| Tower of Evil | |
| Director: | Jim O'Connolly |
| Producer: | Richard Gordon |
| Starring: | Bryant Haliday Jill Haworth Mark Edwards Anna Palk |
| Music: | Kenneth V. Jones |
| Cinematography: | Desmond Dickinson |
| Editing: | Henry Richardson |
| Studio: | Grenadier Films |
| Distributor: | Anglo-EMI Film Distributors (UK) The Fanfare Corporation (US) |
| Runtime: | 89 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $400,000 est. |
Tower of Evil, also known by the titles Horror on Snape Island and Beyond the Fog, is a 1972 British horror film[1] directed by Jim O'Connolly.
One night, a boat reaches Snape island. Two seamen go on shore and find a severed hand. After seeing the male body it was attached to, they decide to enter a lighthouse to investigate. They find a female body with a severed head. They split up and find another murdered body. Then they find a young woman, Penny, hiding in a closet. Traumatized, she fatally stabs the older seaman. The other man--the captain of the boat--survives.
She is later examined by doctors. The shocked Penny eventually starts talking and remembering how her friends ararrived. The flashbacks make her scream.
After hearing about this, some scientists decide to visit the Island, which is loaded with gold and Phoenician treasures. The team, consisting of five men and two women, sets out on the Sea Ghost, which is captained by the surviving seaman.
After landing, they notice a lack of sea gulls and other forms of life. They suspect that the island has another inhabitant. Their leader, Dr. Simpson, looks at a stashed away sack. The captain sees a picture of his brother in the mansion. He explains reveals that his brother, sister-in-law and their child died on the Island.
The scientists eventually hear a strange noise. They split up to look for the cause. After everyone reunites, Dr. Simpson says that he will check on the boat. Before leaving, he says that the three young people must have been murdered by a madman who may still be on the island. While two scientists go upstairs to have sex, the rest of the men go out to look for the Doctor. They find that someone blew up the boat. The young man having sex with Nora runs to the boat. Nora, alone, wanders and is stalked by the murderer, a bearded madman. She sees a decomposing body in a rocker, screams and passes out.
The others come running and find Nora and the body. They demand answers from the captain. He admits that he has been keeping secrets. The corpse is his sister-in-law, and his brother Saul is still there, living in the caves under the house. The madman also destroyed their radio. The men decide to go in pairs to find Saul. The women stay inside. The captain and his search partner find Saul's cave.
Nora's friend Rose hears someone weeping. She investigates, and looking through a wall, she sees Saul, rocking the corpse of his dead wife. He hears her and stalks her. He finds Nora, who runs to the top of the lighthouse where Saul throws her off onto rocks. Seeing that Nora is dead, Rose and the two other men go into a cave together. Meanwhile, the Doctor, who is near a coffin, finds the treasure. He hears the strange sound again and pursues it. After he leaves, the captain's search partner finds the treasure. After looking it over, he hears Saul laugh, and then Saul crashes in on him. The remaining five meet up in the cave. The Doctor explains that he fired his gun at Saul and was stalking him all night.
The strange sounds returns. Rose and Dan, one of the men, stay with the treasure while the captain, the Doctor and the other man go looking for Saul. Saul eventually attacks Rose. Dan comes to help, but Saul breaks his neck. With all of the screaming, the three men reappear and shoot Saul dead. The Doctor reveals that he has been to the Island before. On the other side of it, he left a boat and supplies. The captain stays with Rose and the two other men go to get the boat and some of the artifacts. Then Rose and the captain go inside the lighthouse. The captain says that Martha never wanted his brother Saul to be reported. The captain then upstairs to get some sleep but later returns bleeding. He mentions Michael, Saul's son, and dies. Then, the deformed Michael attacks Rose. She throws an oil lamp at Micheal and sets him on fire. As he burns to death, the house and cave catch on fire as Saul had it rigged to. Rose escapes and the two surviving men leave the cave to watch the house and its dwellers burn.[2]
Producer Richard Gordon was looking for a horror film he could make in England in association with Joe Solomon of Fanfare Films. Gordon met Geogre Baxt who pitched him the story of Tower of Evil and Gordon bought it.[4] Gordon paid Baxt $5,000 to write a script which was delivered six months later. Neither Gordon nor Solomon liked the final script, feeling that there was too much humor.[5]
Gordon decided to proceed on the basis of the strength of the story, looking for a new director. He approached Sidney Hayers who was a friend of Baxt, but Gordon turned him down because he felt Hayers was too enthusiastic about Baxt's script and wanted to shoot it as written. Gordon was then introduced by Herman Cohen to Jim O'Connolly (the two men had made Berserk! together), who said he would only make it if the script was rewritten; Gordon agreed, and O'Connolly rewrote the script to a degree which pleased Gordon and Solomon. Gordon says this permanently ruined his relationship with Baxt.[5]
Gordon says the British unions protested the importation of American actor Bryant Haliday to play a role. Gordon arranged for Lee Patterson has a back up but secured Halliday's casting by claiming that the film's financing was dependent on Haliday being in the cast.[5]
Gordon says Mark Edwards was recommended to him by James Carreras off the back of Blood from the Mummy's Tomb.[5]
Apart from a few location shots, the movie was entirely filmed at Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, Surrey in 1971.[6]
The film was released in America as Horror on Snape Island.
Gordon says the film did "very well" in England.[5]
The film was dismissed as mere exploitation fodder by many critics.[7] Film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film a BOMB rating and mockingly said "One of the Horrors of Snape Island is the film itself".[8]
However, over the years, the film has been embraced as something of an underground classic by the horror community. The Terror Trap horror review rated the film positively, calling it "A surprisingly adroit little British slasher, Tower of Evil is a revelatory sleeper.".[9] Elite Entertainment released Tower of Evil on DVD for the first time in 1999.[10] On 12 December 2008, Turner Classic Movies showed the film as part of their late night TCM Underground series.