1/13/09: Torment (1986)It must’ve been the retro box art that got us to pick up
Torment when it was first released to home video. We didn’t get a chance to be disappointed that it was a 1986 production. That’s because the opening credits immediately reminded us of the brilliant title sequence to
The Toolbox Murders. We start out with a middle-aged guy driving around and listening to right-wing talk radio. Well, it’s San Francisco. The guy’s listening to the closest thing he can find to right-wing talk radio. The host still tries to be polite when the guy finally places a phone call, and rants on for a while about how today’s modern world is totally screwed up for an old-fashioned American.
Our guy isn’t a regular guy. He’s Bob, or that’s how he identifies himself to the radio host. He’ll never get a proper name. William Witt, however, should be remembered for giving his all in a shamelessly uptight performance. His opening scenes are spent establishing that Bob is a nerdy mess of a psycho killer. He’s a pioneering angry white male who seems mostly pissed off that he hasn’t dropped dead of a well-deserved heart attack. It’s amazing that
Torment is Witt’s only film role. He invests this anonymous nobody with plenty of venom, and pretty much gives a performance that Gene Hackman would envy.
Yes, Bob’s the bad guy. The good news is that our heroine is a different right-wing caricature with far more dignity. This is probably where we enter (a minimum of) SPOILER territory. If you’re just looking for an underseen thriller, then quit reading now. For a quick conservative thrill, we’ll discuss Mrs. Courtland. She’s the elderly widowed mother of the detective investigating Bob’s reign of terror. Michael’s a hip young cop with a vaguely liberated fiancée named Jennifer. (We won’t identify any of the cast, since none of them are any better known than William Witt.) Jennifer is going with Michael to meet her future mother-in-law for the first time, which is when she discovers that her husband-to-be comes from money.
Things get off to a tense start. Jennifer’s so uptight that she can’t even eat while Mrs. Courtland discusses gory murder cases with Michael. He’s then called away when another of Bob’s victims is found. That leaves Jennifer alone with the wheelchair-bound Mrs. Courtland, who’s carrying on as a haughty stereotype of a privileged grand dame. Meanwhile, Bob’s coming over to visit stately Courtland Manor.
The storyline should have Mrs. Courtland killed off in a grisly manner while plucky Jennifer fights for her life. Instead, Mrs. Courtland becomes one of the coolest heroines in the history of really good movies that gathered dust on the shelves of any local video store that closed back in 1995. It’s a battle of the whitebread icons with Jennifer as the Leftist weak link—and, since Bob’s the bad guy, he knows how to exploit that. Bob is capable of pleading and pathetic behavior that’s unfathomable to Mrs. Courtland.
Torment is a film title with traditional meaning, but the real torment is that Mrs. Courtland has to put up with all these tacky people in her house. Most ’80s films would’ve treated that as a comedy.
Make it your own: Torment has never built the kind of following that would lead to a DVD release. That means you can get
VHS copies for cheap. Also, don’t believe the film’s few detractors who claim that
Torment relies upon a big coincidence. That plot point probably isn’t a coincidence at all. Still, it’s nice that the internet allows a forgotten film like this to keep being debated. Nobody’s caught how the final frame pays tribute to another classic thriller, though.
