SILENT SCREAM

US, 1980, 87 minutes, Colour.
Rebecca Balding, Yvonne de Carlo, Cameron Mitchell.
Directed by Denny Harris.

One of many low budget gory horror thrillers which were popular at the end of the 70's. Friday the 13th, B-horror thrillers achieved enormous popularity and high box office returns. Others, in the tradition of Hallowe'en, were also very popular. This trend was also seen in many A budget films such an Dressed To Kill. The material in this film in traditional - young students in an eerie house, a secret in the attic, a mad daughter and knife murders.

It iscompetently done. Yvonne de Carlo appears as the mother and Cameron Mitchell has a role as one of the policemen.

1. The appeal to audiences of this kind of gory horror thriller? The popularity of the trend in the 70s? Nightmare material? Audiences fascinated by knives and horror?

2. The conventions of the genre: innocent students, the threats and the students being menaced? The haunted and eerie house? The mysterious family? The secret in the attic? The culmination and violence? How well ware these presented here? Average, above average?

3. The atmosphere of the West Coast, university town. boarding accommodation, the house, the family? The beach sequences? The final emphasis on interiors? The musical score? The special effects especially for shock and suspense?

4. The slow motion opening with the police arriving? The audience wondering what had happened and who was involved? A device to keep audience attention throughout the film until the sequence was repeated at the end? The basic plausibility of the plot: the university students needing accommodation. the three types presented? Mrs Engles and her house? Mason and his manner? The discovery of the various killings? The police investigation? The confrontation with Victoria and Mrs Engles' secret? Is this kind of plot possible? Contrived for the purposes of the horror?

5. The focus on Scottie as heroine? The audience identifying with her? Her search for accommodation? The search of the house, the mysterious Mrs Engles and her room? Mason and his running the house, his hobbies? Friendship with Jack. Doris, Peter? The celebration, the walk along the beach, the discovery of Peter's killing? Her response to the police? Doris and her doing the laundry and the discovery of her death? Scottie and Jack. relationship, sexual? Their decision to discover the truth? Scottic (as heroine in this kind of film) searching the staircases of the house? The discovery of Victoria, the confrontation? The rescue and the death of Victoria? The shattering of Mrs Engels? A sufficient characterisation for a heroine of this kind of thriller?

6. The presentation of Jack as hero - conventional hero, foil to Scottic and helping her? His participation in the search? Peter and his being spoilt, murdered on the beach? Doris and the ugliness of her death?

7. Mrs Engels and her presence, her room, the mystery of the past? Brad and his introversion and the spying around the house?

8. Victoria and the background of her madness? The horror of her experience? The violence of her killing? The confrontation in the attic? Her strength? The pathos of her death?

9. The picture of the police - conventional investigation, confrontation at the end?

10. The basic themes of horror, menace, secrets, madness? Audience involvement in this kind of nightmare horror material?