Audience Member
As the trailer will tell you, Corruption is not a women's picture.
That's debatable.
What is not is that Corruption is a ripoff of Eyes without a Face.
But hey — some of my favorite movies are total ripoffs.
Renowned plastic surgeon Sir John Rowan (Peter Cushing) starts the movie at a swinging 60s party with his beautiful fiancée Lynn (Sue Lloyd, Hysteria). Sir John isn't dealing well with all this counterculture excess, so when a pervy photographer makes a pass at his girl, he attacks the man, sending a hot light into Lynn's face. This party may seem like a parody when seen today, but this is a serious scene, with Cushing facing the Summer of Love and not dealing so well with all of it.
Rowan pledges to flix Lynn's scarred face through a combination of laser technology and a pituitary gland transplant. Sound good? Well, it's fueled by murder, giving the fluids of young women to his wife, to keep her face from scarring and it needs to be repeated again and again to stop the scars from coming back. Everything goes well — as well as repeatedly killing people and basically feeding their skin to your wife can go –until Sir John and Lynn try to seduce a new victim who ends up being part of a gang of robbers.
Those criminals break into the home of Sir John and they soon learn his secret. However, no one profits from this knowledge, as everyone ends up getting killed by a surgical laser. And then, get this — it's all a dream!
Cushing would say, "It was gratuitously violent, fearfully sick. But it was a good script, which just goes to show how important the presentation is." You have to love a movie where Van Helsing flips out at a party that Austin Powers would say is way too sixties. And wow, it's pretty gory for a late 60s British movie!
Director Robert Hartford-Davis would also make Incense for the Damned, Gonks Go Beat and The Fiend.
Also, just to remind you one more time, Corruption is not a women's picture.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
bill t
A bit of an oddball thriller that is quite predictable in the first 3/4, but it's ending is quite weird and strange. Peter Cushing stars as a brilliant scientist, devastated when a falling spotlight ruins the face of his girlfriend. Realizing that pituary fluid can help revitilize her skin, he gets more desperate finding ways to get the stuff (and egged on by his girlfriend!). Quite honestly, the first 3/4 isn't much, save for the groovy 1960s of the whole thing, and Peter Cushing trying to groove with it all. But when they get to the vacation property, and the thing with the lone girl and her surprise friends, it turns a bit odd and somewhat desperate, until it's batshit conclusion and you're like "YEAH!" lol.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
delysid d
One of the great lost video nasties,,, a movie only horror freaks could love
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/02/18
Full Review
Audience Member
The psychological undercurrent of fear of failure that affects the surgeon is so awkwardly and haphazardly presented, that the film's more serious intentions might even be more absurd than all the gory killings that take up the heart of the film.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This movie should be watched as considering its age it is a nasty movie. There are no nice characters apart from Cushing in it. His woman is horrible throughout the movie. She is really good looking and that is probably what got he in love with her. A great period piece.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I'm kind of shocked to log on to Flixster and not see more people being chatty about this little thriller. To be fair, it is largely unseen by US audiences, even with it being screened on TCM (which is how I got to see it). Corruption (AKA Carnage, The Laser Killer) is a late 1960's thriller starring Peter Cushing and Sue Lloyd (both of whom give terrific performances) about a doctor who must murder in order to get the body parts needed in order to keep his wife's face beautiful. Vanity, greed and insecurity are on the plate for this particular movie that doesn't quite hit its mark. It's true that the film is very much a British take on Eyes Without a Face, but like many imitators of that film, it isn't quite as good. By the end of the film it loses its narrative focus and just goes completely bonkers. On the other hand, it's a pretty well-made film. I especially like the scenes when the "thriller" music (nothing more than over-the-top swinging 60's jazz) is muted by the flick of a light switch or the closing of a refrigerator door. But the music is horribly out of place, and I'd like to think that a lot of the scenes could've used silence in the background for tension, but that's just me. In the end, it's a mess of a film that winds up being entertaining anyways. It's definitely not perfect, but check it out sometime if you can find a copy. Peter Cushing's and Sue Lloyd's manic performances are reason enough to check out. Of course, how can you not check out a film that has Peter Cushing in it?!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
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