Too Scared to Scream (1984)

Too Scared to Scream is an 80s slasher film. There wasn't too many kills. This movie had a story line along with the serial killer. Rarely do you find a slasher film that is character driven. The movie does drag a bit and some dull moments, but overall, the story is engaging. There is a twist at the end and the killer is not the obvious suspect. My rating is 4 out of 10...slightly below average.

There's something curiously fascinating about the obscure and almost entirely forgotten mid-80s slasher entitled "Too Scared to Scream". In the blessed year 1985, director Tony Lo Bianco (primarily an actor and probably best known for his role as Lonely Hearts Murderer Ray Fernandez in "The Honeymoon Killers") seemingly attempted to make a mix of two specific exploitation sub-genres that were at the end of their glory days. I may just be imagining things, of course, but yours truly spotted in "Too Scared to Scream" a tribute to both the Italian Giallo and those typical New York 42nd Street Grindhouse trash flicks. The similarities with the Giallo are mainly to be found in the plotting department, as the film deals with a sadist killer who preferably slaughters lewd women when they are completely undressed and his/her favorite weapon is a giant butcher knife! There also are several (poor) attempts at plot twists, red herrings and even a surprise ending that is far-fetched and downright hilarious. As the icing on the cake, the investigation is led by a grumpy detective almost as misogynist as the culprit self. The link with the 42nd Street Grindhouse cinema obviously lies within the New York filming locations and its portrayal of the city. Very much like in modest classics such as "Maniac", "Ms. 45", "Night of the Juggler" and "The Exterminator", this film is like an anti-tourist campaign for the city of New York! Nothing you see here will ever make you want to go city-tripping in the Big Apple! The cast is full of unlikable people and many scenes play at raunchy, neon-lit districts. The horror action mostly takes place at a wannabe fancy hotel, the Royal Arms, where apparently unrelated residents turn up savagely murdered. The script desperately wants us to believe that the killer is the eccentric night porter / aspiring Broadway actor Vincent Hardwick, but I don't think anyone is gullible enough to believe he's the one. In spite of many flaws and too many boring parts, "Too Scared to Scream" is nonetheless enjoyable if you're a fan of eighties slashers and/or the above-mentioned exploitation sub-genres.

"Too Scared To Scream" was filmed in 1982, but it apparently took three years for the movie to find a distributor willing to release it to theaters. Watching the movie, it doesn't take long to figure out why it took so long to be picked up for distribution. As other user commenters have pointed out, the movie (despite some nudity and foul language) has the appearance and feel of a made for television movie of the same era and lacks the "oompth" of a theatrical feature. The stalk and slash sequences come across as pretty tame, and no character seems to be particularly concerned that the body count is slowly rising. I will say the movie never gets boring, and it fooled me when it came to guessing who the murderer was... though on the other hand, the movie is never extremely involving, and I am usually terrible guessing who did it in murder mystery movies. It's odd that Mike Connors thought so much of this project that he not only acted in the movie, he produced it as well. You'd think that his years on the TV show "Mannix" would have him well trained as to what a good mystery was.

This early 80's slasheresque movie is pretty bad really, but I kind of liked it for some reason. It involves a number of murders in a swanky high rise building. The killings are investigated by a male and female cop, and the main suspect is the reddest herring imaginable--a doorman and aspiring way off-Broadway actor. There is some blood, a lot of gratuitous nudity, and that sleazy urban ambiance of the early 80's also featured in movies like "Eyes of a Stranger", "Windows", as well as genuinely disturbing flicks like "Maniac" and "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain". It was one of the last of the gritty, downbeat 70's style exploitation flicks before the happy fascism of the Reagan era and before Rudy Guliani turned 42nd Street into Disneyland.The movie was directed by obscure cult actor Tony LoBianca who appeared in "The Honeymoon Killers" and "God Told Me To". He never directed another movie, and I'm not sure how he ever came to direct this one. The female lead is Anne Archer, who was later in "Fatal Attraction" (and I'd rather watch this movie any day than that overrated and reactionary piece of crap). It's pretty hard to find (I bought a used PAL video in Buenos Aires for about 30 cents I think), but not a COMPLETE waste of time if you stumble across it.