The Sorcerers (1967) - film review

Professor Marcus Monserrat has invented a remarkable machine that allows him and his wife Estelle to take control of the mind of another person.  To test the machine, they need a willing guinea pig, someone who is in dire need of new experiences.  The professor finds the ideal subject in Mike Roscoe, a young man who is bored with his hedonistic hippy life.  To their delight, the Monserrats discover that not only can they control Mike’s actions from any distance, but they can also feel all of his experiences.  Whilst the professor had intended that his invention should be used for good, his wife intends it merely as a means to indulge her lust for dangerous adventure, and so she turns Mike into a serial killer...

Immediately before he made the schlock horror classic Witchfinder General (1968), the 23-year-old Michael Reeves turned out this chilling low budget shocker, which presents the permissive society of the mid-1960s in a deeply ironic light.  Despite the film’s modest production values and some risible dialogue, The Sorcerers manages to be an unsettling work that parodies our society’s obsession with vicarious experience (normally achieved through cinema or television, not by taking over Ian Ogilvy’s mind).  The film adds a whole new meaning to the phrase Help the Aged.

In contrast to Boris Karloff’s tediously bland portrayal, Catherine Lacey is absolutely terrifying as his character’s sadistic wife, and it is her spine-chilling performance which makes the film so memorable.  The film underplays its erotic potential considerably (the one and only sex scene looks as if it may have been cut drastically to appease the censor) and instead focuses on the slasher-style horror elements, which must have been quite shocking for their time.  The film reveals a young director of immense potential, which tragically would never be fulfilled.  Reeves worked on just two more films after this, before dying from an overdose of barbiturates, aged 25.

© Chris Alderton 2009

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