A Scream in the Streets

"A Scream in the Streets" fulfills its requirements as a 70s trash film. It's basically a variety of sex scenes occasionally interrupted by the plot. And the plot involves two police detectives, Ed Haskell (Joshua Bryant, the original 'Salem's Lot'), and Bob Striker (Frank Bannon, in his only film role), who must deal with various lowlifes: a young punk robbing a deli, a peeping tom, and the kicker: a rapist who is able to avoid detection because he's always dressing in drag!

The movie does have its moments. This viewer liked best the scene where two lesbians decide to "put on a show" for the peeping tom while surreptitiously placing a call to the police. Also among the thoroughly depraved male characters is a massage parlor customer who gets his kicks by whipping an employee with his belt. Her boss calls in the cops, but is far more concerned with the damage that the customer did to HIM. (He smashed his head with a beer bottle, and yet later we don't see a single drop of blood on the dodo's face.) The rapist is a total creep and yet is undeniably a hoot because there is no way in real life anybody would be fooled by this guy.

The dialogue is often quite amusing, and the performances likewise have a cheesy appeal. Also appearing are Linda York ("Chain Gang Women"), Colleen Brennan ("Delinquent School Girls"), Sandy Carey ("Drive In Massacre"), and John Tull ("Below the Belt").

Viewers hoping for a copious mixture of cheese & sleaze will likely have a good time with this one.

Six out of 10.

A cross-dressing serial killer/rapist in drag beats a woman to death before the opening credits start rolling, and that's pretty much the entire movie. From there we see two cops start going about their rounds to find the killer, which never amounts to anything except that this thing turns into a porno flick with endless sex scenes and a peeping tom who always happens to find the right window at the right time so he can watch. I like gratuitous sex as much as the next guy, but there is a limit in a straight "feature", and certainly not when it's unimaginatively presented and whatever existing plot line was initiated completely becomes ignored. This is a very bad movie. 0 out of ****

OK, this was a bit of a disappointment. I purchased the German version of this movie from eBay which appears to be an ancient rental copy. The cover is really nice, it pictures a man with an axe dismembering a screaming woman. The German title literally is The Slaughterer and has the following catch lines on the cover: Chopped alive, he hates all women, his only love is his axe.

Unfortunately, the movie is quite different than what the advertising on the VHS cover suggests. Its 80 minutes long (PAL version) and not even ten minutes are devoted to the killer and his work. The lion share of celluloid is used for a number of rather steamy sex scenes, you get to see some genital parts indeed. The rest is second unit shots of the two cops driving their car doing their job.

The only thing that makes the movie worth watching 8and that is only the first 40 minutes of it) is a long scene in a brothel where an old pervert is doing his thing on a masseuse. The dialog is really fun.

The two or three scenes with the killer an his victims are mediocre at best. You don't get to see any stabbing, just the results.

This movie is real turkey and can only be beared when intoxicated. This film should NOT be viewed by minors.

There is a cross-dressing rapist/murder on the loose and two plain clothed cops are on the case, but they are too busy battling peeping tom, foodmart robber, and having personal problems in this run-of-the-mill action film. One actress looks like Colleen Brennen. The video print is the edited down version, but still has most of the stuff intact. Could've been a good cop film, but the paper thin script made it impossible to like. Suprisingly has a decent car chase for a low-budget film. Not recommended.

Why does this movie suffer? Many reasons, and it's it own fault. You know a movies in trouble where the faceless killer's revealed at the start, with all the credits coming up the screen and if it's closing. If you caught your VHS tape at that moment, and rewound it, within a couple of seconds, with the tape stopping, you would give wonder, and that's how you'll feel all the way through this crap. The film has a good premise, and could really had potential, if approached right. "But no". What's happening here, is they've decided to make a porn movie but also a drama with a real story. You can't have it both ways. If this wasn't a sex film, you could of have a really good movie. There is some appalling "What the F" acting here, not from everyone, but I'd say the majority, and you'll definitely pick em. The plot sees a serial killer raping and killing women, one a fifteen year old girl, who we only hear about, thankfully. But we can't be thankful for much in A Scream In The Streets. One such scene I'm thankful for in a way, is the massage scene, featuring a sickie and a hottie, getting it on. Now riddle me this: the heartless owner gets a bottle smashed across his face, but no blood. I've seen unproduced films that are better than this crap. Honestly. You note too, the grainy picture with those lines running down the screen. This is just a shoddy and pathetic movie with so many pathetic moments, plus one of the worst drop dead falls, I've ever seen. Most of the cast deserve time in prison, but if acquitted, should do acting classes as probation. The people behind the movie should of made a choice, to just do a porno, or an actual movie, but they've done both, and look what's happened. There's some scenes that have nothing to do with the movie, where also there's some drawn out sex scenes, that deviate from the story.