My World Dies Screaming (1958)

Apart from the novelty of 'Psycho-Rama', I cannot see much reason to watch "My World Dies Screaming". It's a pretty bad film--with many reasons to dislike it."My World Dies Screaming" begins with Sheila (Cathy O'Donnell) working through some recurring dream with a hypnotherapist. However, like in all the other attempts, she is unable to see how this all ends. After her discharge, she is taken by her new husband, Philip (Gerald Mohr) to Florida ostensibly for their honeymoon. However, soon it becomes obvious Philip has some agenda, as he ends up taking her to the very same old home she keeps seeing in her dreams! What gives? This film has several serious problems working with it and the novelty of Psycho-Rama* isn't enough to save it. Cathy O'Donnell, who could deliver a nice performance (such as in "The Best Years of Our Lives") was just awful here--as she way overplayed her character. It was almost laughable when she emoted and the director SHOULD have coached her through this or re-shot the scenes. Other scenes he should have re-shot involved nighttime scenes--which ranged from daylight to dark night alternative--just like Ed Wood infamously did in "Plan 9 From Outer Space"! Additionally, the film alternated from very boring to being very, very talky. Most of the plot was actually explained near the end through exposition--a very, very sloppy indicator that the writer was not competent. All in all, I wanted a fun, campy horror film but it was only dull.*Psycho-Rama consisted of supposedly subliminal pictures appearing throughout the film--such as warnings that a scare is about to occur. With a DVD machine, it's easy to stop and see them clearly. However, in a funny twist, Rhino Video added one of their own--encouraging the viewer to watch more Rhino releases! Cute but also completely disproved to have any real impact on audience behaviors.

Adding the review because no one seems to have noted that this is a pure Gothic romance story: a relative-less, advocate-less female with what may or may not be mental illness, two men, one of whom is good and the other evil, but we can't tell which is which, all at an isolated old house, the hereditary curse, the oddball retainer, blah blah blah. Straight to the Gothic formula, only missing fog.This is not a very good treatment of the genre, however. We know all along which man is the nice one and which the evil. The female is so stupid and weak, I can't care if she dies or not (this is the most dated part of the movie--you couldn't get away with a female lead like that today). Lots of exposition disguised (but not well) as dialog and the ludicrous cartoon "subliminals." Taken seriously, the plot doesn't work at many levels. In particular, that psychiatrist needs to get disbarred. The casting is odd--the female and male hero played together as children, but the actors look 15 years or more different in ages. The woman screams far too often, and it's just irritating.Not so bad it's good for a laugh. Just bad. Want a decent Gothic movie? Rebecca or your choice of Wuthering Heights. Or read Barbara Michael's charming metagothic novel, Houses of Stone (a Gothic novel about hunting for an old Gothic novel manuscript). Want a bad 50's horror movie that makes you laugh at how bad it is? Lots to choose from. This is neither fish nor fowl.

As a child this movie always scared the daylights out of my sister and me whenever we saw on TV. In fact, in my mind it has always been *the* horror movie of my childhood. After finally discovering its name and seeing it again decades later, I was relieved to see I don't have to be embarrassed to admit that. Sure it's 50 years old, has mediocre acting, and those hokey "subliminal" images, but I still find the situations, especially the woman's dream, haunting. And, though you'll probably think you know what the surprise ending is going to be, there's one or two little twists yet to go. You have to give the filmmakers credit for trying to produce something a bit more psychologically satisfying than the usual 1950's horror movie did.Worth checking out if you like thriller movies. Just don't spend too much on it!

The video box proclaims "The First Picture in Psycho-Rama! The Fourth Dimension! Using Subliminal Communication! For added emphasis, the movie was "Banned by the U.S. Government!" Having seen it this evening, I'm ready to ban it from my own video collection after one day in my possession.The movie does have a pretty good set up though, and with some more work could have been a neat psychological thriller. After two years in a Swiss sanitarium, Sheila Justin (Cathy O'Donnell) has begun having nightmares about an old house that she's never seen before. Her husband Philip (Gerald Mohr) may have a cure; let's bring her to that very same house. Obviously, he knows something that his wife and the viewer doesn't, and his suspicious activity while there lead us to believe that something ominous will occur of his own doing. Though unoccupied for seventeen years, the home is tended by a caretaker named Jonah (John Qualen), and before long the home's owner shows up to discourage the guests from staying any longer.The subliminal messages that the film touts come at you fairly early, and if you pause the action and proceed a frame at a time, you'll see some cartoony images that state "Get Ready to Scream" and "Scream Bloody Murder". The messages work for Sheila, she's the only one affected by events in the home enough to exercise her lungs.It turns out that all of the participants in the old home's reunion have a relationship from the past, but I won't bother you with those details. If you're up for a late night fright fest though, here's a secret - the house is not haunted, and the story takes it's time revealing what the legend of the "Mad Tierneys" is all about.My copy of the film is the Rhino Video version, with the "Psychorama" treatment restored by a character named Johnny Legend, if that's to be believed. My viewing of the film probably took almost twice as long as the stated run time of ninety minutes, as I couldn't help myself from investigating the subliminal text as they occurred. But like the lead character in "The Christmas Story" who was left demoralized when he decoded his Ovaltine message, I had to kick myself in the pants when a subliminal cobra head appeared to advise me to "Rent Rhino Videos Every Day".