Le silence qui tue

This movie scared the bejezzus out of me when I was a kid. I think I was scarred for life. I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid, but at that age I went to see a movie more than once so I still recall the movie pretty well. Silent Scream was one of the first ‘psycho killer on a rampage' kinds of horror movies I had ever seen. Most of my childhood movie experiences were supernatural gore fests. I had gone through life blissfully believing that all things horrific where relegated to the realm of the supernatural, where they couldn't hurt me. That ended for me in the summer of 1980: the year Silent Scream and Friday the 13th came out. I was glued to my seat, eyes like saucers, watching some wacked-out person hacking people up with a butcher knife or trying to pull them through a hole in the attic wall so they could hack them up. It was pure magic for an adolescent boy. It didn't matter that there was no mystery to figure out. All that mattered was that I was getting the you-know-what scared out of me and loving it. I look back now and think of how truly silly those kinds of movies were but, hey, they were great summer entertainment for a junior high school kid. I still have a soft place in my heart for all of those mindless slasher movies. I would recommend Silent Scream for anyone who loves classic ‘80's horror (the best decade for horror in my opinion). Here are some other recommendations for horror/thriller from my childhood (I'll try to stick to the less well known ones): Humanoids from the Deep, The Boogens, The Boogeyman, Sleepaway Camp, Dead of Winter,Evil Speak, Scanners (well known but a must), Mausoleum, Motel Hell, Blood Beach, Happy Birthday to Me, April Fools Day, Sole Survivor, Galaxy of Terror. There is also from the seventies: Suspiria, Alice Sweet Alice, The Other, Burnt Offerings, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Piranha and Giant Spider Invasion: most of which I saw in the eighties. There are a lot more that don't come to mind right away but suffice to say that I made it my goal to see all the horror movies I could when I was young and there were a ton of them. I'm sure I loved them all. Please feel free to contact me for any recommendations to give or receive.

When Scotty Parker and three other students move into Mrs Engels' boarding house on the coast,they soon begin to suspect that something strange is happening.Landlady Mrs Engels hides away in her attic room and her son Mason is a creepy character who likes to watch brutal TV shows.Then the students start to disappear..."Silent Scream" is pretty good.It's true that some of its elements are stolen from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"(check out the shower scene!),but still the film manages to be quite creepy.The characters are reasonably appealing-a horror queen Barbara Steele is another reason to see "Silent Scream".Overall I enjoyed this little suspense horror.Check it out.8 out of 10.

This really wasn't a bad film at all. For me personally, what really kills a lot of these types of movies or at least brings them down quite a bit is the poor acting.

I mean, this is 1979, in my lowly and wretched opinion Not the very best time for films and especially for realistic or believable acting. But, the director/writers did a good job here with the story and dialog.

And, seriously... Take about 80% of all the Slashers of the 1980's and how many of them have anything even Close to good acting. Normally, they are full of paper thin stereotypes, usually completely unrelatable and not realistic whatsoever.

So, that alone to me sets this film above most later Slashers. I was quite surprised that these characters did indeed come across as real people and their interactions and dialog weren't just some superficial, 'Hip' nonsense, but interchanges that the audience could actually buy into. Overall, I feel this is quite rare in these types of low budget Horror movies, especially Slasher films.

Apart from the above average acting (and remember, most of these people other than a couple of known supporting actors like Cameron Mitchell and the rather odd choice of Avery Schreiber, were relatively unknown) the story sets a pretty good tone and mystery about what is going on.

The plot isn't terribly deep or complicated, but with the good cinematography, nice locals, and decent writing and directing, I thought it was a good, slightly above average Slasher, especially for such an early one.

If you enjoy watching commentaries, it is a fun listen with both writers and the lead actress.

So, nothing that's going to rock your world or change your viewpoint on life, but a relatively fun and engaging early Slasher that you might enjoy if you like films like this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My Particular Way of Rating:

5 - Flawed, but perhaps with a little entertainment value here and there for some.

6. A decently passable story maybe worth a watch.

7. A solid film, well made, effective, and entertaining.

And, obviously, you can probably figure out what above and below these would mean... : )

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.

The slasher film was one of the more popular eighties horror sub-genres, and as a result; a lot of truly awful slashers were made. This one isn't particularly brilliant, but it's more than decent and has more going for it than the vast majority of similar films from the same period. Most of the eighties output was directly influenced by John Carpenter's overrated Halloween, but this film appears to take more from the original slasher - Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho - than the aforementioned modern slasher, which is definitely to the film's credit. The film puts it's focus on just one location; that being a boarding house near to a beach. The house is run by Mrs. Engels, who leaves her son Mason in charge as she prefers to stay locked in her upstairs room. Scotty Parker arrives at the house after searching all over town for a room. She gets a room there and pretty soon she is introduced to the other three house mates and mingles with them well. However, it soon becomes clear that there's a member of the household that she hasn't been introduced to, and it's not long before one of her new-found friends turns up dead.

I have to be honest and say that I probably wouldn't have bothered tracking this one down if it wasn't for the fact that it features the great Barbara Steele. Steele doesn't get the lead role, but she is by far the most memorable thing about the film with her deliciously insane character. The plot plays out very directly, and there is little or no attempt to be clever at all. This certainly isn't a bad thing, however, as it means that writer-director Denny Harris (with his only film) is able to put the focus on the popular slasher elements such as murder and atmosphere. The film isn't very bloody compared to its counterparts; films such as Friday the 13th, but there's a few brutal murder sequences contained within the film, and this is sure to please slasher fans. The foreboding and tense atmosphere is a result of the focus on the central location, and the old house at the centre of the film gives it a nice feel throughout, which is also one of the film's main assets. The conclusion is somewhat predictable; but you can't expect much else from this sort of film, and while Silent Scream isn't massively impressive, it's better than a lot of slashers and comes recommended to fans of the sub-genre.