missmonochrome Even before the opening credits roll "Scream Bloody Murder" lives up to its title.Little Matthew(Fred Holbert, in his only film performance) decides he digs his father better dead, and apropos of absolutely nothing, runs him over with a tractor. Even more inexplicably, he manages to mangle his own arm in the process.Sent away to a mental institution for many years he comes home a teenager with a hook for a hand and an axe to grind(literally) with his mother and new stepfather who soon die painfully for having the unmitigated gall to get married and seem happy about it on the very day he came home from the loony bin.He then goes on an all out run.... away from the mother of all Oedipus complexes, cutting a bloody swath through everyone he meets, from a young couple giving him a ride out of his small town, to whoever happens to stand in his way.Meeting painter/hooker with a heart of gold Vera(Leigh Matthews, a two film wonder), things look up a touch for our protagonist. He compliments her art, renames her Daisy,brings her flowers, and kills a john for treating her poorly. If that isn't love, he doesn't know what is.Desperate to impress and to make good on his claims of wealth and success to fulfill his weird white knight fantasy of "saving" Vera/Daisy, he murders the entire residency of the closest fancy house he can find, kidnaps his lady love and steals from locals to provide her with all the creature comforts you could possibly need while tied to the stolen bed of a psychopath. The resulting action/reaction struggle of Vera/Daisy's survival instincts and Matthew's manias eventually lead to a quirky but extremely satisfying bloody climax, proving the old adage of "where ever you go, there you are".This film is amateurish on near every level (hammy acting, garish color, jerky cinematography, thin as gossamer plot) and the print that has passed into public domain and an epic ton of multi movie DVD sets is blown out and grainy.However, "Scream Bloody Murder" succeeds almost in spite of itself. It doesn't bother with overambitious story touches it wouldn't have had the budget for, keeps the plot moving quickly, the body count mounting tidily and the dialog simple. Holbert rips through his campy lines with delightful abandon, and Ms. Matthews manages to be appealing enough to root for despite being little more than a cliché archetype. It isn't trying to teach us moral lessons or have pretensions to high art. It's the mania, madness and mayhem fans of the genre want to see....and while it is often goofy, it is never boring.By going further than is necessary at every possible turn, the creators of "Scream Bloody Murder" managed to polish their turd into an excellent bloody Valentine, and a forgotten little gem of B film.6.5 stars

bkoganbing Scream Bloody Murder may make you do exactly that whether it is over the lousy story and even worse acting and directing in this forgettable slasher classic. Not too many people in the cast survived this film, it's that bad.Our protagonist starts out killing his father in a threshing machine accident, but the same incident also costs him his left hand. Years later outfitted with a new hook for a left hand that would have made him a fine captain in Never Never land, he returns and finds mom has remarried. Since he wanted mom to himself, that sets him off on a murderous rampage.Eventually he kidnaps an artist/hooker because she resembles mom. That brings up all kinds of other issues while she's his prisoner. What can I say, Scream Bloody Murder will make you do just that.

BA_Harrison F**ked-up farmer's son Matthew only has eyes for his mother, so he hops onto his father's tractor and ploughs down dear old dad, mangling his own hand in the process. After years in an institution, Matthew, now equipped with a hook (who's stupid idea was that?), is finally allowed to go home only to find that his mother has just remarried.When he sees his new step-dad making moves on his mum, Matthew wigs out and gets chop happy with an axe; unfortunately, mum catches him red-handed (and red-everything else) and also winds up dead. Matthew decides to hit the road, but everyone he meets seems to remind him of the dead couple back home, so he kills them too.Eventually Matthew arrives in Venice, Los Angeles, where he befriends Vera, a hooker with a heart and a passion for painting. Amazingly, Vera doesn't pick up on the obvious signs that her new pal is a raving nut-job (even when he interprets her art as 'a man being tortured for chopping up the man who took away his mother'), but she sure gets the message when he abducts her, takes her to his mansion (the previous owner's body being stuffed in an upstairs closet, along with the maid), and treats her like his possession.Scream Bloody Murder is an unjustly ignored, low-rent B-movie that has been been allowed to fall into the public domain—which is great news for fans of grind-house/drive-in sleaze because it allows them to check it out for next to nothing, via the internet.I chose to watch this title at random from The Internet Archive, and boy am I glad I did, 'cos it has everything I could ever want from a '70s psycho film: a seriously insane killer with a mommy complex; umpteen mean-spirited murders (hell, even a dog gets it!); messed up hallucination sequences; a sexy female tied up and terrorised; and a few seriously tense and harrowing sequences including a doozy of a finale.Recommended for those who like their entertainment rough 'n' ready and good 'n' bloody.

Red-Barracuda This early 70's exploitation film is about a disturbed young man called Matthew who is released from an asylum many years after being sectioned for killing his father, in an act that results in the boy himself losing his hand, which in turn is replaced by a hook-like device. He returns to the family home and proceeds to murder his mother's new husband and, in the process accidentally kills her too. From here on in he is haunted by bloody ghostly visions of her. All the while he continues on a murderous rampage that ultimately results in his abduction of an artist-prostitute who looks very similar to his late mother. He keeps her tied up in the confines of a large house – whose inhabitants he earlier slaughtered – and exerts control over her. But his motives aren't sexual as he appears to be deeply repulsed by sex, which certainly seems to have a lot to do with his murderous rages.Although Scream Bloody Murder is not a very well-acted movie, it actually is quite effective. The tension generated near the end in the scenes where the poor woman is incarcerated and attempting to escape from the house is well handled. So too the various murders, they are certainly brutal enough to give the film an agreeably sleazy veneer. The murders in the mansion are particularly vicious and Matthew even kills the dog! The idea of combining the violent episodes with the scary visions of the bloodied dead mother is a good one too. I would classify this film as one of the spawn of Psycho, seeing as it's about a deeply disturbed mother-fixated young man who murders people when they stir uncomfortable sexual feelings inside him. However, it also contains original elements too, that would appear in later movies such as Don't Go in the House and Misery.This is a quite decent early slasher film that is well worth checking out if you enjoy the genre and also if you appreciate scuzzy low-budget 70's American exploitation movies.