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 Procrastinator Scotty Parker (Rebecca Balding, she who survived
The Boogens) finds herself homeless after registering
late for college. After a montage of unsuitable housing complete
with lecherous landlords, she settles with a room inside a dwelling
only Norman Bates would call home. In fact, the cliff-top gothic
home comes complete with it's own momma's boy (Brad Rearden,
The Haunted) and creepy shut-in matriarch (Yvonne
DeCarlo, American Gothic). Luckily the place
is also filled with enough potential victims to insure Scotty's
rightful place as Final girl. There is a wacky, zoftig new best
pal, A spoiled rich guy begging for a comeuppance and an often
shirtless instant boyfriend. The group gets along fine, that
is until one of them ends up slashed to death and buried under
a sandcastle.
Enter
two police police detectives, Cameron Mitchell of Thee
Toolbox Murders fame and Avery Shrieber who's best
known for an an onslaught of seventies era Dorrito commercials.
Many a slasher fan might find themselves checking their collective
watches during the so-called investigation scenes, many of which
take place behind a desk. In fact, the biggest revelation takes
place off camera entirely. Perhaps this cutting back and forth
from the kids in the house (intriguing) to the police station
(not so much) are meant to echo the efforts of Donald Pleasance's
Sam Loomis character in Halloween. Unfortunately
they mostly read as filler. Suffice to say there's some family
secrets up at the old homestead that would make V.C Andrews
cringe. There's a psychotic murderous sister who's unaccounted
for and it's rightfully concluded that she's pulling a Bad
Ronald from within the walls of the house. Will the
police get there in time? Well, not for Scotty's chubby new
gal pal, she getting hacked up in the basement.
The
sister in question, Victoria is none other than horror legend
Barbara Steele (Black Sunday) and from her
first appearance the film's suspense level advances by leaps
and bounds. Although the part is without Dialogue, Steele brings
every fiber of herself to the performance. With her raven hair
and haunting saucer eyes she brings true goth charm to the proceedings.
Clutching a grotesque doll (not to mention a butcher knife)
and staring at an old photo of herself that's covering a mirror,
she is the personification of madness and desperation. She's
in actuality the sulky lad's real mother and their sordid tale
is told in vivid flashbacks. It's at this point that the film's
leisurely build up begins to pay off in spades. Whatever dominoes
the director has set up over the last hour, Steele has the honor
of tipping them over. The following scenes are ripe with a wince
inducing claustrophobic tension.
Director
Denny Harris does a fine job creating likable characters in
fact, the crazed family ( including the murderous sister) are
equally if not more sympathetic than their would- be victims.
I'm rather shocked to find this is his only feature to date.
His use of the interiors and his command of atmosphere are impressive.
An early scene that depicts two people drunkenly stumbling home
on the beach and being trapped by the incoming tide astounds
with it's simplicity. One character, crosses without fail and
the other due to follow, does not. Suddenly, the old cliche
of imagining worse than what is shown is validated. He does
so much with so little you can't help but be impressed. It could
even be said that the detective scenes, lackluster as they are,
add to the suspense by forcing you away from the action at annoying
intervals.
Silent
Scream is dressed up like a slasher flick but like
it's madwoman in the attic, it's heart belongs to a previous
era. In fact, the entire affair has more in common with Jame's
Whale's Old Dark House than any of it's teen
horror contemporaries. Don't get me wrong, if you are a fan
of Psycho, Black Christmas
or the aforementioned Halloween you will find
much to admire here, but if your slasher world begins and ends
in Crystal Lake (a fine place to loiter) you may find your plate
a couple beheadings short of a satisfying meal. But unlike the
slew of contemporary PG-13 horror flicks, excised of their gore
like a boned fish, Silent Scream has something
in it's place, well orchestrated suspense scenes and vivid characterization.
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