Fear Chamber

Plot synopsis:
Prologue: Doctor Carl Mandel [Boris Karloff], an aging scientist, has spent his life
looking for answers to the secrets of the universe. When his radio
telescopes picked up patterned transmissions coming from under a volcano,
he sent his assistants -- Mark [Carlos East] and his daughter Corinne [Julissa] -- to find it,
while he communicated with them from his laboratory where his faithful
colleague and psychologist companion Helga [Isela Vega] makes sure that he takes his
medicine and gets his sleep.Months later. Mark and Corinne have found the source of the
transmissions and brought it back to the lab. It is a rock, fashioned from
what Dr Mandel thinks might be "primordial plasma," that is able to
communicate through an interface with Mandel's computer. It promises great
information about the universe, such as the location of diamonds, but
first it must be fed. It feeds on hormones that are released into the
blood when a human is experiencing great fear, so Mandel and Helga have
built a "chamber of fear" in order to procure the hormones needed by the
rock.Under guise of being an employment agency where young women are
solicited for potential foreign jobs and given lodging during the testing
period, Helga choses suitable donors to be awakened during the night and
made to run through the fear chamber (a maze filled with skeletons,
spiders, and scenes of torture) until they faint from fear. Then Mandel,
aided by Mark, Corinne, Helga, and other assistants -- a midget [Santanón], a bearded
guy wearing a turban, and the retarded strongman Roland [Yerye Beirute]) -- extract just
enough blood to feed the rock but not harm the donor. In fact, most donors
awake the next morning thinking they have merely had a bad dream. None of
the donors are ever harmed...well, except for the one girl, which Helga
has kept from telling Mandel, who is extremely adamant about not taking
human life.As the experiments continue, however, the rock seems to be becoming
more and more hungry. It has also evolved a tentacle which allows it to
reach out and grasp at things. When it uses that tentacle to grab a
victim, draw her in, and feed on her blood, Mandel realizes the potential
of the rock to become a murderer and cuts off the heat source it needs to
survive. The rock responds by interfacing with the computer as though it's
finally willing to tell its secrets, but Mandel begins to pull out the
power cords anyway. The strain of pulling out the cords causes Mandel to
collapse.With Mandel confined to his bed, Helga refuses to let the rock die.
She arranges some time away for Corinne and Mark and enlists Roland's help
in killing the midget and the turbaned guy. Between just the two of them,
Helga and Roland revive the rock and provide it with all the blood it
wants. It thanks them by spitting out some garbled data about diamonds.[Roland likes diamonds. Roland wants diamonds. Lots of diamonds.
Roland is friends with the rock. The rock talks to Roland, and Roland
talks to the rock. The rock tells Roland that he will be king of the
world. Roland wants to be king of world and have all the diamonds!]After reanalyzing the data, Helga has come to a chilling conclusion.
The rock's purpose has been not to educate scientists about the secrets of
the universe but to learn how to live on the surface of the earth. It is
now ready to relay its findings to others like itself who live near the
earth's core. Their plan is to take over the earth and feed on the blood
and fear of humans.Helga wants to kill the rock, but Roland won't let this happen to his
friend, so he chases Helga through the fear chamber and allows the rock to
feed on her. Roland then drives off in his car, yelling, "I'm going to be
king of the world!" just as Mark and Corinne return home. Corinne runs
straight down to the laboratory where she finds Helga with the life sucked
out of her and her father feverishly typing a new program into the
computer. The rock grabs Corinne with its tentacle. Mandel reminds her
that the rock feeds on fear and tells her not to be afraid. As Corinne
repeats over and over to herself "I am not afraid," Mark takes over for
Mandel on the computer, fighting to run the program before the rock can
develop its own internal circuits, which will render it capable of living.
Mark is successful. As the computer wiring around them goes up in
flames, Mandel explains that the program required accessing every step of
the rock's growth process and then reversing it. The now dead rock begins
to crumble into bits, as Mandel expresses the hope that they were able to
stop it before it relayed its information to others like itself.
Meanwhile, Roland can be seen running around under the volcano, shouting
"Diamonds! King of the World! Diamonds!" The volcano then erupts. [Original
Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Tags: murder, sadist

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