Leofwine_draca
As gritty, low budget shockers go, SCREAM FOR VENGEANCE is a goodie. It's a tale of kidnapping, rape, and murder which seems to have been influenced by the classic video nasty LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT in its tale of psychopathic thugs who spend their time raping teenage girls and beating and shooting innocent men. As thrillers go, it's extremely suspenseful and highlights a surprising degree of talent both in front of and behind the camera. The various action sequences involving shoot-outs and car chases are handled well for such a cheap movie and all are exciting, and the suspense is enhanced by an effective score which adds to the tension. The acting varies from cast member to cast member, but all are adequate in their parts and nobody is particularly cringe-worthy. Special mention goes to Nicholas Jacquez and Sally Lockett, who evoke sympathy for their plight as the innocent boy and girl caught up in the carnage.The movie opens with an intense hostage situation which has the viewer on tenterhooks. Events build-up to a truly uncomfortable rape sequence, thankfully the rape itself is off screen but the results are no less powerful or disturbing than in LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Director Bob Bliss really portrays the villains as despicable, conscience-free scum who think nothing of shooting innocent people in cold blood and using women as unwilling sexual playthings. The second half of the film moves to the woods for an extended cat-and-mouse game between our two young heroes and the gang of thieves as each side scores hits and wounds on the other. The climax involves a great pitchfork murder and happily, justice prevails once and for all as the title might suggest.The film is well-edited and atmospheric throughout, making especially good use of the wooded locations at the end for some tense shoot-outs and stand-offs, and various blood squibs and other effects are really good for such a low budget movie. Sadly, this film is generally forgotten these days, only surfacing in Alan Bryce's Art of the Nasties 2 book after a brief video release in pre-certification days here in Britain. After watching this I can say it certainly stands up well to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT: whilst it's not as unpleasant all the way through, it's powerful and impactful film-making and all involved deserve praise for their creation.
Paul Andrews
Vengeance starts late on 'Friday Night, September 21, 1979' where local jewellery shop owner Tony Lomas (Leonard Belove) plus his wife Del (Jane McMahon) & daughter Shari (Susie Gardner) arrive home, there they are attacked & held hostage by four men, Dreyer (R.E. Roudebush), Luke (Bob Elliott), Gandon (Steve Scearcy) & the gangs leader Mason (Walter Atamaniuk). Lomas is forced to drive to his shop to open the safe & hand the precious jewellery over while Luke stays behind & watches Del & Shari, any funny business & Lomas can kiss his wife & daughter goodbye. Unfortunately things don't go to plan, Luke turns out to be a sexual pervert who molests & rapes Shari while Lomas accidentally sets the burglar alarm off in his shop, in a panic Lomas is shot dead & Mason, Dreyer & Gandon escape with two innocent friends Jenny (Sally Lockett) & Mark (Nicholas Jacquez) at gunpoint as hostages. Back at the Lomas's house & Luke has murdered both mother & daughter, he is told to meet up with the rest of his gang who have discovered that Jenny is in fact the Granddaughter of rich state senator Edward Bradley. Mason & the gang feel that they can hold Jenny hostage & demand a ransom from the senator, Jenny & Mark desperately try to find a way to escape as these men are nasty pieces of work...Written & directed by Bob Bliss I actually really rather liked Vengeance which I saw under it's UK video title of Scream for Vengeance! which doesn't make much sense in context with the film but it sounds cool I suppose. The script is pleasantly sleazy & exploitative which are two qualities that I admire in a film! There's rape, molestation, gore, violence, fights, chases, sleazy dialogue & the film moves along at a nice pace so it's never boring or dull. There's also a fair amount going on which helps retain ones interest, Vengeance certainly turned out a hell of a lot better than I expected it to. The character's are well fleshed out, you feel suitably sorry for the unfortunate victims while the villains are scummy enough for you to dislike them. The scene in the Lomas's house when Luke takes a kitchen knife & run it over the bound & gagged Shari as he talks dirty to her in front of her mother before he starts to cut her clothes off which leads to rape is an incredibly sleazy & unsettling sequence but one you probably won't forget in a while. The film slows down a bit towards the end but it's still watchable. I'm not sure why the filmmakers specify & specific date at the start though, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever the day it takes place.Director Bliss does an OK job, it was obviously a very low budget film but it has that wonderful late 70's sleazy atmosphere to it. It's a gritty nasty little thriller with some unsavoury elements & I have to say I really liked it. He probably didn't have much to work with but the action scenes & shoot-outs are reasonably well shot & the exploitation & nastiness of the film is quite effective. There's a fair amount of decent violence on show, from rape to murder, someone has their throat slit & is stabbed repeatedly, someone is impaled on a pitchfork & it has it's fair share of bloody shootings & beating.Technically Vengeance is rough but that only helps to give it that cheap & sleazy feel, it's more than acceptable but just don't expect particularly high production values. I'd have said it was shot entirely on location so it has a realistic feel about it as well. I thought the music was pretty good too. The acting is surprisingly decent too, I mean no ones going to win any awards but the cast is pretty good in either a victim or villain role.Vengeance for me was one of those hidden surprises, one of those obscure gems that every so often you stumble across that exceed your expectations. By all accounts Vengeance is a pretty hard film to find & the version I watched last night was a twenty plus year old Intervision VHS cassette which is a shame as a lot of really bad films have had stellar treatment on DVD & this hasn't. It's a crime. Recommended.
Justin Allard
The first time I saw SCREAM FOR VENGEANCE was in the following year my dad bought our first VCR. The video club who owned the copy at the time gave us 1000$ of free rentals for an unlimited time. But in fact, they closed before we spent the half of credits. This film remains, after all these years, one of the goofiest picture I've ever seen. But it is probably the strongest example of what a perfect Z films blend should be. As a gory fruit cake, this picture is a divine mixture of past ordinary people fashions, fast cars chasing, kidnapping and rape scenes, self-defense and "involuntary" men and women slaughtering, bad dialogues... The most interesting element of the film is the soundtrack.An excellent(really) fusion/ rock performance of course played by musicians who were friends of the director or some actor(s). I'm not kidding at all, I strongly recommend to the persons owning the rights for this film not less than a double CD edition for the fourth coming DVD issue. To be honest, I really don't think it's gonna happen, even not for a poor single low-fir edition. The picture is still rare and,due to a very low-budget film making and distribution, This hallucinogenic "chef- d'oeuvre" of late seventies might stay unknown forever. Find a VHS copy is already a tough crusade. I keep dreaming...
ray-100
Four thugs hold a local jeweller to ransom. The wife and daughter are raped and murdered and then he is shot when the alarm is activated. Two have-a-go hero's get caught up in the cross fire and are subsequently kidnapped. The thugs cannot believe their luck when the girl turns out to be the senators grand daughter 'another ransom beckons'. However all does not go swimmingly and the plot turns into a game of cat & mouse.Despite the poor acting and the extreme lack of budget, I really enjoyed this film and have watched it about four times.Well worthy of a re-release although it may be trimmed for UK release.
