A Woman's Torment (1977) User Reviews

I preferred the soft version...

[Sammy_Sam_Sam · 6/10 · 23 May 2021]

Sometimes you'll see an uncut version of a horror or exploitation flick and completely out of nowhere, there will be some hardcore porn. It seems out of place and sure enough, quite often it will have been added at a later stage, usually to sell to a different market. Conversely, there are also adult movies that released in a softer form with large sections cut out, again to sell to a specific market. This falls into the latter, as it was I believe primarily intended to be an adult movie, but one which had other elements. With that said, it isn't particularly erotic due to the fact the story revolves around mental illness and murder! I decided to watch the softer version because personally, I like horror to be horror and porn to be porn. I won't give away too much about the storyline, other than to say it isn't particularly complicated. What I can say however is that it's quite well shot, has a lovely score and is reasonably well acted. With better actors and a bit more gore, I think this could've been a really great movie, but it's by no means a bad film, particularly when you consider the small team who made it. I did flick through the full uncut version afterwards and sure enough, it is highly explicit. I'd seen Michael Gaunt in 'Intrusion' the night before, so it was interesting to see him in another role (also there was an interview with him on the Blu Ray, presumably filmed at the same time as his interview for Intrusion). Another interesting person to make a (brief) appearance is Robert Kerman (or R Bolla). To me he'll always be Professor Monroe from Cannibal Holocaust, but he crops up in quite a few adult movies. On the soft version he can be heard discussing Fellini at a cocktail party - mildly interesting given his acting roles in Italian cinema. I believe on the strength of other performances, he and Gaunt could have been solid actors in more mainstream films, but I suppose once you get your name known as an adult film star then it can be difficult to get other roles.

I would certainly recommend the soft version to anyone interested in proto-slashers and horror, but just bear in mind there's nothing particularly memorable in terms of the kills. Considering the small team behind it and the fact the star apparently ran off from set before the movie had been finished, I think they did a pretty good job bringing it all together into a watchable film.

A viewer's torment.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 27 September 2020]

Married couple Estelle and Otis (Jennifer Jordan and Jake Teague) are unsure how to deal with Estelle's emotionally disturbed sister Karen (Tara Chung). While the couple try to decide what to do with Karen, the crazy woman turns homicidal, killing those who visit her at the beach home where she is living.

Before becoming a director of low-budget horror, Roberta Findlay was a maker of low-budget porn; a Woman's Torment straddles both genres. Some have likened it to Roman Polanski's classic psychological thriller Repulsion (1965), but Findlay is no Polanski and Tara Chung is no Deneuve.The acting is terrible: I assume that it's a cast of porn stars trying their hand at acting, rather than actors giving porn a go. They might be pros when it comes to sex*, but they're shockingly amateurish when it comes to delivering lines.

Findlay's attempts at Polanski style-hysteria and madness are laughable, largely thanks to Chung's lamentable central performance, and the hardcore sex is unimaginative, with several scenes going on for way too long (Karen with workman Larry - so tedious!).

3.5/10, rounded up to 4/10 for IMDb. Just about worth a watch for curious Findlay fans.

*The use of a not-very-well concealed tube spurting presumably fake ejaculate suggests that one performer wasn't quite ready for another pop shot.

Roberta Findlay's loopy porno take on "Repulsion"

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 13 November 2017]

Don (well played by Jeffrey Hurst) and his wife Frances (a credible performance by fetching brunette Crystal Sync) are having problems with their marriage which are compounded in severity by the disruptive presence of Karen's mentally ill sister Karen (a convincing portrayal by the luscious Tara Chung), who lives with the couple and suffers from a tenuous grip on reality which ultimately leads to madness and murder.

Writer/director Roberta Findlay's bizarre and sordid horror-tinged melodrama delivers a solid and satisfying mix of raunchy explicit sex and jarring moments of bloody violence. Moreover, Findlay makes neat and effective use of strange ghostly whispering and wonky disorienting noises on the soundtrack to convey Karen's descent into complete psychotic insanity. The sturdy supporting cast of Golden Age adult cinema regulars helps a lot: A marvelously snarky Jennifer Jordan as the bitter and snippy Estelle, Jake Teague as smarmy shrink Otis, Marlene Willoughby as pesky neighbor Fannie, and Michael Gaunt as sleazy hardhat Larry. Walter Sear's brooding classical music score further enhances the overall oddball atmosphere. An offbeat and enjoyable out of the ordinary hardcore item.

A truly deranged 70's sickie from Roberta Findlay

[frankdaft · 10/10 · 7 January 2010]

This is some bizarre sickie s**t from Roberta Findlay, a completely deranged film about a freaky chick who hallucinates all the time hearing weird noises and s**t.There's plenty of sex and some great dialog in this genuinely hypnotic tale of lust, insanity and murder.

Otis, a shrink, is having sex with with his wife Estelle, well he thinks he is anyway and ignores her cries of pain and pleads for him to stop.When hes finished he cant see what all the fuss is about, "I just made love to you" he goes like nothings the mater, "Wrong my friend, you just masturbated inside of me!" she hits back with. Yep there is some classy dialog in this one! She also suspects him of having an affair too.

They go to a party and meet up with Don and Fran. Otis gets paro ("I need a drink Don, I mean i need a bottle!") while Estelle tries to find out who Otis is rooting. Don starts talking about Karren who is Frans younger sister and a bit of a head case, she hasn't even spoken in 3 weeks!!

Later on Don and Fran are back home just about to f**k ( "Come here winch let me make love to you") when they have an argument about Karren.Don wants her locked up but Fran wont have a bar of that-"I'm not having anyone connected with the Compton family in a mental institution"- that settles that and its time for a root("You just like me because i talk dirty, come here c**t")

Karren f**ks off while all this is happening and goes to the beach and wanders around for ages before finding a beach house and wanders around that before taking a shower and hallucinating that a masked man is stabbing her while she masturbates.

Then it goes even more crazy!!

An electrician type turns up and try's to calm her down, "Nothing to fear from Larry the letch" he goes. She gets all horny again and that freaks Larry out a bit,"First your hot and then your cold then your ten years old and now your a wh*re, Well i think your nuts!" "So what if i am" That's good enough for Larry and he fingers her but when he puts his c**k in then she goes nuts and kills him.

After more strangeness, masturbating in the shower again about what just happened,walking around in a daze, Otis and the others singing Roll Out The Barrel ,more people show up at the beach house including a nosy lady and a horny couple and meet similar fates.

Eventually Fran Otis Don and everyone bother to work out where she is, the party must come to a close but not before Otis dose some counseling "Right now i think you need a mans body next to you more than all the therapy in the world" and guess what.....

As you would expect this ends on a down but insane note.

That synopsis still docent capture how crazy this film is by a long shot, its wild!!!

Tara Chung as Karren is fantastic and out there! I reckon Richard Kern and Lung Leg were taking notes with this one, Some of it looks real cinema of transgression!!

Plenty of hardcore kind of slows it down a little during the second half but its still a great rough ride with plenty of weirdness and murder, highly recommended to 70's sleaze hounds!!

Porn Version of Repulsion

[Michael_Elliott · 5 May 2014]

A Woman's Torment (1977)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Somewhat notorious hardcore film from director Roberta Findlay is pretty much a take-off on Roman Polanski's REPULSION. In the film, the mentally disturbed Karen (Tara Chung) is left home alone and soon begins to have hallucinations that slowly drive her insane and forces her to attack several people that she comes into contact with. When I say attack, that includes both sexually and in a more violent nature. A WOMAN'S TORMENT has a small cult following thanks in large part to the director's whose own popularity seems to be growing more in the digital age but the film is also known for some rather bizarre and violent moments. I'm not going to sit here and call this a "good" movie but at the same time it's somewhat refreshing seeing Findlay trying to more than your typical 70's bump 'n grind film. This one here certainly tries to be something more than that and I give the director credit because there are some pretty good things here and especially her directing skills. I thought the scenes involving the woman's slow breakdown were shot extremely well and I also thought that the director did a good job at showing this woman coming undone. The sound effects were actually good, the editing from reality to the hallucination was very good and overall I thought the film had a pretty good atmosphere. The best thing about the movie was Chung who was at least believable in the role even though she never gets good enough to where you'd buy her as a real performance (or something that you'd see in a non-hardcore film). With that said, there are a few problems with the film and the biggest is the lack of story. After a while we just get one sex scene after another and anything dealing with a plot or character development just stops. Still, this is certainly a better than average picture that fans of the director will want to check out.