Scream Bloody Murder (1973) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Matthew (Fred Holbert) is a deranged young man who has a serious mother issue. He kills his father with a tractor but when he goes to get off of it he ends up getting his hand caught in it. Now with a hook on his hand, he gets out of the hospital and is enraged when he learns that mommy has married a new guy. He soon hits the road slashing up various men and women who he feels are bad.SCREAM BLOODY MURDER isn't a perfect horror film or even a good one but there are certainly enough interesting moments to make it worth watching if you're a fan of the genre. It should go without saying but Matthew here has bigger mommy issues than even Norman Bates and watching his madness was part of the entertaining and especially early on in the picture where this thing is basically a slasher way before that term would become popular.The first forty-minutes or so basically has Matthew meeting a variety of people and eventually getting upset at them for a variety of reason. This causes him to lash out and kill whoever he is upset with. None of the violence is overly graphic or bloody but the scenes are certainly effective with some clever editing. The second portion of the film has him falling for a prostitute (Leigh Mitchell) who he wants to try and make "good" but when she doesn't want to play that he decides to kidnap her and hold her hostage.Holbert's performance isn't one that I'd call good but there's a certain rawness to it that makes it work in this low-budget tale. The performance almost seems like a real person and thought the weakness of the performance actually helped a little. Mitchell was good in her role as the prostitute and the two of them worked quite well together. The biggest issue with the film is the entire second half as there's just not enough drama or suspense to make up for the lack of killings. Still, SCREAM BLOODY MURDER is an interesting little gem that is worth watching.

OK, granted: if you are watching a film titled "Scream Bloody Murder", you're not expecting Werner Herzog or Jodorowsky. So you can at least credit the film and its makers for being honest about what they're doing. SBM is best considered as drive-in triple bill fodder, the kind of movie that they showed at 2:00 am when you're either completely drunk or 3/4 asleep or both. In that context, it succeeds with flying colors.But taken "straight", it's kind of hard to watch. The plot starts out as a derivative of "Maniac" for the first half, and then turns into a low-rent version of "The Collector" for the second half.And it really drags in spots, and it looks pretty crummy in spots. However, there ARE some dryly funny lines, and a couple of genuine shocks scattered in the mix. And the actor playing our hooked hero has a few good moments here and there, although he's mostly flat and stiff. (It's entirely possible that this was on purpose).Not a complete waste of your time, but not worth seeking out. I saw it working my way through one of those Mill Creek public domain collections, and it was by no means the worst movie in it.

This horror movie looks like it had a budget of maybe fifty bucks. The acting on the equivalent a high school drama class rehearsal. No screams are guaranteed, possibly a flinch or two. Matthew(Fred Holbert)is a bad, bad boy. As a youngster he kills his father by way of his own farm tractor. During the event of watching his father's disturbing death, Matthew also is victimized as his arm is mangled. Matthew is placed in a hospital for the criminally insane and is released as a teen with his hand replaced by a hook. He arrives home on the very day of his mother's new marriage. This upsets the still disturbed Matthew and he goes on a wild slashing, stabbing and chopping spree. Amateurish at best. Good enough to waste a night with. Also in the cast: Leigh Mitchell, Ron Bastone, Suzette Hamilton, Angus Scrimm and A. Maana Tanelah.

Wow,... if you thought Norman Bates had serious mommy issues, then you haven't seen Matthew! The film begins with Matthew as a young boy killing his own father with a tractor in order to possess his mother. In the process, the boy has his hand torn off and he's sent to a mental institution.Years later, Matthew is supposedly cured and sent home. He appears to be in his 20s and looks like what you'd expect the kid from PROBLEM CHILD to look like today. Upon his return home, things aren't so happy because he proceeds to murder his new step-dad as well as his mother (oops). After running away, he then begins killing people who remind him of his mother and step-dad. It's all very bloody by 1970s standards and it's really creepy when he calls these innocent women "Mommy" before killing them. Talk about having Oedipal issues!! By the way, for those who care to know, Freud coined the term "Oedipal Complex" because he felt that all very young boys wish to secretly sexually possess their mother and that successfully working through this struggle is a normal part of development. It all sounds very creepy but in the case of this film, the guy goes way beyond what's normal!!! This is a very low-budget film and none of the gore is all that realistic. I actually think this is a good thing, as nowadays, the realism of the brutal killings in this film would be too much for normal people to want to see. Here, however, it all looks like red paint and there are no synthetic guts like a modern film might have.While none of this is especially good or well done, it is, in a sick way, entertaining. I particularly liked when he had a fight with the old lady and the golf clubs (By the way, pet lovers might just want to speed through the next scene). I also like how Matthew talked and acted like a 10 year-old throughout the film--it edged up the creepiness level a few more notches.Apparently, he did in the old lady I mentioned in the last paragraph so he could re-create his mommy in the form of a prostitute who has befriended him. He pretends the house is his and brings the hooker there. However, Michael behaves so weird that she is scared--and that's pretty bad considering the sort of clients she serves. When she tries to run, he takes her prisoner (much like Kathy Bates took James Caan prisoner in MISERY) and then sets about doing EVERYTHING to make their lives together perfect. But is she thankful?! No!! So, of course she incurs the wrath of you-know-who.This is a good film for horror fans. However, it's not a film for kids AND it might be a bit too much for people who have had weird stalker relationships (this will definitely be tough to handle) or people who secretly want to sleep with their mommies! My score of 5 must be explained. While this is not high art, for the budget, it's pretty good and watchable and does a good job of scaring the bejeebers out of you!By the way, in the nude scene (you don't see anything), the lady is supposedly naked and she says she's taken off all her clothes, but if you look not all that closely, you can see her black underpants.Finally, dang those rotary-style telephones!!