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Let me make it clear that I will not be addressing the older Propaganda film “The Silent Scream” which focuses on Pro-Life movements. But I must say that when I was much younger, I used to think the content in the film was medically accurate and terrifying. Enough of the past, now let’s focus on The Silent Scream by Denny Harris of 1980.
“The Silent Scream” is the tale of some college students who stay in the rooms of an old beach Victorian. The owner of the house is an eccentric older woman and her reclusive son I will diverge in this case and compare how the evaluation part of the film is done. A well-balanced review has to draw upon the experience and comprehension of the reviewer to fulfil the issues of curiosity which exist in content and intent. That is a craft I am getting more and more acquainted with week by week. My lesson this week is about another equally important aspect of the reviewing process and that is willingness. Well, every reviewer on this site has to battle on an almost regular basis, one time or the other, to sit through a film and the terrible write-up following it. Usually, there is enough of a laurel one way (positive or negative) to hang a few hundred words on. But what happens when the subject does not manage to inspire any contempt, criticism or even admiration?
This is the situation everyone should try to avoid when attempting to write a review. At all costs. “The Silent Scream” is a bad movie and I am going to tell you why. It has to do with the fact that this title is undesirable.
The film is wretched because very few people behind this movie display heart, intelligence, or even the bare minimum self-value. The opening of this Movie features 3 minutes of a poorly made slow-motion shot that happens to be the end of the movie. This would be completely acceptable had there been some kind of revelation, but what exists here is a mainly goreless hour and fifteen minutes of dry buckwheat pancake filler which is painful to sit through.
What most impresses me is how professional some of these should be working people, is in this turd without smell. Yvonne De Carlo(Lady Munster), Cameron Mitchell(Death of a Salesman, Blood and Black Lace), Avery Schrieber(Chico and the Man, The Muppett Show) all try their best to stir the pot expecting it to boil, but instead watching it slowly settle back down. The sickening fact is that there is simply not enough of anything to lift the film out of its stupor.
The screenplay is just another pathetic attempt at stealing from ‘Psycho,’ but lacks any of the effort, and guess what the twist is shocking said no one ever. The new roommate finds her dead on the floor and becomes mildly inconvenient. In fact, the slim-jim semi-hunk who is trying to seduce the female lead takes her back to murder beach less than 12 hours after the slaying. While the killer is still very much at large, the destruction is still sympathetic or the semi-hunk is just taking control of the romance. Mr screenwriter, you have to do better. You were still robbing the producers by selling this script to a low-rate director for a mere five bucks.
There is a positive thing. One. Barbara Steele makes an appearance in the second act and for 3 glorious minutes possesses the screen alone. Steele is the Bette Davis of Horror cinema. One look from this Bava muse, a female beast carries more information and emotion than two hours’ worth of dialogue from most other actresses. Steele infuses the production with both class and believable emotional duress. She is the flower of horror cinema and here she proves she can blossom even when planted in a field of strangling weeds. Barbara is 73 years young this year, long live the Queen.
Many words remain unsaid in a movie that is as ‘flaccid’ as this one. If out of pure boredom, you happen to have this movie rented, do everyone a favour and skip to the forty-five-minute mark. Watch what Mrs. Steele has to offer and then proceed to fling the movie over the back fence into the empty field adjacent to your house. Do not get too anxious over the fact that, unlike this film, you might have an impact on the environment, this movie is simply void of anything. To say I was exasperated to hear this truly hurts. That contemptibly misleading propaganda I mentioned in the opening is actually much better crafted than the one that was in front of me, and that is a painful fact. That was a shocking and uncalled-for thing to say. Hopefully, it is enough to inspire you to steer clear.
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