Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon

This bizarre Mexican production is loosely based on The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather by Edgar Allan Poe. The story involves a visit from a newspaper reporter (Claudio Brook) to a sanitarium in 19th century France, where he eventually comes to realize the asylum is being run by one of its own inmates, a megalomaniac, who allows the others to play out their basest fantasies and urges. More stylish and creative than its exploitative American-release title implies (the original Mexican title translates as Mansion of Madness), this is an interesting surrealist spin on the Poe tale from the producers of Jodorowsky's El Topo.