Screamtime (1983)

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Screamtime starts in New York as two friends Ed (Vincent Russo) & Bruce (Michael Gordon) steal some videotapes from a shop, heading back to an apartment to watch them the tapes turn out to be horror films...First up is 'That's the Way to do it' in which an ageing puppeteer named Jack (Robin Bailey) gets grief from all sides of his family & when his wife & stepson want him ti burn his cherished Punch & Judy puppets people start turning up dead...Then it's 'Dreamhouse' in which young married couple Tony (Ian Saynor) & Susan (Yvonne Nicholson) move into a new house, immediately Susan starts to see violent visions & hear strange noises but Tony thinks she is having a nervous breakdown...Finally it's 'Garden of Blood' sees a broke teenager named Gavin (David Van Day) decide to rob the house of a pair of rich elderly sisters but hadn't counted on their stories of Fairies being true...This English production was apparently directed by Stanley A.Long & Michael Armstrong under the pseudonym Al Beresford with Long credited as a producer too & Armstrong credited with the screenplay & casting, the British horror anthology had been very popular with the likes of Dead of Night (1945), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), The Vault of Horror (1974), From Beyond the Grave (1974) & The Monster Club (1981) to name but a few & one has to say that Screamtime tries to recreate that golden era with mixed success. The linking wraparound story looks to have been filmed by someone totally different & is at odds with the rest of the film in tone & style & I assume is there to add a bit of American-ness to it. The three stories are fairly solid but the low budget & obvious lack of resources don't help. From killer puppets to terrifying visions to killer Garden Gnomes one has to say that the makers tried & the stories could have been better with more money spent on them, they all take place largely in the same location with minimal special effects. At just under 90 minutes each story runs about 25 minutes long & I would probably say that the second story Dreamhouse is the best with a neat twist ending & was considered good enough for a full length feature film remake Psychosis (2010) which is also quite good. These anthology horror films can be great but rely on striking twist endings which is where Screamtime falls down a bit, while Dreamhouse is impressive, unexpected & memorable the other two are a little tame & predictable.The production values are alright if cheap looking, the special effects vary with the living Garden Gnome surely one of the silliest things I've seen in a while. A little rough around the edges technically how can that kid set the Punch & Judy show on fire with an unlit electric lamp?! Some of the acting & death scenes are also poor with the Garden Gnome strangling a guy coming across as really camp & the shots earlier where row's of Garden Gnomes scare the geezer is hard to take seriously. There's a bit of gore, there's some blood splatter in the first story, some gory stabbings including a cool slit throat in the second & not much of anything during the third story. The stories do have a certain grimy low budget atmosphere that I liked, a sort of sleazy vibe to them that appealed.Filmed here in the UK & in New York. The acting varies, some of it is quite good while at other times it's awful. Jonathon Morris who played Damien is probably best know for played Adrian in the sitcom Bread (1986-1991), Kim Thompson who plays Lady Anne has since found fame in the UK appearing in over 200 episodes of Emmerdale while David Van Day was one half of 80's pop group Dollar.Screamtime is fairly enjoyable for what it is, the three stories vary in quality but they are all decent enough & they all have their own moments whether it's creepiness or silliness or gore. I can't say Screamtime is brilliant but it's a worthwhile watch especially if your a fan of horror anthologies.

I went into watching this with zero expectations and came out really surprised. I love anthology style horror films and have been searching for the best ones for a long time. My personal favorites include Creepshow, Cat's Eye, Tales from the Darkside, Asylum, Tales from the Crypt, Nightmares, The Willies, etc.. This movie manages to be funny and pointless in some parts and really scary in other parts. The wraparound story is so weird that you can't help but laugh at it. I think the scariest story is the second one about the couple moving into the old house. The way they built suspense and atmosphere was excellent and the end was a pleasant surprise as well. The first story wasn't very original but it was fun none the less. The third story was just plain bizarre but was by far the most original and creative out of the three tales. Overall I really recommend a late night viewing of this to anthology film fans. I think a DVD release would get this film the credit it deserves.

Mildly entertaining thriller about some kids who steal video tapes and end up watching three tales of terror. The stories have some good ideas, but the low budget and not so great production values stop it from being what it could have been. Still there is some entertainment value to this film. Rated R.

Sometimes when you expect the worst....you get a nice, mild surprise. Something may turn out to not be as bad as you thought it would be. Such is the case with Screamtime. The video box depicts the film as being real cheap and bad, and the opening shots and credits do little to dismiss that impression. Two guys steal three videos and run to some girl's house. Almost instantaneously we are given a view of her naked breasts. Well, at this point you think you have a pretty good idea where the film is going. Then the punk kid/thief sticks a video in the VCR and we start to watch a story about an English puppeteer who lives a life with a wife and stepson who don't love or understand him. They want him to burn his puppets, give up what he has spent his life doing, and move to Canada. The story is nothing like the wrap-around story. It is well-directed, has some decent performances, and even some thoughtful story-telling. The script is not great, but the story is entertaining. Robin Bailey does a real nice job as Jack, the man behind an evil looking Punch and Judy. The story ends, having generated some pretty good jumps and at least some suspense. Back to the the story of the thieves. The footage of them seems like it was shot by some high school amateurs. Then another story. The second story out-classes the rest for it tells a story of a woman and man who just moved into a big house. She begins to see things. The pacing is a bit slow, but the climax is more than ample reward for that small discrepancy. I really was quite surprised by the ending of the story and very pleased with the whole story overall. It was extremely well-executed in terms of direction and performance. Back to the stupid clods again and then on to the third story about a young man and his buddies out to rob two old women who say they live amongst fairies and gnomes. The story is pretty good and the two old ladies are wonderfully played by Dora Bryan and Jean Anderson. The special effects in this story are somewhat lacking. The third story ends and then we see how the wrap-around story ends. It is a ridiculous ending to a whole ridiculous scheme. The film may have faired better if they had someone just host the three stories and introduce them like in Thriller. It certainly would not have hurt. At any rate don't pass this one up if you like some good old British anthology horror story-telling. The stories are very interesting. I can only think that somehow someone made these three stories in England and could not find a "real" distributor and ended up selling them to some fifth-rate film operation.