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The Silent Scream (Denny Harris, 1980)
The old dark house here is inhabited by a nebbish young boy
and his mysterious mother (horror icon Barbara Steele). Steele makes peripheral
appearances early on, and once her role in the house’s past becomes clear, the
creepiness ratchets considerably. Treading the line between police procedural
and slasher film (a la When a Stranger
Calls), The Silent Scream builds
slowly toward a third act revelation that is relatively underwhelming, although
the film, in its defense, is less sensational in general than many of its ilk. A
thriller without many thrills, it is noteworthy mostly due to its oddball acting
turns and its few inspired murder scenes. The most memorable of these involves
what seems to be homage to Psycho’s
shower murder intercut with what is supposed to be a romantic sex scene (!). The Silent Scream
was reportedly extensively reshot, after the film was removed from Harris’
control. Few signs of its troubled production are apparent in the finished
product, however. The resulting movie feels surprisingly economical at times,
letting many scenes, including the opening credits sequence, unfold without any
dialogue. This might be the result of a post-production scramble to salvage some
footage, but it works well in practice. Ultimately
The Silent Scream is something less
than a classic of its genre, but still manages to be worth a look for
aficionados of the era’s horror films. 43 Jeremy Heilman 05.29.12 |
An
early, somewhat obscure, entry in the seemingly unending cycle of 1980s slasher
films, The Silent Scream has a few
memorable aspects, which is more than can be said about many of its
contemporaries. Credited to director Denny Harris, this film mines familiar
territory, to be certain. In its opening scenes, the heroine (Rebecca Balding)
moves into a gothic seaside mansion where we find that a series of murders have
taken place. After establishing this sordid history, though, the film takes its
time before advancing the plot any further. Essentially a rip-off of
Psycho that uses with a boarding
house instead of a hotel, The Silent
Scream lacks the psychological plausibility, symbolic power or excellent
performances of Hitchcock’s classic.