Silent Scream (1979)

A better than average cast helps to make this horror film a decent watch, along with a reasonably good script (written by brothers Jim & Ken Wheat and Wallace C. Bennett) that has some memorable twists. It's graphically bloody at times but also has fine atmosphere, and a healthy nod to "Psycho" in its use of an imposing beach side house.College student Scotty (Rebecca Balding) is in desperate need of a place to live and ends up at this house, owned by a weird family, the Engels. Unfortunately, Scotty and her fellow roommates won't know just *how* creepy this family is until it's almost too late. When one of the kids is murdered, a subplot develops with two detectives (Cameron Mitchell, Avery Schreiber) investigating the case.The cute Balding is an appealing lead in this story, given effective theatrical treatment by commercial veteran Denny Harris (in his only feature credit). Helping a great deal is a grandiose music score by the under-rated Roger Kellaway, who also composes a period style song for the show. There is some good suspense and many ominous shots of the house and its interiors. The shocks are well realized, as well.Yvonne De Carlo is also among the familiar faces appearing. Mitchell and an effectively serious Schreiber are fine as the detectives. In addition to Balding, Steve Doubet and Juli Andelman are similarly likable. Brad Rearden is great in the role of the nerdy Mason Engels, the films' one true tragic character. And horror genre icon Barbara Steele is a treat to watch in a non-speaking role.Lovers of the horror films from this period should find a fair deal to enjoy here. "The Silent Scream" is enjoyable stuff that deserves a viewing from them.Seven out of 10.

Scotty, Jack, Peter and Doris are all students who move into a gorgeous seaside mansion/boarding house run by Mrs. Engels and her son Mason. At first, the students love their new digs, but when one of them turns up dead, things get weird and the Engels family secrets begin to come out.I remember always wanting to watch this movie when it was on HBO before we had cable, so it had taken on an almost mythic importance in my mind. I don't know why I never rented it during the VHS boom, but I finally tried to watch it earlier this year but couldn't get into it. I'm glad I gave it another chance, because I actually found it quite enjoyable. Sure, it's pretty tame compared to other 80s slashers, but there's a grimness to the murders through the sound or the blood spatter or other visual/auditory tricks that really make them effective, even though we don't see anything. The young actors playing the college students are mostly likable and not cartoonish, so I could imagine them all being friends. Overall, I'd recommend this one, especially to someone just starting to explore the slasher genre.

I wonder if Ti West watched "Silent Scream" as inspiration for his cult hit, "The House of the Devil". "Silent Scream" is one of those "spooky house with sinister secrets and creepy denizens" kinds of horror movies. The setting is a giant house on the hill overlooking an ocean and beach with deliberate camera work taking us into the hidden portion of a cob-webbed basement where someone obviously dangerous is buried away, seemingly locked in a room for a reason yet understood. Young tenants preparing for another semester of college are unaware of what lies ahead for them..certain peril.This early slasher resembles the movies that would arrive not long after. College kids falling victim to a knife-wielding maniac, except the backdrop isn't a campus or camp, but an eerie boardinghouse with suspicious owners. I believe the house itself might give this little known slasher movie some credo.A strike against it might be the span of time between knife murders. Like the aforementioned "House of the Devil", "Silent Scream" takes it's time establishing the quiet menace that is palpable within the boardinghouse..I mean the lead heroine, Scotty(Rebecca Balding) her new boyfriend, Jack(Steve Doubet;also a boarder in the house)and traumatized fellow boarder, Doris(she was with the first victim just prior to his sadistic demise, having left his drunk ass lying on the beach after growing frustrated with his active hands trying to fondle her)all seem to find their current residence rather uneasy, attempting to adapt accordingly, despite the fact that someone they had just recently met suffered such a grisly fate.Barbara Steele fans, stay faithful because even though you have to wait about an hour to see her, it's certainly worth it because she has a knack for depicting madness effectively. I know I keep bringing it up, but "Silent Scream" even favors "House of the Devil" and other films of it's ilk, in how the heroine investigates throughout the house, planted in our minds is the question on where evil dwells. The "house of crazies" theme I must admit feeling partial to..I enjoy movies featuring lunatics gathered together as a family, especially with so many rooms echoing quite a history to the viewer. The only one oblivious to the strange atmosphere of the place is Jack.Poor Rebecca Balding is tied to a coat rack as a gun is going off shortly after we are privy to family revelations. The finale is more than a bit chaotic, but I guess such events were bound to erupt eventually when you have such a dysfunctional family as the Engles. Seeing a loony Steele coming at you with a long, sharp, glimmering butcher knife is quite the image a slasher fan can appreciate more than the casual horror fan.Cameron Mitchell and Avery Schreiber have thankless parts as police detectives on the case of the murdered rich kid, Peter(John Widelock) feeling the pressure to find some sort of lead, clue, or evidence that can help them solve the mystery behind his savage death. Balding is a doll in the lead, a cute girl who makes an attractive couple with Doubet who searches for her when she's held hostage by Mama Engles,(Yvonne De Carlo), mop-haired son Mason(Brad Reardon, quite good as the polite, but weird and anti-social, misfit, his mania bubbling underneath the surface), and Steele whose lobotomy while in the mental institution has left her with little more than the mind of a child(that is until violent impulses take over). Juli Andelman has a nice supporting part as Balding's quirky pal, Doris, who never is able to recover from Peter's murder.

Spunky college student Scotty Parker (winningly played with disarming sweetness and vitality by cute and appealing brunette Rebecca Balding) rents a room at an old house located down by the shore. Scotty and her three fellow boarders discover that the ramshackle abode harbors a very dark and deadly secret deep within its grimy cobweb-strewn walls. Director Denny Harris, working from a smart and absorbing script by Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, and Wallace C. Bennet, relates the simple and involving story at a gradual, yet steady pace, does an expert job of creating and sustaining a mysteriously creepy atmosphere, and pulls out all the stops for the picture's rousing and hair-raising conclusion. The able cast of genre veterans helps a lot: Yvonne De Carlo does well as the stern and remote Mrs. Engels, Cameron Mitchell as the weary Lt. Sandy McGiver and Avery Schreiber as his jolly partner Sgt. Manny Ruggin are likewise excellent, and 60's Gothic fright feature goddess Barbara Steele delivers a remarkably intense and frightening tour-de-force mute pantomime performance as the deranged and dangerous Victoria Engels. Better still, the youthful protagonists are well-drawn and genuinely engaging: Balding shines in the perky lead, with fine support from Steve Doubet as charming hunk Jack Towne, Juli Anderlman as the chipper Doris Prichart, and John Widerlock as the amiable Peter Ransom. Brad Rearden is also solid and credible as weird and neurotic bespectacled nerd Mason Engels. Roger Kellaway's elegantly eerie orchestral score does the blood-chilling trick. The stylish cinematography by Michael D. Murphy and David Shore gives the movie an attractive polished look. The spooky seaside house evokes a powerfully unsettling sense of vulnerability and isolation. Moreover, the plot offers some nice tweaking of the standard slice'n'dice conventions: the killer turns out to be a woman with a tragic and poignant back story, the heroine saves herself at the end, and the murder set pieces are effectively brutal and shocking without ever becoming too gory or disgusting. Highly recommended for 80's low-budget indie horror fans.