makes these scenes simply use watching people do bland, boring things since we can't undergo the experiences featured here and the end result is simply bland, boring and just not a horror film at all. Likewise, the fact that he's undergoing these kinds of scenes yet no one thinks anything is strange with his behavior is also pretty troublesome, as all of his mentions of blackouts and unaccounted behavior tend to ring pretty troubling alarms in his friends about his behavior yet nothing is done and everything continues on as normal. It's not until bodies start piling up that they start to think something may be wrong, and even then the situation isn't handled all that well as there's hardly anything done about this nor is there any carryover about his previous statements regarding his influences, in the end really tending to make this a pretty troublesome effort. When it does become a horror film, this one isn't bad as the stalking scenes are quite good with there being some tension in the wait for him to coil and snap, despite the kills themselves being pretty bland and thrill-less being forced to use obscured knifings or strangling to do this but in the end all is somewhat forgiven with a great action-packed car-chase through the streets of London that is quite fun and enjoyable whipping around at those speeds to make for quite a great time here in the final half. It's just that so much of what happened before wasn't that interesting.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence, Language, sexual content and heavy smoking.

The Sorcerers is directed by Michael Reeves who also co-writes the screenplay with Tom Baker from an original idea written by John Burke. It stars Boris Karloff, Ian Ogilvy, Catherine Lacey, Victor Henry and Elizabeth Ercy. Music is by Paul Ferris and cinematography by Stanley A. Long.When aged scientist Marcus Monserrat (Karloff) tries a new hypnosis machine on bored young man Mike Roscoe (Ogilvy), he and his wife find they can control his actions and experience what he is experiencing. Initially this breakthrough is a rewarding one, but Marcus' wife Estelle (Lacey) wants more and soon things start to get decidedly amoral.Michael Reeves sadly died of an accidental drug overdose aged just 25, this having crafted the Cruel Britania brilliance that was Witchfinder General. Prior to that he helmed The Sorcerers, an equally great production, a sci-fi horror fusion that pulses with a pessimistic tone. There's no great budget for the talented young director to work with, but it barely matters, in fact it benefits the film greatly, as the two elders (Karloff wonderful, Lacey magnificent) live vicariously through Roscoe's (Ogilvy fresh faced and perfectly exuding a bored man after further thrills) misadventures. But the kicker here is that it is Karloff's scientist who recognises things are going out of control, and it is he who strives to stop his obsessed wife from committing heinous acts.Set to the backdrop of swinging sixties London, with mini skirts, Brit pop music and Norton motorbikes firm period reminders, The Sorcerers captures the zeitgeist of the time. Blending psychedelia with sci-fi and amoral horror with wistful yearnings, film comes out as an original piece of work. Thematically, as has been noted by the critics who have afforded this under seen classic some time, it says youth is wasted on the young while also planting us the film viewer in the metaphor chair. If Reeves was being caustic we will never know, sadly, but it does bear thinking about in light of how horror films, and their blood thirsty fans, would evolve come the millennium. Michael Reeves a visionary?From Lacey bringing one of horror's forgotten monsters to life, to a no cop out ending of pure bleakness, The Sorcerers never lets up on gnawing away at the senses. An original film made by an original director, and deserving of more widespread exposure. 8/10

This is a long way from 'Performance', even further than Lisson Grove (St. John's Wood) is from Powis Square (Notting Hill).Watching on BBC2 in 2008 one immediately supposes that the motive for th elderly couple will be to experience something erotic but it is very British, and very 1960's that the only seduction is that of the Professor's initially benign wife into avarice and violence. The film is misogynistic and of course sensational but the subtext that subversion of free will - and there are clear parallels and references to hallucinogens and other 'recreational' drugs - leads to suggestibility and is close to inviting mind control.The denouement is comical as the Police Inspector ushers the two protagonists back to the patrol car - superbly driven in the chase scene, its lumbering spin off the road is memorable - and instructs the driver to chauffeur them home. Case closed.