AaronCapenBanner Some college students(including "The Boogens" star Rebecca Balding) look for rooms to rent in a sea-side mansion owned by a mysterious landlady and her peculiar son, only to regret it later when a series of murders breaks out, and the secrets of the house and its inhabitants are revealed...Ostensibly a slasher picture, though not that violent, is still pretty flat and dull, with a fairly obvious plot and characters going through the motions. The type of film where the trailer shows all the effective material, and as a consequence, is the best thing about it! For some unknown reason, this was successful at the box office!

BaronBl00d Relatively cheaply-made and not-so-hotly directed by one hit "wonder" Denny Harris, The Silent Scream came out at the beginning of the slasher flicks boom following John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978. This film and Friday the Thirteenth came out in 1980. The Silent Scream seems to have been somewhat lost though it really is way better than the other and its entire franchise. We get a very creepy old house by the sea and a group of college students in need of rooms to rent. Mason Engles, the young nerdy boy of the family handles the business as his mother stays cooped in her room in the attic. Soon young people start getting butchered. First one man by the surf, another in the laundry room - no need for a laundry list here. The murders are not particularly grizzly - certainly not by today's standards, but the acting believe it or not is miles ahead of much of the dreck in films of this ilk since. No wonder as we have Yvonne De Carlo as Mrs. Engles, Barbara Steele in a truly bizarre role of a mentally frustrated psychopath who dresses as an adolescent but is in her forties(and still beautiful I might add), Cameron Mitchell doing a workmanlike job in a small role as a cop along with Doritos pitchman and comedian Avery Scrieber playing it straight as a detective. Rebecca Balding is our heroine and she is refreshing and lovely. The house is very eerie and we get back corridors and all that plus a basement and attic to die for(okay, to die in). The story is trite, hackneyed, predictable, or any word you would like to use that means something we have all seen a hundred times, but the acting and the atmosphere are pretty good. that is quite a complement, because I didn't think much of the direction especially that stupid slow-motion beginning of Mitchell and Scriber coming in the house and seeing the murders. You wonder first if the house has some history of murder, but then just wonder why the director went that route at all. An intriguing film especially in the context of when it was made.

Dagon Originally filmed in 1977, the first version of The Silent Scream was so poorly rendered that the actors and actresses had to be called back for a second shooting. The final rendition was released on August 7th of 1980. Directorial new-comer Denny Harris would try his amateurish hand at producing a horror film – in particular, that with a zesty Slasheresque appeal. We must keep in mind that by 1977, Slasher films were not formularized and the usual setup commonly found in this sub- genre was slowly becoming more common (Bob Clarks '74 classic, Black Christmas truly got the ball rolling, in my opinion). Unfortunately Harris would not further his career as a director or proceed down the avenue of show business a second time.The story concerns Scotty Parker, a college transfer who arrives too late to sign up for on-campus housing and is forced to seek elsewhere for suitable living accommodations. On the edge of town she spots a large estate; situated high up on a cliff-side, flanked by the shore line. Through these arrangements she is introduced to two other housemates – Peter Ransom, a young college man with a rich father, and Doris Prichart. Jack Towne arrives the following day to complete the group of students. A high-schooler by the name of Mason Engels and his mother own the house. Both mother and son share a tragic past and exhibit strange behavior as a result. After a drunken evening of larking around, Peter, stripped of his faculties, is stabbed to death on the beach by an unknown assailant. A police Lieutenant and his partner spring into action and discover evidence that uncovers the dark history of the Engels family; Victoria, Mason's sister, was committed to a psychiatric ward 15 years earlier. Is she to blame for these grisly crimes?Barbara Steele (Victoria Engels) – a scream queen that solidified her status in 1960's Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio). In 1961 she starred alongside Vincent Price in the Roger Corman, Edgar Allen Poe adaptation, The Pit and the Pendulum. In 1965 audiences also witnessed her appearance in the low-budget chiller Nightmare Castle. If these references don't ring a bell perhaps you've seen her in 1978's Piranha, directed by Joe Dante. The Silent Scream would be Steele's only theatrical appearance of the 80's.Yvonne De Carlo (Mrs. Engels) – A classic film starlet that was born in 1922, De Carlo made her film debut in 1941 and it wasn't until 1964 that she received her break-through role in the comedic TV-series The Munsters. Yvonne's career was not relegated to horror alone, for her work encompassed a wide variety of roles that spanned over the course of 54 years. She passed away in 2007 at the age of 85 from natural causes; the same year that Denny Harris succumbed to a battle with cancer.Avery Schreiber (Sgt. Manny Ruggins) – a multi-talented individual who shared a passion for comedy during the 60's and 70's. For those of you who've seen Robin Hood: Men in Tights he was the tax assessor who took Robin Hood's castle away by a horse-drawn carriage. "Yea, yea. You vow, we move. Let's go boys! Take it out!" I always thought he shared an uncanny resemblance to my high school literature teacher in Junior year. But, as the bearer of bad news, I should inform you that Schreiber died of a heart attack in 2002.Now that we've reviewed the more well-known actors of the big screen, what about the rest of the cast? Rachel Balding takes on the lead role of Scotty Parker. Balding has done a fair amount of television work but does not hold extensive credit as a film actress. Her inexperience as a theatrical actress is irrelevant, however, as I believe her work in The Silent Scream was above-par from what we've come to expect from low- budget Slasher types. The rest of the cast play nicely in correlation with her leading tone resulting in a job well done. The production values are on queue and don't miss a beat so it's nice to see things pan out the way they should despite a low budget.The Silent Scream doesn't waste too much time attracting red herrings to a bug zapper. The premise is straight-forward and won't stray too much from your expectations. A slight twist at the end will have you second- guessing yourself but this technique shouldn't be looked at as too severe and the result isn't distracting in the least. The level of carnage is subtle and relies more on clever cinematography and a competent level of editing as opposed to over-the-top bloodshed that many Slashers from the 80's relied on. What we see in The Silent Scream is more representative of how horror films started out - which in my opinion, is a nod to the classics established long ago.I'm satisfied to end this review on a positive note with a film like The Silent Scream. It will certainly provide you with that dreaded feeling of, "there's someone in the house!" but I wouldn't say that it's downright terrifying. Any fan that deeply assesses horror movies will inform you that a film's expression of fear is not a requirement in the traditional sense; as for you casual fans, why not celebrate a title that pays tribute to the old days? It may be this level of appreciation that transitions you from the leisurely spectator of the genre into a knowledgeable student of dark cinema.

Scarecrow-88 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.