The Silent Scream (1979)*** (out of 4) College student Scotty Parker (Rebecca Balding) can't afford to stay on campus so she ends up renting a room at a nearby mansion. Soon other students who live there turn up dead and before long Scotty learns about the dark secret hidden in the walls.Director Denny Harris has created a well-made little thriller that works as a homage to PSYCHO with elements of the slasher film that was so popular during this period. The movie has a strong cult following and it's easy to see why because there's a lot of really good stuff here that makes it stand out among most of the thrillers from this era.The strongest thing going for it was the direction because there are a couple very intense sequences in the picture. The most memorable moment in the film is when Scotty is being held captive and she tries to signal her boyfriend who is in the next room. I'm not going to spoil what happens but it's got some great suspense and is perfectly put together. The same can be said about the ending as well as another sequence on a beach.It also doesn't hurt that you've got so many good performances including Balding who is perfectly believable and likable in the lead role. We've got a terrific supporting batch including Steve Doubet and movie veterans like Cameron Mitchell, Avery Schreiber and especially Barbara Steele who is quite chilling in her role. The screenplay borrows from PSYCHO during several sequences but the film never comes off as a rip but instead a nice homage.THE SILENT SCREAM is certainly one of the better made thrillers from this era and it certainly deserves to be seen.

A better than average cast helps to make this horror film a decent watch, along with a reasonably good script (written by brothers Jim & Ken Wheat and Wallace C. Bennett) that has some memorable twists. It's graphically bloody at times but also has fine atmosphere, and a healthy nod to "Psycho" in its use of an imposing beach side house.College student Scotty (Rebecca Balding) is in desperate need of a place to live and ends up at this house, owned by a weird family, the Engels. Unfortunately, Scotty and her fellow roommates won't know just *how* creepy this family is until it's almost too late. When one of the kids is murdered, a subplot develops with two detectives (Cameron Mitchell, Avery Schreiber) investigating the case.The cute Balding is an appealing lead in this story, given effective theatrical treatment by commercial veteran Denny Harris (in his only feature credit). Helping a great deal is a grandiose music score by the under-rated Roger Kellaway, who also composes a period style song for the show. There is some good suspense and many ominous shots of the house and its interiors. The shocks are well realized, as well.Yvonne De Carlo is also among the familiar faces appearing. Mitchell and an effectively serious Schreiber are fine as the detectives. In addition to Balding, Steve Doubet and Juli Andelman are similarly likable. Brad Rearden is great in the role of the nerdy Mason Engels, the films' one true tragic character. And horror genre icon Barbara Steele is a treat to watch in a non-speaking role.Lovers of the horror films from this period should find a fair deal to enjoy here. "The Silent Scream" is enjoyable stuff that deserves a viewing from them.Seven out of 10.

Scotty, Jack, Peter and Doris are all students who move into a gorgeous seaside mansion/boarding house run by Mrs. Engels and her son Mason. At first, the students love their new digs, but when one of them turns up dead, things get weird and the Engels family secrets begin to come out.I remember always wanting to watch this movie when it was on HBO before we had cable, so it had taken on an almost mythic importance in my mind. I don't know why I never rented it during the VHS boom, but I finally tried to watch it earlier this year but couldn't get into it. I'm glad I gave it another chance, because I actually found it quite enjoyable. Sure, it's pretty tame compared to other 80s slashers, but there's a grimness to the murders through the sound or the blood spatter or other visual/auditory tricks that really make them effective, even though we don't see anything. The young actors playing the college students are mostly likable and not cartoonish, so I could imagine them all being friends. Overall, I'd recommend this one, especially to someone just starting to explore the slasher genre.

Relatively cheaply-made and not-so-hotly directed by one hit "wonder" Denny Harris, The Silent Scream came out at the beginning of the slasher flicks boom following John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978. This film and Friday the Thirteenth came out in 1980. The Silent Scream seems to have been somewhat lost though it really is way better than the other and its entire franchise. We get a very creepy old house by the sea and a group of college students in need of rooms to rent. Mason Engles, the young nerdy boy of the family handles the business as his mother stays cooped in her room in the attic. Soon young people start getting butchered. First one man by the surf, another in the laundry room - no need for a laundry list here. The murders are not particularly grizzly - certainly not by today's standards, but the acting believe it or not is miles ahead of much of the dreck in films of this ilk since. No wonder as we have Yvonne De Carlo as Mrs. Engles, Barbara Steele in a truly bizarre role of a mentally frustrated psychopath who dresses as an adolescent but is in her forties(and still beautiful I might add), Cameron Mitchell doing a workmanlike job in a small role as a cop along with Doritos pitchman and comedian Avery Scrieber playing it straight as a detective. Rebecca Balding is our heroine and she is refreshing and lovely. The house is very eerie and we get back corridors and all that plus a basement and attic to die for(okay, to die in). The story is trite, hackneyed, predictable, or any word you would like to use that means something we have all seen a hundred times, but the acting and the atmosphere are pretty good. that is quite a complement, because I didn't think much of the direction especially that stupid slow-motion beginning of Mitchell and Scriber coming in the house and seeing the murders. You wonder first if the house has some history of murder, but then just wonder why the director went that route at all. An intriguing film especially in the context of when it was made.