Truly Dreadful Film

Some things I liked some I did not.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Some college students(including "The Boogens" star Rebecca Balding) look for rooms to rent in a sea-side mansion owned by a mysterious landlady and her peculiar son, only to regret it later when a series of murders breaks out, and the secrets of the house and its inhabitants are revealed...Ostensibly a slasher picture, though not that violent, is still pretty flat and dull, with a fairly obvious plot and characters going through the motions. The type of film where the trailer shows all the effective material, and as a consequence, is the best thing about it! For some unknown reason, this was successful at the box office!

This is another one of those 80's slashers that came out during the golden age, but has long been forgotten about despite the fact that it was a smash hit when it came out grossing $15 million at the box office, so I asked myself if this was so big then why isn't it more remembered, I mean this made more money than such other slasher gems such as (My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday To Me & House On Sorority Row).Then I finally got round to seeing this and okay it's not quite up there with the other gems, but it's still worth checking out. The beginning is quite interesting and sets the tone for whats to come, like teens staying in an old Gothic mansion then getting picked off one by one by a murderous presence hiding in the attic. The performances also makes this movie work especially from genre stars Babara Steele and Yvonne De Carlo. And the gloomy atmosphere but Unfortunately it is this over-reliance on the past that proves to be the films' ultimate downfall as it gets boring very fast and This movie is nothing special. There's barely any blood or gore and the story tends to drag on at times, especially since the deaths take too long to happen and are too quick when they do.All in all Silent Scream does set the creepy and Gothic tone well, but it does boring and far paced but overall the film works simply down the good turns from the cast.

Relatively cheaply-made and not-so-hotly directed by one hit "wonder" Denny Harris, The Silent Scream came out at the beginning of the slasher flicks boom following John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978. This film and Friday the Thirteenth came out in 1980. The Silent Scream seems to have been somewhat lost though it really is way better than the other and its entire franchise. We get a very creepy old house by the sea and a group of college students in need of rooms to rent. Mason Engles, the young nerdy boy of the family handles the business as his mother stays cooped in her room in the attic. Soon young people start getting butchered. First one man by the surf, another in the laundry room - no need for a laundry list here. The murders are not particularly grizzly - certainly not by today's standards, but the acting believe it or not is miles ahead of much of the dreck in films of this ilk since. No wonder as we have Yvonne De Carlo as Mrs. Engles, Barbara Steele in a truly bizarre role of a mentally frustrated psychopath who dresses as an adolescent but is in her forties(and still beautiful I might add), Cameron Mitchell doing a workmanlike job in a small role as a cop along with Doritos pitchman and comedian Avery Scrieber playing it straight as a detective. Rebecca Balding is our heroine and she is refreshing and lovely. The house is very eerie and we get back corridors and all that plus a basement and attic to die for(okay, to die in). The story is trite, hackneyed, predictable, or any word you would like to use that means something we have all seen a hundred times, but the acting and the atmosphere are pretty good. that is quite a complement, because I didn't think much of the direction especially that stupid slow-motion beginning of Mitchell and Scriber coming in the house and seeing the murders. You wonder first if the house has some history of murder, but then just wonder why the director went that route at all. An intriguing film especially in the context of when it was made.

This is coming to code red DVD soon. I saw this on cable back in the early 80's.. Another slasher/college kids theme but never the less, creepiness. Rebecca balding who use to be on a t.v. show called soap and later to star in another cult horror film The Boogens, is our main star here. She can't seem to find housing at a local college so she shacks up in an old house with a horror history. Yes , a creepy house with webs and creeping floorboards. I remember seeing the t.v. spot back in 1980 and it scared me. So, i wont give away too much, but granted, if you haven't seen this 25 plus year old film yet. maybe you might on DVD. Btw. this was filmed sometime in 1979, so it really isn't an 80's horror film,, just the January release date... good luck. some interesting chills though. And overall a campy slasher...