Tower of Evil is a story told with a surprising clash of styles. It mixes the gothic style of old 50's horror movies with the decidedly more baroque (read: sexy and violent) trappings of 70's horror films. The fact that it works is kind of surprising and certainly delightful. Tower of Evil is, or was for me at least, a rather unique experience that I found to be surprisingly enjoyable.

Our story begins on a foggy, eerie night, as a couple of men on a boat sail up to mist-shrouded Snape Island. On shore, they look around for others, but have little success until they uncover a few dead bodies. It's not long after this discovery that they are attacked by a deranged naked girl with a knife. She manages to kill the older of the two men, but she is knocked unconscious by the other.

Back on the mainland, the girl, whom we learn is named Penny, is now catatonic as a result of the horrors she has witnessed. A doctor interviews her in front of panels of flashing lights in hopes of stimulating her memory, and we are shown the fractured memories that this procedure triggers: she, along with another girl and two guys, went out to the island and had sex until murders began to occur.

Of course, the police are willing to ignore these interviews and blame the triple-homicide squarely on Penny, despite how unrealistic of a stance this is to take. Still, they are more than happy to consider the case closed, and this frees the island up for investigation by a group of archeologists who are quite interested in one of the murder weapons: a large golden spear that is traced to being a Phoenician artifact. They believe that this antiquity could be an indicator of even greater potential archeological discoveries waiting to be made in the caves that run through the island. With this in mind, the group sets out by boat (in a very dated-looking sequence that is definitely leaning more toward the 50's than 70's) for Snape Island.

Once there, they set up base in the eerie and atmospheric lighthouse, and then break up to investigate the island. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, Penny is put through another session, and we are given better clues toward the identity of the evil that inhabits the island.

As night falls, the group settles down in the lighthouse tower (of evil) for the night. However, confusion soon becomes the word of the evening as one man's absence leads the archeologists to split up into all sorts of sub groups that either run around looking for each other or stop to couple up and have sex and smoke pot. With this foolishness going on, it's not surprising that people soon begin getting separated in the fray, which leaves them vulnerable to the island's mysterious stalker. Things continue to grow worse for the group, as its boat is blown up and radio smashed, severing all of its communicative ties with the mainland.

Alone in the night with the island's foreboding presence stalking them, the group must fend for itself and destroy the creature that is stalking it.

If all of this sounds familiar to you, it shouldn't come as much surprise. It had surely been done before this movie, and it has most definitely been done a thousand times since. The fun of Tower of Evil is not in the story itself, but in its execution. The movie plays like a fusion of 50's and 70's styles, which I had always hypothesized would mix nicely, though I had never actually seen it done. Some of the cliches of old 50's horror movies, for instance, perhaps have become cliched for a reason. The sight of the island with its creepy, crumbling lighthouse shrouded in fog is definitely a foreboding one, and it's touches like these that provide the atmosphere that makes the movie work despite its shortcomings. And in addition to these 50's style gothic trappings, we are also given ample nudity and violence, which are definitely more in a 70's vein. This "best of both worlds" aspect really appealed to me, and I found myself enjoying this movie a lot more than I probably should have.

Elite's presentation of the film certainly didn't lessen my enjoyment, either. The transfer, non-anamorphic and letterboxed at 1.85:1, seemed very nice for a movie that is over 30 years old. There were occasional lines, scratches and specks of dirt, but they certainly did not detract from the movie. Everything looked very good, I thought, from the creepy foggy evenings to the bright and colorful mid-day images, which include some nice shots of the island.

The only extra on the disk is a trailer, which again harkens back to the 50's, coming complete with a creepy-sounding narrator and grandiose claims about the film's horrifying nature. I don't know much about the film's history, so I'll give Elite the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was all that could be realistically obtained as an extra. Besides, the film is able to stand on its own quite nicely, and, while extras are always nice, if the feature is good enough, I won't complain.

All in all, Tower of Evil proved to be a pretty satisfactory package in my opinion. Combining the best of 50's and 70's horror cinema and leaving out most of the fluff, the film itself was a pretty decent package and was nicely presented by Elite in a very satisfactory transfer. While extras were very scarce, it was quite forgivable, as I found the film so intriguing. If any of this has sounded at all appealing, I'd suggest giving the film a try if you get the chance. While I'm not going to tell you to go running to the store to pick it up, I would definitely advise giving it a try if you ever find yourself faced with the opportunity. You may very well enjoy yourself.

Tower of Evil is available on its own or as a part of Elite's new British Horror Collection Box Set.