Bo’ness showing for film about warped Scots psychiatrist

Dr Ewen Cameron - the main subject of 'Eminent Monsters'.

Now the harrowing story of the evil said to have been unleashed by Scots psychiatrist Dr Ewen Cameron is being told in “Eminent Monsters”, to be screened tomorrow at the Hippodrome cinema (4.30pm) in Bo’ness.

In the 1950’s he is said to have subjected his “patients” to sensory deprivation, forced comas, LSD injections and extreme physical and mental torture.

Since then Cameron’s techniques are claimed to have been used in 27 countries around the world - including the UK.

With testimony from senior American psychologists, military personnel and key whistle blowers, Scottish director Stephen Bennett (BAFTA winner Dunblane: Our Story) seeks to throw fresh light upon claims of collusion between doctors and the state, and is said to lay bare Cameron’s “legacy of pain”.

Eminent Monsters is billed as “an urgent call to the international community to right the wrongs of the past and protect us from a dangerous future”.

The film asks the viewer to question whether our national security concerns are being served by the extreme torture of fellow human beings - and why victims of these techniques are now demanding justice and policy reform.

Since its world premiere last year at Glasgow Film Festival, Eminent Monsters: A Manual For Modern Torture has played at several human rights festivals around the world.

Its screening before UN experts is said to have brought the film to the forefront of the debate around the moral responsibilities of the international community.

UN Special Rapporteur for Torture, Professor Nils Melzer, has cited the film in a report to the UN Human Rights Council.

Professor Melzer said: “Eminent Monsters is a compelling look at the trajectory of psychological torture in the US and around the world.

“Devastatingly, the impact of everything revealed by this film is still felt today by men in Guantanamo Bay who were subjected to the most horrific practices.

“Psychological torture destroys entire families – we must do all we can to stop it happening, and Eminent Monsters is a crucial step forward in achieving that.”