The Screaming Woman (1972)
A wealthy former mental patient goes home to her estate to rest and recuperate. While walking the grounds one day she hears the screams of a woman coming from underneath the ground. Her family, however, refuses to believe her story, and sees the incident as an opportunity to prove the woman's mind has snapped so they can take control of her money.
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As Good As It Gets
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Olivia de Havilland's character is horrified to discover a person buried underneath the ground in "The Screaming Woman". Havilland plays Laura Wynatt, a former mental patient who has returned home to recover and relax. One day while out riding her horse on her property ground, she is shocked to see that a woman is buried underneath the dirt begging for help. Laura races back up to the house, but her pleas to the family and the police are overlooked because of her mental state. She is forced to save the woman herself but, in the process, comes across the psychopath who put the woman there!The Screaming Woman is a terrific made for TV' film! It has all the goods that a 1970's suspense movie had. Olivia de Havilland plays the role brilliantly, she truly was an amazing actress in her day. It hurts to see this woman plead with people to believe what she says, but no avail. Olivia de Havilland plays the character as scrambling and desperate, and you really feel for her as a viewer. We also meet the man who tried to kill the woman he buried alive, and there is an interesting story told there as well. This made for TV film DESERVES a DVD release. Other classics like "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" and "Dying Room Only" were distributed on DVD. They were both ABC TV movies as was this one, but somehow this film has never been mentioned for a release. Nevertheless, if you spot this film on TV or online - catch it. It's a creepy and worthwhile watch.8/10
Like many others, this is the one horror movie that really affected me when I saw it as a child. I used to have nightmares and get chills thinking about it. I remember really being frightened of the sounds coming out of the ground. Probably shouldn't have watched this type of movie at such a young age. As an adult, I have talked about this movie to friends who had never heard of it and told them that it would be great to find a copy so that they could see it. I'm sure it would still scare the heck out of me now. I would love to get it and invite a bunch of friends over and watch it in our theater room. The impact of this movie would be so much greater on a large screen versus the small television that we had in the 70's. It would be interesting to see how my teenagers would react to it and how they would compare it to the scary movies of today. Obviously, for me, this horror movie did what it intended to do! SCARE ME!!!
Yes, this was one of ABC's more graphic 'Movie of the Week' thrillers. What shocked me was seeing a woman buried alive still being able to communicate as dirt is falling down on her face. A few years ago, I had acquired this longing for finding most, if not all, of the ABC movie titles I had grown up watching, and this movie was hard to find! I managed to get a grainy but still watchable copy through Ebay after bidding and losing on it a few times. This is another one of those flicks which hasn't been rebroadcast in over thirty years. The great thing about this movie was that the son seemed more sympathetic to his mother's story. It's almost as if he never wanted to believe that she was crazy to begin with. The daughter-in-law, on the other hand, comes across as a greedy you-know-what who is anxious to have Laura committed for the sole purpose of getting control of the estate through her more reluctant husband. One gets the feeling that she hates her mother-in-law and only married the son because he comes from money. The scene where Laura bribes a kid to dig up the area where the voices are coming from is unforgettable. She gives the kid two dollars, I think, to do it, but he is scared off by the shock of such a gruesome discovery. Great movie!It is too bad that the Hollywood industry doesn't see fit to preserve television movies or give them the same consideration. Back in the 70's, the television movie was still a relatively new art form that left a great deal of room for experimentation. Perhaps that's why many of these features still strike a chord with many folks today.
The theme of a woman buried alive on the grounds of a wealthy woman's estate is nicely handled here for a maximum of shock and suspense. A bit overwrought at times, with Olivia de Havilland having to convince police, family and neighbors that they need to rescue a woman whose faint cries for help have startled her. The trouble is, she's a woman with a known mental illness and nobody believes her.This was a highly popular ABC made-for-television movie and successful at the time. Nice to see the supporting cast includes Joseph Cotten, Walter Pidgeon, Charles Drake and Ed Nelson. Nelson has a pivotal role as the man who knows the truth about the woman's screams.Suspenseful and worth viewing despite the now grainy print of this TV film being shown on cable. And by the way, it was photographed in technicolor, not black and white as a previous comment suggests. That viewer must have been having trouble with TV reception!!