My World Dies Screaming

My World Dies Screaming (1958)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Better known as TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE, this is a pretty bad film that's only separation from other bad films is the fact that it was filmed in "Psycho-Rama," which allowed subliminal images to appear on screen throughout the picture. The actual story revolves around a woman (Cathy O'Donnell) who suffers from a continuous nightmare surrounding a house that she sees in her dreams. Soon her new husband (Gerald Mohr) takes her to America and sure enough they end up staying in the house from her dreams. MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING might have worked under better conditions but as it stands here the film is just a complete boring mess. There are so many issues with this film but we can start with the story. The idea of someone seeing something in their dreams and then it becomes a reality isn't anything fresh or original but there's so much more they could have done with it. Instead we're just given non-stop dialogue scenes that go back and forth on whether or not the wife is crazy or if she's normal and the husband is just trying to drive her mad. Then we get some really melodramatic moments that often come across more funny than anything else and I assure you that wasn't the intent. Even worse is that the performance from O'Donnell is just downright bad. Everything from her reactions to her line delivery is just so over-the-top that you have to wonder what director Harold Daniels was doing. He certainly should have brought her back in or at least did a second take. Mohr comes across much better and John Qualen adds a few laughs as the strange caretaker. As far as the subliminal images go, they're quite pointless and come across more of a bad gimmick than anything that actually adds to the entertainment value. MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING will have the viewer screaming by the time the end credit roles.