The Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada(Lance Henriksen), known for his public executions and torturous methods of those he and his foot-soldiers deem heretics and witches, is overcome with lust when he gazes upon the naked body of baker Antonio's(Jonathan Fuller)lovely wife Maria(the stunning beauty Rona De Ricci)on trial for being a witch after halting the never-ending whipping of a boy child in front of a crowd of people. The film shows Torquemada's battle with his desire for Maria and how Antonio will try to save her, which will not be an easy task.<br /><br />I think the main success of this film is Lance Henriksen's powerful performance as the sadistic, psychotic Inquisitor. While his chosen men, Gomez(Stephen Lee)and Dr. Huesos(William J Norris)bask in the joy of making others suffer, Don Carlos(Tom Towles)drunk with the role of captain riding his horse with great pride, and Francisco(Jeffrey Combs, who looks like a bookish accountant tending to his recorded testimonies of sin and acknowledgments of witchcraft as if he were an IRS agent seeking debts owed by clients)logging the accused, very business-like, with little remorse, Torquemada is completely serious in his role as executioner and judge wielding his power as if he were the mighty hand of God striking down anyone he so chooses. Henriksen's always intense and frighteningly believable..I do feel that he best represents what kind of monster those Inquisitors were like during this horrible time in history. While we often watch as his victims suffer, thanks to director Stuart Gordon and screenwriter Dennis Paoli, those who mistreat get their comeuppance in the end. It's fun watching Torquemada fall prey to his own madness, guilt, hypocrisy & buried iniquities which surface and confront him in a fantastically realized climax.<br /><br />Frances Bay steals every scene she's in as accused and imprisoned witch Esmeralda, who befriends Maria and gets revenge on hecklers and executioners when she's set at the the stake to burn with the use of gunpowder. Mark Margolis ably portrays the abused torturer Mendoza, a puppet Torquemada(..and his goons)uses to do his dirty work(..he has these nasty Christ-like wounds on his hands which Torquemada gave to him as punishment as a reminder of what can happen when you "sin"). Stuart Gordon's wife, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon(..as an ancestor of one Torquemada deems a heretic as his torturer whips the skeletal remains of an unearthed corpse!) gets you-know-what again(..he likes to murder his wife on film in devious ways)and it's quite a grisly fate..she is strangled by a rope over the back of an executioner as her child watches helplessly. Oliver Reed has a very memorable cameo as a visiting Cardinal, with quite the taste for drink, who brings orders from the Pope for Torquemada to end his violent methods, meeting a horrifying end(..yep, the dependable wall entombment).<br /><br />I also loved the preposterous, but ingenious, way one escapes the swinging razor-sharp pendulum which closes in to his body thanks to rats. That pit of spikes, underneath a trap door where the poor victim lies as the pendulum swings, is also put to good use.And, I think that Gordon utilizes Rona De Ricci's beauty and innocence quite well..she's certainly a sympathetic figure we root for as it seems her fate is doomed because of the trap Torquemada has placed her in. But, this is Henriksen's movie..he's a force of nature and Gordon ideally shoots him in sinister ways. You do not want this man pointing you out of a crowd for the possibility of consorting with the DEVIL, that's for sure.