Tower of Evil (1972) - Movie storyline

 

Tower of Evil (1972)

 

A British film about a group of archaeologists searching for Phoenician treasure on Snape Island, a place which was the recent grisly site of a series of mysterious murders.

Two old seamen , John Gurney (George Coulouris) and Hamp (Jack Watson), plow through the fog to Snape Island where they find the dismembered remains of a group of young men and women.

The head of a naked woman unexpectedly rolls off down the stairs.

They open a closet in the lighthouse and find a nude woman wielding a knife.  She screams and stabs them.

The woman is Penny (Candace Glendenning).  A couple of doctors try to get through to the nearly catatonic woman in order to find out what the hell happened on that island.

A high-tech light system is used to conjure up the memories.

Penny remembers landing on the island with her friends.

Des (Robin Askwith) and Mae (Seretta Wilson), Penny and her boyfriend Gary (John Hamill)

Des is quickly killed by impalement via a grotesque hand.

Mae is killed next.

While their friends are busy getting killed, Penny is naked with Gary.

Penny hears strange noises.  Gary assures her it's just seals. (WTF?)

Gary is dismembered, and Penny runs screaming.

And that's about it for Penny.  The doctor gives her a tranquilizer.

Bakewell (Dennis Price) has put together an illustrious team to go in search of Phoenician treasures on Snape Island.  Among the renowned experts: Brent (Bryant Haliday) and Rose Mason (Jill Haworth).

Nora (Anna Palk) and Dan Winthrop (Derek Fowlds)

They're also joined by Adam (Mark Edwards)

Even more treasure hunters: Dr. Simpson (Anthony Valentine) and super stud sailor Brom ( Gary Hamilton)

Hamp (from the start of this film) is also here.  He explains the sordid past of Snape Island.  There's this whole backstory involving his brother Saul who still lives in caves below the island.

You could not possibly assemble a more boring group of people.

This is where the movie face-plants and loses any possibility of being a beloved cult classic.  It spends so much fucking time in boring conversation among the treasure seekers.  

Thankfully, Nora livens things up by going to bed with Brom.

Afterwards, she hears noises and explores.

She encounters this rotten corpse.

They're now trapped on Snape Island.  Saul has destroyed their radio and set fire to their boat.

 

Saul (Fredric Abbott) attacks Nora, and she falls to her death from the lighthouse.

Brom has found the Phoenician treasure, but his joy is short-lived as he's also killed by Saul.

The remaining survivors

Rose is attacked by Saul'd deformed son...

Michael (Mark McBride)

Rose sets fire to Michael, and the whole damn place goes up in flames. THE END

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Too many boring scenes and even more boring characters weigh this thing down.  It's a shame as the story is really cool: the Michael character creepy as fuck. Despite the yawns, there's still plenty of interesting and entertaining scenes, a smattering of sleaze, and picture that's easy on the eyes - very artfully conceived.