Screamtime

Whilst far from perfect, this is a very good anthology of horror stories.

There is very little gore, but the stories build up a good atmosphere, and the acting is always of at least an acceptable level, and in the cases of Robin Bailey,Jean Anderson and Dora Bryan, it is actually quite excellent.

In the middle story involving people moving into a house, I actually felt quite creeped out, something that hasn't happened for years to me.

I would love to know the story as to how three short English tales ended up juxtaposed with the wrap around story of thieves stealing the tapes from a store, but whatever, it doesn't detract from the stories themselves.

The copy I have seen has washed out colours which somehow added to the bleakness, and this is shot on film it would appear, doesn't look cheap and nasty at all.

If you are a fan of brit horror, you must see this it's definitely a bit of a lost gem as far as I'm concerned.

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.

Two guys steal some tapes from a rental store and stop by a female acquaintance's place to watch them. The first one, involving a loser puppeteer, is pretty stupid. The second one has a couple moving into a new home. The wife begins seeing things that lead her to believe the place is haunted. This segment is a good one. There's one effective shock about midway through it, as well as a terrific ending that took me by surprise. The third and final tale finds a biker working for two rich old women who say their house is watched over by fairies. Naturally, he figures they're just senile and decides to rob the place. This story was quite fun, though it felt like the shortest of the three. Of course, the weak opener seemed to be the longest. Most anthologies do have at least one stinker, but it's worth seeing for the second and third bits, especially the second. The wrap-around is amusing as well.

This was a decent horror anthology movie. Two New Yorkers steal some videos from a video store, and take them to a female friend's apartment to watch.

In the first one, an old man loves doing Punch & Judy shows for kids, and takes meticulous care of his puppets at home. His wife is fed up with it; they don't make enough money, and she wants him to burn them and move with his stepson to Canada for reliable work. We then see his family being attacked by a wooden board. Has Punch come to life, or has the old man gone nuts? This one wasn't all that good, but it wasn't terrible.

In the second one, a couple move into a house their father was unable to sell. The wife sees a boy bicycling in the yard that no one else notices. She hears noises, and sees blood in the bathtub, then on a knife in the kitchen, then on the bannister. She starts seeing other people in the house, and then starts seeing those people bloody or dead. This one was quite a bit better.

In the last segment, a young man races motorcycles, and works at a clothing store. He needs more money, which his boss offers to loan him. He takes a job gardening for a pair of old ladies to make the money he needs to pay his boss back. They're quite eccentric, believing in fairies and gnomes, and a pact their 16th century ancestor had with the fairies to help conceal her affairs from her husband. The young man discovers the old ladies have a chest full of money, and he decides to rob them with the help of his younger brother and a friend. This one was pretty good too.

Finally, the wraparound segment brings everything together.

My brother and I rented this years ago. From the picture on the video box, we thought it was a ral bad, cheap thrills slasher film. Instead it turned out to be a suprisingly good anthology of British horror stories. Good british horror, very creepy and scary without being gory or violent, kind of 'quiet horror'. "Punch and Judy" is only okay, but the other two stories will give you some serious chills! THe only complaint I have about this film is the story-within-a-story concept about the friends renting this video and watching it, and seriously regretting it at the end of the videos. That was unnecessary and stupid. Good luck finding this film, though, I think it is pretty rare.