Sometimes all it takes is bad timing for a movie to fall into undeserved obscurity. Overshadowed by Witchfinder General and Targets, both coming out the following year, The Sorcerors has not developed the audience that it merits.
Tagline: “HE TURNS THEM ON… HE TURNS THEM OFF… to live… love… die or KILL!”
WTF Factor: **
Notable Announcement:
Marcus: “From now on, we are going to control your mind.”
Synopsis: An old man, Dr. Marcus Monserrat (Boris Karloff!!!!), shuffles down the sidewalk. He angrily confronts a shop owner for not posting his advertisement outside. Once the bill is paid, the notice goes up, but not before the shop owner condescendingly calls Marcus “grandpa” several times. Marcus is advertising for clients for his apparently not very successful medical hypnosis practice.
Marcus goes home to the shabby apartment he shares with his wife Estelle (Catherine Lacey).
She seems eager that he is ready to test his equipment (presumably kept behind a mysterious door) soon. He promises it will be tomorrow as they hold hands.
Cut to credits over a Swinging Sixties London club scene with a groovy band performing [Lee Grant and the Capitols, IRL]. Alan (Victor Henry) brings sodas to Mike Roscoe (Ian Ogilvy) and Nicole (Elizabeth Ercy) and asks Nicole to dance, since Mike refuses.
Cut to Marcus emerging from his lab; the equipment is ready to test. Now all they need is a subject, and they agree that they need a stranger whose mind is pliable.
Estelle: “Someone young…”
Marcus: “A boy who’s bored, out looking for something.”
Marcus says they can easily find someone out on the street by offering them excitement.
Back at the club, Mike wants to move on. While Nicole visits the ladies room, Mike decides to bug out and go for a walk, leaving Alan to take his date to dinner. Alan is not amused.
Mike: “The point is, I’m bored, blue, black, and bloody indigo, with wandering about from club to club, with no idea where I’m going…” [hmmm].
Mike stops off at a diner for a “wimpy,” and Marcus sits down with him, offering him “an unusual evening.” Mike is skeptical but decides to play along. Marcus takes him home and introduces Estelle to the disdainful Mike, who is amused by their meager lab setup. Estelle is anxious that Mike sit down in a wired chair contraption.
Mike: “What’s it supposed to do?”
Marcus: “Dazzling, indescribable experiences. Complete abandonment with no thought of remorse.”
Estelle: “Intoxication without hangover, ecstasy with no consequence.”
Mike likes the sound of that so he allows them to hook him into the equipment.
Marcus flips a lot of switches and we hear strange sounds and flashing psychedelic lights.
When Mike gets up, he does exactly what Marcus tells him to do, even when Marcus just thinks it. Estelle wills Mike to crush an egg and they realize they can feel all of Mike’s physical sensations. Marcus orders Mike to leave and forget everything that happened. He and Estelle can even hear the music in the club when Mike returns there. When Alan goes for drinks (again), Mike insists that Nicole leave with him. Nicole writes Alan a note and off they go. Alan is not amused.
Under the influence, Mike sneaks Nicole into an apartment complex so they can use the pool. Marcus and Estelle are really getting off on it.
Estelle says they must keep the process secret but Marcus intends to use his invention to help people. He wants a foundation to fund a human transmitter to have extraordinary experiences that others less fortunate can enjoy. Estelle isn’t really buying it; she’s excited about the control aspect of the situation. Apparently they’ve been poor since a reporter investigated Marcus’ practice thirty years ago and Estelle wants some time to enjoy this new power. Marcus agrees to go along for a little while.
Mike runs an antique shop called The Glory Hole [really], not very successfully from the looks of it. The next day, Estelle spots a fur coat in a shop window and wants Mike to steal it. Marcus gives in but says this will be the only time.
Mike goes to pick up Nicole but she’s not dressed. While he waits impatiently, Marcus and Estelle exert their wills and Mike sneaks out. Nicole calls the garage where Alan works and asks him to take her out. Alan is definitely pleased. They go out to the club and Nicole says she’s not in love with Mike [even though she called him “the love of my life” the night before].
Meanwhile, Mike goes to the fur shop and breaks in. He spots the coat but trips an alarm. A policeman arrives to investigate.
Mike hides but manages to sneak out with the coat, cutting himself during the escape. Marcus is upset but Estelle is clearly getting off on the excitement. She decides that she wants the thrill more than the coat. Marcus is not pleased but reluctantly admits that he enjoyed the excitement too. They both have a cut on their hand identical to Mike’s.
Mike goes to Nicole to explain that he doesn’t remember why he left her apartment or what he did, and he’s scared. They get it on.
Estelle decides she wants to experience speed. Suddenly Mike declares that he wants to “borrow” Alan’s motorbike and take Nicole for a ride. Alan is not pleased. Out on the road, Mike drives recklessly. Nicole want Mike to slow down but Estelle isn’t having that [she’s practically having an orgasm]. Marcus decides he’s had enough.
Mike returns the bike, as Nicole jumps off and starts crying. Alan is really not pleased now. Estelle wills Mike to beat up Alan, while Marcus tries in vain to get Mike to stop fighting. Nicole is horrified but Mike is just confused.
Marcus is also horrified but Estelle is ecstatic.
Marcus: “I’ll stop you, Estelle.”
Estelle: “How, Marcus? Just tell me how. If nothing else this has proved one thing: my will is stronger than yours.”
Marcus threatens to bring Mike back and deprogram him, but Estelle says she won’t allow it. She knocks his cane out from under him and then smashes the lab with it. She then proceeds to gleefully beat Marcus. [We’ve come a long way from the nice elderly couple holding hands at the beginning of the movie.]
Nicole patches Alan up and says she’s through with Mike, even though he’s in some kind of trouble. Mike goes to visit an ex, Audrey (a teenage Susan George), who’s glad to see him. He tries to explain the amnesia problem, but Estelle wills him to pick up a pair of scissors and stab Audrey repeatedly.
Estelle has tied Marcus up and though he tries his hardest, he cannot protect Audrey. Marcus swears he will stop Estelle at any cost.
Nicole and Alan are back at the club when Mike arrives. They watch him hit on the female singer, Laura (Sally Sheridan), who goes with him to a dark alley, where Mike strangles her. Estelle is, of course, having a great time, but not Marcus, who can’t stop her. Estelle taunts him.
The next morning, Alan shows Nicole the newspaper headline about Laura’s murder. Alan suspects Mike, but Nicole insists that they talk to Mike before they go to the police.
Estelle is very drunk that morning. She tries to get Marcus to eat and keep up his strength so they can compete some more. He’s not having any.
The cab driver recognizes Laura’s picture and reports to the police, who go to Mike’s apartment. Meanwhile, Alan and Nicole confront Mike at his shop. Mike claims amnesia, but Alan isn’t buying it. Estelle wills Mike to kill them, but when Mike grabs a knife, Alan sends Nicole for help, getting slashed for his trouble. The police are already on their way to the shop to find Mike and Nicole flags them down.
Estelle tells Mike to run so he makes a break for it in his car. Alan gets in the police car with Nicole and they follow. Marcus begins to break through Estelle’s control and causes Mike to drive erratically. Mike drives off an embankment and the car explodes in flames, to the dismay of Nicole and Alan. We cut to the blackened corpses of Estelle and Marcus. The End.
Thoughts: The Sorcerors was the first movie produced by Tigon British Film Productions, the third rank purveyor of British horror movies in the 1960s/70s, after Hammer and Amicus. Despite its reputation for very low budget movies, Tigon managed to produce a couple of horror classics, Witchfinder General (1968) and Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971).
The Sorcerors is a good example of a very low budget movie done well. There is a limited number of locations, and the slapped-together quality of Marcus’ lab fits in with its homemade nature on the Montserrats’ meager earnings. A lot of the street scenery was captured on the fly without permits, which turns out to have been a problem for the final car crash, which led to an all-too-effective explosion that blew out nearby windows. The film crew had to make a run for it.
Of course, the major coup for the moviemakers is the presence of Boris Karloff, who always committed 100% to his movies no matter the budget or quality. His performance here was overshadowed by his showing in Targets the next year, which is widely considered Karloff’s finest [human, at least] role. The acting in The Sorcerors is first-rate all around, and Karloff and Catherine Lacey make a believable couple at the beginning of the movie. Estelle’s character arc is rather abrupt, but Lacey sells it. Ian Ogilvy is also quite good in a role that sees Mike change from bored to violent to confused.
A special shout-out is due for Victor Henry, who played Alan. He’s the odd-man-out nice guy who actually gets the girl in the end, and one can totally understand what Nicole sees in him, as opposed to pretty boy Mike. Henry is especially likeable in the role and his career was taking off in 1967. Sadly, Henry was severely injured a couple of years later in a freak traffic accident, which left him in a vegetative state for more than ten years until his death.
The second coup for the moviemakers, although they may not have realized it at the time, was director Michael Reeves. Reeves only directed three feature films, The She Beast (1966), The Sorcerors (1967), and Witchfinder General (aka The Conquering Worm, 1968) before his untimely death from a barbiturate overdose at age 25. Ian Ogilvy, a childhood friend [who was under serious consideration to be Roger Moore’s successor as James Bond], starred in all three films. Reeves was also the main writer for each of his movie [billed as Michael Byron on The She Beast]. If you watch the movies in order, you can clearly see the evolution of his talents, from the okay The She Beast through the very good The Sorcerors, and then the excellent Witchfinder General. By the time his third movie was released, Reeves was considered a hot property and planning to move on to other genres after directing The Oblong Box, which was made in 1969 after Reeves’ death from a different script.
Notable Credit: Written by Michael Reeves and Tom Baker from an idea by John Burke [No, not that Tom Baker]
The original script for The Sorcerors was written by John Burke, who was quite unhappy to not receive a co-writer credit on the finished project. After Burke’s death in 2011, his original screenplay was published, showing that Reeves and Baker made significant changes for the actual movie. In particular, at Karloff’s request, Reeves made Marcus Montserrat a much more sympathetic character, while he was the villain of Burke’s version.
The Sorcerors is very much a period piece of the Sixties, but the mod trappings seem appropriate for the subject matter. Perhaps because Reeves was so young, it doesn’t feel dated in an embarrassing way [I’m looking at you, Dracula A.D. 1972]. It isn’t easy to scrounge up a decent copy these days, but it is well worth the effort.
Quick bit:
- Catherine Lacey received the Best Actress award at the 1968 Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival for her role in The Sorcerors.
Suggested double feature: This would pair well with Scanners (1981).
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “The undead awaken after 200 years”
