Silent Scream had to jostle with hundreds of other "slasher" movies at the start of the 1980's to get into the public consciousness, and it just doesn't make enough of an impression to be remembered. The story, action and characterisation are so ordinary that it never really makes a mark on the viewer.The plot: Rebecca Balding takes a rented room in a large cliff top mansion along with 3 other students. The house is ominous, the family who own the house are creepy, and one by one, the students start dying. Cue police investigation that turns up nothing, noises in the attic, romantic sub-plot, secret passages, etc, etc.On the whole, the film just isn't exciting. Although it employs heavy duty "horror music" almost constantly (and loudly) to try and make things seem frightening, the murders are tame and the first hour of the film borders on boring. Things pick up after the big reveal and the plight of the "final girl" takes a satisfying turn for the worse, but this extended climax is diluted by some fairly weak acting from a couple of pivotal characters, and again, the dramatic music is laid of with a trowel in attempt to convince you that something really scary is going on when it's notSo don't expect to be scared. Sadly the gory excesses of other films of the early 1980's make Silent Scream seem very tame. And viewed today, it hasn't really got enough going on to recommend it on any other level either. Shame.

Coed Scotty (Balding) is in desperate need of housing before the semester starts. She eventually settles on a room at a seaside estate with some other students. She is creeped out by the house owner Mrs. Engles (Yvonne De Carlo) and her nerdy son Mason (Rearden) but is attracted to fellow border Jack (Doubet). After a night out drinking the borders go to the adjoining beach to party when Peter (John Widelock) is left behind and is brutally stabbed by an unseen assailant with a large knife. Lt. Sandy McGiver (Cameron Mitchell) is called in to investigate. He soon finds out that the Engles oldest daughter Victoria (Steele) spent time in a mental hospital due to stabbing someone and an attempted suicide. Someone is indeed lurking in the attic of the house as the family's well-kept secret is slowly revealed. Director Denny Harris uses good atmosphere and a few memorable shots (like the hands coming through the cob-webbed slats in the walls) to distract you that not much happens in this movie until its later reels. A slasher film at heart, the film is low on gore and body count but genre favorite Barbara Steele as crazed Victoria is certainly a highlight. Her off balanced take on Victoria is simply chilling and gives this good looking movie its chills. The Police in this movie are silly and come straight out of 1970 TV cop shows. The movie goes all in on the slow reveal of who is doing the creepy stalking and killing, but it could have used some more punch in earlier scenes. See it for Barbara Steele's great performance.

Spunky college student Scotty Parker (winningly played with disarming sweetness and vitality by cute and appealing brunette Rebecca Balding) rents a room at an old house located down by the shore. Scotty and her three fellow boarders discover that the ramshackle abode harbors a very dark and deadly secret deep within its grimy cobweb-strewn walls. Director Denny Harris, working from a smart and absorbing script by Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, and Wallace C. Bennet, relates the simple and involving story at a gradual, yet steady pace, does an expert job of creating and sustaining a mysteriously creepy atmosphere, and pulls out all the stops for the picture's rousing and hair-raising conclusion. The able cast of genre veterans helps a lot: Yvonne De Carlo does well as the stern and remote Mrs. Engels, Cameron Mitchell as the weary Lt. Sandy McGiver and Avery Schreiber as his jolly partner Sgt. Manny Ruggin are likewise excellent, and 60's Gothic fright feature goddess Barbara Steele delivers a remarkably intense and frightening tour-de-force mute pantomime performance as the deranged and dangerous Victoria Engels. Better still, the youthful protagonists are well-drawn and genuinely engaging: Balding shines in the perky lead, with fine support from Steve Doubet as charming hunk Jack Towne, Juli Anderlman as the chipper Doris Prichart, and John Widerlock as the amiable Peter Ransom. Brad Rearden is also solid and credible as weird and neurotic bespectacled nerd Mason Engels. Roger Kellaway's elegantly eerie orchestral score does the blood-chilling trick. The stylish cinematography by Michael D. Murphy and David Shore gives the movie an attractive polished look. The spooky seaside house evokes a powerfully unsettling sense of vulnerability and isolation. Moreover, the plot offers some nice tweaking of the standard slice'n'dice conventions: the killer turns out to be a woman with a tragic and poignant back story, the heroine saves herself at the end, and the murder set pieces are effectively brutal and shocking without ever becoming too gory or disgusting. Highly recommended for 80's low-budget indie horror fans.

University student Scotty (Rebecca Balding) finds campus housing is full so she secures a room in a creepy house overlooking the beach. She makes quick friends with the other three students there but is a bit creeped out by teenager Mason and his mother Mrs. Engels (Yvonne DeCarlo). The night she moves in, one of her newfound friends is murdered on the beach. While the police investigate, Scotty stays in the house to fall in love with Jack, unaware that the killer is lurking between the walls.For some reason, I never saw this early slasher flick despite a pretty wide video release on the Media label. Checking it out 27 years after its debut, it is a pretty effective little horror film that mixes the old dark house scenario with the popular slasher trend of the time. The first hour or so is pretty standard stuff. It is in the last half hour that the film really makes it point. Once Scotty discovers the hidden path in the walls, it is a pretty good freak out with a deranged family. Best of all, you have a wonderfully deranged (and wordless) performance by Barbara Steele as the psychotic killer Victoria. Despite her character having a lobotomy, she is still hot! Cameron Mitchell and Avery Schrieber (!) have small supporting roles as the cops investigating the case. Director Denny Harris handles the scares well with the end in the attic being rather suspenseful. Sadly, this is his only feature to date. Composer Roger Kellaway delivers a really nice score as well. Writers/producers/brothers Jim and Ken Wheat went on to direct EWOK: THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR and the horror anthology AFTER MIDNIGHT. They then took sequel writing duty, churning out THE FLY II, parts of ELM STREET 4, THE BIRDS II, THE STEPFORD HUSBANDS and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE II. They also wrote what eventually became PITCH BLACK.