Recent young marrieds Ian Ogilvy & Stephanie Beacham move into Ogilvy's family estate and are soon haunted by a severed hand. Thinking Beacham is having a breakdown, Peter Cushing (who studies the "science of the mind") is brought in. Soon a family curse is revealed and all hell breaks loose. An entertaining Gothic horror film from Amicus. Director Roy Ward Baker moves this along briskly and the script (by Roger Marshall & David Case) is tightly wound. Beacham is terrific and any film that features not only Cushing but Patrick Magee & Herbert Lom has to be recommended. There's a great performance by Geoffrey Whitehead as Silas.

Hallelujah for 1970's horror movies! Otherwise we would have very little to laugh about in life. The acting was over done and the effects were terrible, but then again, would we have 70s horror movies any other way?Nope!There were a few unbelievable elements to the film. Like the fact that although Dr Pope is in the Room while the family doctor is killed, he doesn't seem to see how or by whom the doctor is killed. There was also a fair amount of Damsel-in-Distress style fainting and some of the most ridiculous hats I have ever witnessed in a period film. And of course there was that horror movie classic of having it rain/thunder during the climax of the film. Seriously, have you guys ever noticed how many horror films do that? But seriously now, other then the slightly overacting, and the terrible rubber hand which you can all witness in the trailer, this was a fairly enjoyable film. A little predictable maybe but most horror movies follow the same sort of basic menu; Beautiful girl, evil curse, add a few ghosts, some stage screams and some eerie wind effects and stir well, and POOF! You have a scary movie. But despite this we still quite enjoyed it as we are huge scary movie fans, regardless of what decade they come from.

If you saw individual random scenes from this movie and didn't know the title or plot, you might end up assuming that it comes from a Jane Austen novel or something. But "-- And Now the Screaming Starts!" is nothing like that. Oh sure, it's set in England over 200 years ago and deals with a rich guy getting married, but Jane Austen's stories didn't center on curses affecting families.The plot has aristocrat Charles Fengriffen (Ian Ogilvy of "Witchfinder General") marrying young Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) and bringing her to his estate in rural England. Once she arrives, strange and horrific things begin occurring. Yeah, it always does seem to happen like that. Still, one has to admire how they set the story up so that you can never be too sure about who's doing what to whom. But for me at least, what's really neat here is when the main idea gets revealed: you think that you now understand everything, but there's still a surprise waiting for you! Does the movie have any problems? Well, I thought that Peter Cushing wasn't used as much as he could have been. For that sort of supporting role, they probably should have cast someone else (then again, Cushing brought a really neat dimension to the movie). But overall, I thought that this wasn't a bad movie. I would trust Hammer and/or Amicus to turn out something worth seeing, and the latter doesn't disappoint here. And if I may say so, Catherine was really hot! Also starring Herbert Lom (that's right: Commissioner Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movies!), Patrick Magee (the wheelchair man in "A Clockwork Orange") and Geoffrey Whitehead (Malcolm McDowell's brother in "The Raging Moon").

A curse on the House of Fengriffen, due to an evil deed caused by Henry Fengriffen(a devilish Herbert Lom), a descendant of Charles'(Ian Ogilvy), to woodsman Silas(Geoffrey Whitehead, playing both men of the past and present). This dangerous scary deed, and the curse deriving from it, is discussed by no one as virginal Catherine(Stephanie Beacham, whose ample bosoms wish so desperately to fling themselves on us)experiences horrifying images of a man whose eyeballs are missing, who has a stump where his hand should be. About the Fengriffen house is a severed hand which crawls to and fro..anyone who dares explain the curse gets strangulated by it! On their honeymoon night, a terrifying occurrence may've happened to poor Catherine who is being held down by the very evil man she sees ghostly apparitions from..she's also possibly impregnated by it! As Catherine begs for answers regarding a mysterious woodsman who has a home on the land of the Fengriffen estate nearby, no one will provide them..and who is this ghost, who may've raped her, that is terrorizing her? Enter Dr. Pope(Peter Cushing), a "scientist of the mind" called in by the confused Dr. Whittle(Patrick Magee)who can not help Catherine in her present state of hysteria(..she had sliced the portrait of Henry's to pieces while also falling down the stairwell). Pope begins finding the answers Catherine sought so diligently for and they produce an ugly history the Fengriffen family would soon forget.Despite it's ludicrous premise, the flick still remains watchable thanks to a strong cast. I felt the film really starts humming once Cushing's Sherlock Holmesian Pope enters the film because he can get to the truth with little the resistance Catherine faced time and time again. The "severed hand killings" is a bit much, but when you have such a strong cast backing you, bringing a sophistication and seriousness to the rather odd material, it can still make it out somewhat with a professionalism and class most films with this hokey story couldn't. I did feel Beacham overdoes it a bit with the whole "hysteria" act especially when she encounters ghostly haunts. Guy Rolfe appears briefly as Maitland, the family solicitor, and first victim who is killed before he can assist Catherine in her goal to find out what the mystery regarding the woodsman is all about.