Silent Scream (1979)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Absolutely Fantastic

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A better than average cast helps to make this horror film a decent watch, along with a reasonably good script (written by brothers Jim & Ken Wheat and Wallace C. Bennett) that has some memorable twists. It's graphically bloody at times but also has fine atmosphere, and a healthy nod to "Psycho" in its use of an imposing beach side house.College student Scotty (Rebecca Balding) is in desperate need of a place to live and ends up at this house, owned by a weird family, the Engels. Unfortunately, Scotty and her fellow roommates won't know just *how* creepy this family is until it's almost too late. When one of the kids is murdered, a subplot develops with two detectives (Cameron Mitchell, Avery Schreiber) investigating the case.The cute Balding is an appealing lead in this story, given effective theatrical treatment by commercial veteran Denny Harris (in his only feature credit). Helping a great deal is a grandiose music score by the under-rated Roger Kellaway, who also composes a period style song for the show. There is some good suspense and many ominous shots of the house and its interiors. The shocks are well realized, as well.Yvonne De Carlo is also among the familiar faces appearing. Mitchell and an effectively serious Schreiber are fine as the detectives. In addition to Balding, Steve Doubet and Juli Andelman are similarly likable. Brad Rearden is great in the role of the nerdy Mason Engels, the films' one true tragic character. And horror genre icon Barbara Steele is a treat to watch in a non-speaking role.Lovers of the horror films from this period should find a fair deal to enjoy here. "The Silent Scream" is enjoyable stuff that deserves a viewing from them.Seven out of 10.

This was my fault for being obsessed. Obsessed for nearly 30 years.Allow me to explain. When I was a kid, particularly around 5-7 years old, I was rightfully not allowed to watch Rated-R or horror features, though I loved scary movies. The best I could do was either watch what I referred to "Monster Movies" (Godzilla, King Kong, etc.) or the 30-second teaser trailers on any one of the many 5-channels we got on our B&W TV. Those were the best and those scared me the most.I remember the preview for the film: Visiting Hours – but that was the only one I remembered by name. Two more, I remember to this day, right around 30 years later. One I am still searching for. One I found here, in The Silent Scream.The teaser I remember was of a woman, with some big hair and in a robe, with slippers and a flashlight. She walked downstairs, through narrow walk-ways filled with cobwebs. She goes down one path, then another "exploring" whatever and finally makes it to – remember, I was six then – what I would classify now as a crawlspace, and she proceeds in. Once in, she veers right and in a well lit area, she comes across a hand simply sticking up from a red velvet square at the end. Stupidly, she grabs the hand and it pulls her away from freedom, I suppose, while she screams. End scene (or preview.) Finally, after 30-some-odd years, I found the movie. I saw a preview on YouTube the other day, that "kind of" looked liked one of the two movies I've been searching my whole life for and put it in my Netflix queue. Low and behold, this was it. But my journey came at a cost. Not a huge one, but a price I would pay, nevertheless.The Silent Scream had such an appropriate title as the room I watched it in (alone) heard no such scream. I wouldn't even be generous enough to say, "Perhaps, back in the day (1980) this was considered scary" since Halloween in 1978 still frightens me and it was two years prior.The movie, about a college boarder, Scotty (Balding) who takes up residence in what appears to be a Psycho-Rip-off house which even includes the Norman Bates clone and even his equally strange mother. Other roommates live there, one of which appears to be heterosexual, though in today's timeframe is considered enormously flamboyant.Well, each die, one-by-one, and the remaining boarders feels either scared or concerned for all-but two minutes and then it's back to somewhat "partying" as usual.The movie's boring. Really. It contains odd characters as well as stereotypical (of 1980) characters, none of which are interesting. I'm assuming you're supposed to "root" for Scotty as she's introduced in a very lame set up involving her "comical" attempts at finding a place to crash during her college days you never see.Finally, the movie reveals the "secrets" of the hell house she selected, and finally the scene I waited 30 years to see happens.I'm more satisfied that the wait is over, than actually seeing that "scene." And I did get it wrong. No velvet, but instead a cutaway whereas one character pulls her through as she screams. Forgive me, I was six.One down, only one more to go. Once I do find that other movie from the teaser I saw as a kid, and I will eventually find it, I will report it then. As for this movie, The Silent Scream, I seriously can't recommend it. Even if just for laughs over the said scream(s.)

The bait-and-switch tactics of movie trailers are the stuff of legend. We've all been rooked into watching or attending movies that turned out to be radically different than what the trailers implied. One of my biggest memories of this was "Silent Scream", which had a highly memorable trailer that basically revealed the creepy high point of the film. At age 10, I wasn't prepared for the fact that the movie itself was more atmospheric than thrilling, not to mention a body count that tops out at a modest 2. I begged my parents to take me to see "Silent Scream" at the drive-in, and then I think I fell asleep halfway through the movie because I was so bored.Now that I'm considerably older, I got the chance to see "Silent Scream" again, and I can appreciate it for being a very enjoyable film, somewhat lacking in the gore department but otherwise bizarre enough to hold one's interest for the brief runtime of the film. Whether you enjoy the film or not will probably depend on your own fondness for the moth-eaten elements of horror cinema, such as spooky cellars, cobwebs galore, and secret passageways that lead to nothing but trouble.Perky Rebecca Balding is a college student whose desperation for a place to stay leads her to a foreboding mansion that anybody in their right mind would flee in a heartbeat. With three other boarders living there too, there seems to be safety in numbers, that is until one of them is found stabbed to death on the beach. How long before our heroine becomes the "final girl" who has to confront the morbid secrets of the bizarre family who rents out their rooms? The worst thing about "Silent Scream" is that the plot of it is rather obvious. The family who presides over the seaside mansion consists of Yvonne DeCarlo, the matronly elder, and a young boy named Mason who is way too young to be her son, even though he seems to think that he is. Since Barbara Steele's name is in the credits of the movie too, it isn't hard to figure out that when she doesn't show up right away, she's a surprise that'll be dragged out later. The first time you actually see her on screen in the film is one of the movie's biggest highlights. Her performance is actually quite disturbing and effective, amid the silly slasher stuff that goes on.In fact, all the the actors are good here. Yvonne DeCarlo doesn't have much to do, but she's a formidable presence in the film nonetheless. Cameron Mitchell is on hand too, upping the cult movie factor here even further. Considering that it's clearly a slasher film inspired by the success of films like "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", it's worlds apart from the countless cookie-cutter slasher movies that followed. The gratuitous nods to "Psycho" help lend it some weight, and you gotta love any movie with a secret passageway that leads up to a secret room in the attic.

Let it begin. Post-Halloween slashers are in force. But this just made it in before the major onslaught, and admirably it's a above par entry. Actually it probably has more common with "Psycho" , and touch of "Black Christmas", than most brain-dead slashers. The one-note story is quite typical and fairly bare on building much in the way of sub-plots, but it's the dreary, underlining atmosphere that smothers the gloomy seaside mansion and invokes a real unsteadiness of slow-burn tension. Even the performances lend well, and the central outlook on a dysfunctional family (who rent out spare rooms in their mansion to students) grows incredibly eerie. A silently steely Barbara Steele is memorably striking in her support role, while Rebecca Balding is competently fine as the main heroine. Cameron Mitchell and Yvonne De Carlo also show up. There's a subtle stylishness to Denny Harris' direction in many effective sequences, where obviously his less concerned about a body count and ghastly shocks. The feel is more like an old-fashioned Gothic-tale, with psychotic-drama currents. A problem though, would that there happened to be many flat (or dead-air) moments. Dead silence, and believable actions aplenty. It's low-budget shows, and minimal scope gives the film a tight, dank and creaky vibe that works. Even the vast, forlorn coastal location choices, and shadowy, cob-web house-bound settings are nailed down to perfection. Roger Kellaway's hysterically sombre music score had that familiar sound to it, but Michael D. Murphy & David Shore's murkily prying cinematography really sneaks up onto the viewer. Even within the empty passages, it still emit's a spine-tingling ambiance and workably solid performances by the cast.