The Sorcerers

A Fascinating Film On Many Different Levels.
I first saw this movie at a drive-in back in 1971 along with several other features which I don't recall. Having been a Boris Karloff fan since the age of 8, I had to see it and I remember being struck at the time by how old he looked (he was 79 then and had been dead for 2 years by the time I saw it) and by how cool it would be if you really could experience other people's sensations (the principal plot device of this film). It was only much later that I realized that THE SORCERERS was made by Michael Reeves the same man responsible for WITCHFINDER GENERAL.

Just how familiar Reeves was with Karloff's "Mad Doctor" films, I don't know (there are definite echoes of 1936's THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS MIND), but THE SORCERERS is certainly an interesting and appropriate update on that theme. An elderly hypnotist and his wife (the "sorcerers" of the title) develop a system of advanced hypnosis that enable them to not only control a young man (Ian Ogilvy) but to feel what he feels...

Karloff's Final Mind Swap
Towards his final years, Horror icon Boris Karloff always said to interviewers that he would never stop acting and would die in harness which ,unfortunately, would be the case. Before that would happen, he did have the fortune of acting with two young film makers who would utilize him in the best of his final roles, Director Peter Bogdanovich's 'TARGETS'-1968 and Director Michael Reeve's 'THE SORCERERS'-1967. The 23 year old Reeves was cutting his teeth in film production and his persistence and love of film would have him complete the foreign 'CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD'- 1964 and proceed to his first feature 'THE SHE BEAST'-1965 with actress Barbara Steele. Producer Tony Tenser at Tigon Films was always looking for independent film makers looking for backing. American Producer Patrick Curtis who was married to Raquel Welch at that time had two scripts which he wanted Reeves to direct. Putting those scripts on hold , Curtis and Reeves came up with the basic plot of 'THE SORCERERS'...

Security & Contamination
The Sorcerers was Michael Reeves's second film, but his first for Tony Tenser's Tigon productions. Popularly classed as a horror film, it transcends the barriers of such a definition and presents a fantasy drama that poses questions about the role of voyeurism in the cinematic experience. In particular, it raises questions as to how far removed is the voyeur from the sometimes visceral action to which he or she is spectator, and how the extension of the voyeuristic process could contaminate the viewer, directly involving them in the proceedings.

The most initially striking theme of The Sorcerers is that of the contrast between the world of the old and that of the young; particularly the idea of youth being wasted on the young. The opening scenes juxtapose the grey stillness of the Monserrat home to the loud, colourful nightclub; the abruptness of the contrast suggesting an antagonistic relationship between the two lifestyles. Even the act of eating is contrasted; for the...

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