Le silence qui tue

A cloying atmosphere. A large, wooden mansion close to the beach. A camera prowling the hallways. An arm grabbed in a crawlspace. Barbara Steele. The strange, bespecled son who puts on an old army uniform and stays in his room. The mother we rarely see. The grim tone.

I recall these fleeting aspects of "Silent Scream" and I recall the trailer featuring the arm grabbed.

The film is not very bloody and not a lot happens, but director Denny Harris chooses to focus on the dysfunctional family who rent rooms to college students. One of them, Rebecca Balding, a strong, no-nonsense actress, cottons on to what's happening and starts to investigate.

Although the film was inspired by Halloween, it plays more like "Psycho" or "Terror House" and benefits from its downbeat look and score.

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.

Four college-bound students arrive too late for on-campus housing and are then forced to rent rooms in the creepy old hilltop mansion inhabited by a weird family hiding a dark and disturbing secret. Yvonne De Carlo is the mysterious matriarch who always stays upstairs and always seems to be guarding the attic, and Brad Rearden is her strange son. Cameron Mitchell and Avery Schreiber are detectives called in to investigate when a brutal murder occurs at the eerie place. There's also a nice role for sixties scream queen Barbara Steele. I"ll admit, before I actually saw the film I thought, considering the release date and R rating, that this was just going to be another one of those bloody teen slasher flicks. I couldn't have been more wrong! There actually is a plot, a surprisingly low body count, and even the few characters that do get knocked off are appealing in their own strange way, so you can't help but care what happens to these people. And above all, there is some terrific suspense sequences. It usually takes alot to get my adrenaline running, but at some points in the film, I literally jumped out of my seat! Any horror movie that can do this for me is truly something special. It appears to have been made on a small budget, but the cast handles it all so professionally that it hardly matters. Indeed, there are some real professionals involved, including horror mavens Barbara Steele and Yvonne DeCarlo. Unfortunately, it's a tough movie to find and not likely to be sitting on the shelf of your local retail/rental store, but it's well worth the extra effort.

College student Scotty Parker waits too long to apply for on campus housing and as a result must rent a room at a spooky seaside mansion owned by the equally spooky Engels family. Soon, one of the other college student renters is brutally murdered and Scotty unknowingly begins to unravel the secrets of the Engels family and the murders.

The creepy, atmospheric little gem is a homage to Psycho through and through. Though it is a slow-burner, there is always an uneasiness present as the viewer is made aware through minor clues that something is not right with the Engels family. There is little to no gore; instead the focus on on building tension leading into the frantic and frenzied climax. Barbara Steele steals the film without saying a word and her performance will certainly give you chills. Highly underrated and one of the better entries into the early 80's slasher genre, though today's audience may be turned off by the slow pace.

FrightMeter Grade: B

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... : )