bensonmum2 Sheila Wayne (Kathy O'Donnell) has reoccurring dreams about an old, foreboding house. Recently married, she and her new husband move to Florida. Their house . . . well, it's the house of her nightmares. She quickly learns that this house is a place of evil, a place where bad things have happened. But how did Kathy end up in this house? How is it that her husband just happened to find this house? Who's crazy, who's sane, and what actually happened in the house?Terror in the Haunted House (or My World Dies Screaming - which i prefer) is like cross between Hitchcock's Rebecca and the dreadful The Screaming Skull. Unforutnatley, our movie has more in common with the latter than it does Hitchcock's masterpiece. I'll start by saying it's not the worst movie in the world. This isn't much of an endorsement, but you could certainly do a whole lot worse. But make not mistake, it's still pretty bad. Here's a quick list of some of the things that bothered me:1. Sheila Wayne - The screaming got old real quick. And for a woman in peril, she's not very sympathetic. After a while, I didn't care what happened to her. She was just so annoying and stupid.2. Acting - Some of it is plain old bad. In particular, William Ching gives a totally wooden and unnatural performance. No one talks like that in real life.3. Gerald Mohr - He's a decent enough actor, but he's miscast here. The New York accent really got in the way. No way was I buying the notion he grew up in Florida.4. Predictable - The director does everything he can to throw the viewer off the track regarding who's crazy and who's not. But it's all so obvious that it backfires. I could spot the baddie almost immediately.5. Psycho-Rama - Was William Castle associated with this movie? The constant subliminal images were about as annoying as Sheila Wayne.With all the problems I had with the movie, I think I'm being generous in rating Terror in the Haunted Hiuse a 4/10.

Michael_Elliott My World Dies Screaming (1958) * 1/2 (out of 4) Better known as TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE, this is a pretty bad film that's only separation from other bad films is the fact that it was filmed in "Psycho-Rama," which allowed subliminal images to appear on screen throughout the picture. The actual story revolves around a woman (Cathy O'Donnell) who suffers from a continuous nightmare surrounding a house that she sees in her dreams. Soon her new husband (Gerald Mohr) takes her to America and sure enough they end up staying in the house from her dreams. MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING might have worked under better conditions but as it stands here the film is just a complete boring mess. There are so many issues with this film but we can start with the story. The idea of someone seeing something in their dreams and then it becomes a reality isn't anything fresh or original but there's so much more they could have done with it. Instead we're just given non-stop dialogue scenes that go back and forth on whether or not the wife is crazy or if she's normal and the husband is just trying to drive her mad. Then we get some really melodramatic moments that often come across more funny than anything else and I assure you that wasn't the intent. Even worse is that the performance from O'Donnell is just downright bad. Everything from her reactions to her line delivery is just so over-the-top that you have to wonder what director Harold Daniels was doing. He certainly should have brought her back in or at least did a second take. Mohr comes across much better and John Qualen adds a few laughs as the strange caretaker. As far as the subliminal images go, they're quite pointless and come across more of a bad gimmick than anything that actually adds to the entertainment value. MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING will have the viewer screaming by the time the end credit roles.

Serpico Jones I saw this under the title Terror in the Haunted House. I didn't know anything about this movie and I didn't bother to look up any information about it. So, I presumed it could be some creepy ghost story like The Haunted. But nevertheless I didn't have to disappoint. Well, maybe a little bit because I learned what is the Psycho-Rama and subliminal message in the film.The story first seems simple but as more the movie grows the more peculiar and more complex it goes. It has so much plot twists that even M. Night Shyamalan would be envious. The film builds up the tension and pace so fast that the ending seems to comes too abruptly. And I will go that far and call this movie little bit Hitchcockian. But remind, this is more a suspense-thriller than a horror film. Otherwise it would have been decent movie but those ridiculous subliminal messages(?). Why were they needed anyway?Overall My World Dies Screaming is nice entertaining B-flick with great performances.

classicsoncall 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".