Torturer is overrated. Yes it is a strong attack, but seriously, a curse IN HAND is the LEAST bad place to get it. If there is trashing you can often get it back out without ever drawing it. Even better, you can use the card as feed for vaults, secret chambers, cellars, etc. Alternatively you can discard once or twice in a lot of decks without worrying at all (e.g. library, watchtower, menage, Scrying pool, etc. can often laugh off two hits of torturer).
While possession needs some stuff to make it horrid (an engine, Kc/Tr, Ambassador, Masq, Swindler, etc.), torturer needs there to not be a lot of stuff on the board to make it truly horrid AND for there to be +action with chain potential.