Last year (2014), ElitePain released History of Pain: The Inquisition, a documentary style film that discussed and demonstrated various tortures used by the Inquisition to ferret out heretics and enemies of the Church and State. Because of the time and expense involved in building the set, and because it’s a great set, ElitePain took over the stage to shoot a series of Inquisition-themed films itself. This is a review of the first of ElitePain’s films. The second film has already been released and I hope to review a copy of it soon.
The Inquisitor 1 opens with “Helen” being brought into the holding cell, where “Wendy” is already chained, topless and with her arms overhead, leaving her helpless to protect herself from the pawings of the guard.
After the guard leaves, Helen asks Wendy if she’s seen Helen’s sister. A blonde woman, “Angel”, emerges from the straw and explains what happened to her. This more or less sets up the plot, wherein a cow has lost its milk and the Inquisition blames the women for casting the devil’s eye upon the beast. During the women’s tortures, they are repeatedly asked to confess to contaminating the cow with the devil’s spirit.
Helen is chained to a wall, naked, and breast-whipped with a short flogger. This scene is a bit weak but it makes a good starting point as the intensity of the film builds with subsequent scenes. Angel is next, seated upon the Spanish Horse with her arms tied behind her back as the Inquisitor toys with her breasts. Then, she is bound arms overhead, still seated upon the Spanish Horse, and her breasts are beaten with a leather paddle. Next, the Spanish Horse is removed and she is whipped with a terribly thin whip that leaves nasty, nasty marks. This scene becomes hard to watch; both for its intensity and its length. As she is whipped, the other two captives are forced to watch and their reactions contribute to the overall uncomfortableness of the scene. I have to give credit to “Angel” for staying in-character during this. She is clearly in a lot of pain and agony. If you're into the tortured screams of a woman in pain, you'll really enjoy this scene. It certainly went beyond my limits of humanity.
Next, Helen is stretched on the rack. The rack has always been one of my favorite Inquisition torture devices and this scene is good. While she’s stretched out, Helen is subjected to needle torture, pincers, and a whipping by the same thin whip that horrified Angel. Later in the film there is an interview with Helen that explains that the whipping scene was supposed to be longer, but she couldn't handle the intensity of being stretched, pinched, and then whipped. If I have one complaint about this scene, its that there is no “top-down” overhead view like we got in Mood Pictures’ “History of Pain: Inquisition”. Otherwise, it’s a good scene.
Wendy is next, tied to a large chair with her legs spread wide apart. The implication is obvious. It’s good to see Wendy Gettig back on a Mood Pictures/ElitePain set and she really delivers. She has some of the best facial expressions of any of the actresses in the film and communicates well with her audience. Not too much, not too little. It’s a shame this is her only solo scene.
After Wendy’s interrogation, all three women are bound over the axle of the rack’s windlass, presenting their asses to the Inquisitor. Each woman is beaten with the whip and after she’s received a handful of strokes, she has to name one of the other women to receive the next set of strokes. This gives the torture a psychological component that’s missing in the other scenes and makes for a great climax to the film. The scene is quite long and, as a bonus, there’s footage of this torture at the end of the film where the camera doesn't cut away, so you get to see the whole ass-whipping with the camera focused solely on their asses. I'm not really an ass-whipping type but I did enjoy watching Wendy struggle with which of the other two women she would name to be whipped next, particularly as the beating went on.
As far as casting goes, Wendy is a veteran and knows how to play her role. Angel had me convinced that she was going hysterical with fear. Helen, who has an innocent face, didn't really do anything for me and I'm surprised they'd choose someone with such a cherubic body. But, some guys are into soft women so I can't really judge. Live like you want to live.
The lack of plot didn't help, either. All that for a cow? Why not add that one of the women is the daughter of a wealthy trader and that, really, this whole thing is about disgracing that trader so that the Church can claim his wealth? Or maybe that comes up in the next film. Anyway, it seemed like a lot of trouble over just a cow. To be honest, had ElitePain tacked on an ending where the three women are thrown back into their holding cell and conjure up an evil spirit exact their revenge on the Inquisitor would've been a nice twist. As it is, there really is no ending or epilogue. The movie just ends without resolution of the underlying story. At the very least there should've been a five-second scene where the three women, naked, beaten, and crying, are declared innocent and set free.
As for “re-watchability”, I like to be shocked and horrified. Angel’s scene where she’s whipped is very, very intense and the climax is certainly gut-wrenching as well. It’s a shame Wendy only had one scene to herself but she makes up for it in the climax. The rest of the film is passable, not overly shocking or terrible and certainly lacks a psychological component. So, for that reason, I'm giving this a B.
