Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Young co-ed Scotty(Rebecca Balding The Boogens) is unable to find housing on the campus.She finds a vacancy at the Engels' mansion, now a boarding house for college students.Mrs. Engels (Yvonne De Carlo, TV's The Munsters) and her son seem nice enough, but it becomes clear to Scotty that something is not right at her new residence.When her fellow borders begin dying, two detectives (Cameron Mitchell Toolbox Murders and comedian Avery Schreiber, in a serious role) must solve the mystery of the Engels' boarding house before the body count rises. This Film was Number 1 at the Box Office in 1980.

I also agree with Martin Montag, being a fan of all kinds of horror, from low budget to exploitation and slasher films, I hate writing negative reviews for the genre that I love. A lot of truly awful slashers were made during the early 80's and I believe that Silent Scream was one of them, it could not compete with the other stand out slasher flicks from that time like House on Sorority Row, The Prowler or Friday the 13th parts 1-3. What this film lacks was suspense and tension which was found in the other films I've mentioned, it also lacks alot of other things like good acting (not even Barbara Steele or Cameron Mitchell could save this) a good atmosphere, decent plot etc. The film also has a really annoying opening sequence that was shot in slow motion, I'm not sure what the director was thinking or smoking but if he was trying to make a dramatic shot then he failed miserably.

***Spoiler Alert*** There's only one setting and it takes place entirely inside a big but cramped house, and a lot of the action during the climax occurs in the attic. And the body count (aside from the killers' deaths) is only 2! Yep, 2. That has got to be the lowest body count for a slasher in horror movie history. To make things even more underwhelming, the murder scenes for those two aren't very good. What's really funny is as low as the body count is, the story boasts not 1, not 2 but 3 psychos/potential killers (the mother, the woman played by Barbara Steele and the "young" nerdy guy). The flashback is confusing and the film starts with, get this, the actual end of the movie, which basically shows us dead people lying on the floor. We don't know who's who on the first viewing but still, what a boring and lazy way to start a horror film.***End Spoiler Alert***

Now I know that this film had a low budget, but that is no excuse for having such a low body count. Executive produced, co-written and directed by Denny Harris I thought Silent Scream was a waste of time and thoroughly unimpressive. The script by Harris, Wallace C.Bennett, Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat is extremely slow, nothing significant happens for long stretches. It's over half an hour of tedium, poor character development and scene setting before anything that even resembles horror takes place. The ending was also a big disappointment with a dull so-called shocking revelation that really isn't anything like being shocking, surprising or interesting. In fact Silent Scream ends as you would expect it to, I honestly thought the filmmakers would have tried to come up with a twist ending and catch potential viewers out but no such luck unfortunately. If you want a great slasher film then avoid this and check out these other films instead House on Sorority Row, The Prowler, Friday the 13th parts 1-3, Silent Night, Deadly Night, The Fun House, My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday To Me and Just Before Dawn. All of those slashers are my faves which I highly recommend...

Average Rating:

Rating: - Dull horror film.
I also agree with Martin Montag, being a fan of all kinds of horror, from low budget to exploitation and slasher films, I hate writing negative reviews for the genre that I love. A lot of truly awful slashers were made during the early 80's and I believe that Silent Scream was one of them, it could not compete with the other stand out slasher flicks from that time like House on Sorority Row, The Prowler or Friday the 13th parts 1-3. What this film lacks was suspense and tension which was found in the other films I've mentioned, it also lacks alot of other things like good acting (not even Barbara Steele or Cameron Mitchell could save this) a good atmosphere, decent plot etc. The film also has a really annoying opening sequence that was shot in slow motion, I'm not sure what the director was thinking or smoking but if he was trying to make a dramatic shot then he failed miserably.

***Spoiler Alert*** There's only one setting and it takes place entirely inside a big but cramped house, and a lot of the action during the climax occurs in the attic. And the body count (aside from the killers' deaths) is only 2! Yep, 2. That has got to be the lowest body count for a slasher in horror movie history. To make things even more underwhelming, the murder scenes for those two aren't very good. What's really funny is as low as the body count is, the story boasts not 1, not 2 but 3 psychos/potential killers (the mother, the woman played by Barbara Steele and the "young" nerdy guy). The flashback is confusing and the film starts with, get this, the actual end of the movie, which basically shows us dead people lying on the floor. We don't know who's who on the first viewing but still, what a boring and lazy way to start a horror film.***End Spoiler Alert***

Now I know that this film had a low budget, but that is no excuse for having such a low body count. Executive produced, co-written and directed by Denny Harris I thought Silent Scream was a waste of time and thoroughly unimpressive. The script by Harris, Wallace C.Bennett, Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat is extremely slow, nothing significant happens for long stretches. It's over half an hour of tedium, poor character development and scene setting before anything that even resembles horror takes place. The ending was also a big disappointment with a dull so-called shocking revelation that really isn't anything like being shocking, surprising or interesting. In fact Silent Scream ends as you would expect it to, I honestly thought the filmmakers would have tried to come up with a twist ending and catch potential viewers out but no such luck unfortunately. If you want a great slasher film then avoid this and check out these other films instead House on Sorority Row, The Prowler, Friday the 13th parts 1-3, Silent Night, Deadly Night, The Fun House, My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday To Me and Just Before Dawn. All of those slashers are my faves which I highly recommend...

Rating: - god old rock & roll
Well this is what I call 80's movies. I personally really enjoyed the flick if it were done with 5.1 I would have given it a 5.Flowed nice keeps you guessing.Not for gore fans but if you like 80's this one for you.It is expensive but worth it.

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Rating: - Psycho re-done at a lower grade.
I bought Silent Scream expecting something more of it then what I received. The one thing that stood out in my mind when it came close to the end of the movie was this... Norman Bates with his family helping in his evil deeds. Don't get me wrong, I am not downing Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho film because I loved it. It is a wonderful classic and Hitchcock is one of my favorites. The point I am trying to get across is that this film is too much like a lot of ones before it. The plot is so predictable. I would almost consider this film as a B-rated verison of Hitchcock's A-rated verison film. Like I said it is like Norman Bates with his family helping in his evil deeds. I like a lot of the older horror films but this is one of the lower rating ones. I knew none of the actors except for Yvonne Decarlo and she played such a small part in the film. The 80's films such as Friday The 13th are much better then this film by a long shot. The film is low grade but I do have to give the place that I bought the film from 5-stars because they did give me excellent service and it is not their fault by any means that I did not enjoy the film.

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Rating: - Early Slasher Fun
This review contains a spoiler so don't read it if you haven't seen the movie already and don't want to know a plot twist.

Silent Scream came out fairly early in the slasher craze, it was being made right after the original Halloween and had many scenes added and/or reshot over the next year. Amazingly, the film didn't end up a disjointed mess, but is a reasonably stylish, though slow moving, trip into the early days of the genre, before excessive blood and guts took over post-Friday the 13th. Rebecca Balding (The Boogens and t.v.'s Soap) is an engaging and cute lead, and unlike many of these types of actresses, she can act. Some of the supporting cast is not as good, but the worst offenders are killed by the 2/3 mark. Barbara Steele and Yvonne DeCarlo don't have big parts, but make the most of their screen time.


*** Spoiler ahead ***
Barbara manages to be quite scary in her part as a mute and very crazy daughter/mother/sister. The scene where she attacks Rebecca is really unnerving.
*** End of Spoiler ***

The print on the DVD is very good as is the sound for a low budget flick over 30 years old. The extras are great, especially the informative and amusing discussion with Rebecca and the Wheat brothers, who stepped in and re-wrote the script to make it salable. They went on to write Pitch Black and Nightmare on Elm Street 4 among others and they have funny anecdotes about this film and some of their others.

Though not in the same league as Halloween, the film is entertaining if you don't go in expecting excessive gore and a high body count, though the end turns deadly.

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Rating: - Silent yawn....zzz...
I never saw this movie when it first came out in 1980. I saw the trailer for it on Youtube and it looked great! A lonely girl ascending the stairs cautiously and discovers a secret room and in a split second the unknown attacker pulls the victim inside the room. Wow, that was a scary trailer. The secret passage looked creepy in the trailer. It's a great tool/setting for a horror movie. I'm sure other horror writers wished they thought of it first.
I watched the movie today and it was a boring experience for me to sit through. The good characters were dull and the evil enemies were embarrassing. I'm convinced that Barabara Steele accepted the role for employment only. I'm not convinced that she read the script in awe dying to play the character. The same for Yvonne De Carlo. Maybe it was an attempt by the movie studio to convince the public by having Barbara and Yvonne was a guarantee of a high quality movie. Otherwise, not having the two actress would result in a lower box office performance.
When a movie is not good, generally there's an excuse that it had a small budget, horrendous location, cheap setting, untalented actors, lousy directors, or bad choice of editing. The house was a good idea and the secret passage was a great tool for the movie. The story was a bad idea and it's quite a task to make a script from a useless story. I'm not placing the blame on the actors or the director for me not liking the movie: it's the Wheat brothers fault for the creation of the story. If the story was read as a novel, the pages would stop turning and the landfills would be flooded. After you see this movie, can you stomach listening to it as an audio book? I hope not! If I had a movie company, and the Wheat brothers told me their story from start to finish, I would not finance the movie at all.
The Wheat brothers idea of a scary movie was not clever. Their villains were weirdos that convinced me they could bump off a comatose bedridden patient. It had to be a miserable situation to be an actor or actress trying to be a believable victim throughout the movie. I won't give the plot away on Barbara Steele's character, but her being silent and acting childishly looney made me sad for her role she played: was this the only offer she received from the celluloid world? The suspicious "mother" harboring a dark secret that her career could be over as an actress. The weird boy going crazy and wearing his "father's" military uniform was not a terrifying transoformation, but convincing that it's not going to look good on your resume. In the beginning of the movie, there's a slow motion scene of the police entering inside the house viewing the brutality of the crime scene was supposed to make me feel disturbed of what I'm about to see. It didn't work. I didn't cover my eyes. I didn't hurl. I didn't have nightmares. I felt sleepy staring at dead bodies laying in a position as if they never had a romantic fling in their whole life. Not even a dog would be excited enough to hump their legs. Imagine watching a person in slow motion flashing the middle finger at you. I would imagine the majority of the reaction from the crazy finger incident would be shaking your head in bewilderment, "That was stupid!" It was one of the dullest crime scenes I've ever seen in a movie.
After watching this movie "Silent Scream," no one will ever dress up as any of the characters from the movie for a Halloween party. None of their characters had that impact. A manufacturing company will not waste it's time pursuing a license to make a t-shirt or even publishing a novel from this movie. The plot is miserable and I'm sure someone else could come up with a better story of the house and the secret passage. The best thing to do is enjoy watching the trailer of "Silent Scream" and let your imagination create a better plot than the original movie.

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