Scream... and Die! (1973)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

José Ramón Larraz

Writer:

Derek Ford (writer)

Release Date:

3 October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Are You Planning an Affair? We Can Give You 7 Good Reasons Not to Have Your Next Affair at "The House That Vanished"-And They're All DEAD!! 1. George 2. Marsha 3. Ted 4. Linda 5. Ronnie 6. Alice 7. Larry

Plot:

A young model and her petty thief boyfriend find their way through the English fog to a backwoods manor in hopes of looting it...

Plot Keywords:

Model | Murder | Beautiful Woman | Female Nudity | Nude Woman Murdered

Cast

Andrea Allan	...	Valerie Jennings
Karl Lanchbury	...	Paul
Maggie Walker	...	Aunt Susanna
Peter Forbes-Robertson	...	Mr. Hornby
Judy Matheson	...	Lorna Collins
Annabella Wood	...	Stella
Alex Leppard	...	Terry
Lawrence Keane	...	Mike
Edmund Pegge	...	Kent
Daphne Lea	...	Mrs. Dabney
Richard Aylen	...	Insp. Matheson
Barbara Meale	...	Victim #1
Joshua Leppard	...	Peter
Raymond Young	...	Car driver

Also Known As:

Don't Go Into the Bedroom (USA) (pre-release title)
Psycho Sex Fiend
The House That Vanished (USA)

Runtime:

Australia:103 min | USA:96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | USA:R | UK:X

Company:

Blackwater Film Productions Ltd.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 5 (1998) (V)

Snore and doze seems more likely

Despite all the bad things I'd heard about this film, I decided to go right ahead and watch it anyway as both the titles (Scream and Die, and even better, The House That Vanished) sounded interesting and director José Ramón Larraz did make one of the best lesbian vampire movies of all time with the excellent Vampyres. I have to admit that the film isn't quite as bad as I was expecting; there's a good atmosphere and a few decent moments of tension; but overall I have to go with the majority opinion here and say that the film is very dull on the whole and is mostly riddled with genre clichés. The film gets off to a promising start as a young couple stumble upon an old house in the woods. Being a thief, the boyfriend decides that they should loot it. However, instead of valuable items; the couple find a murder. The girl flees the house and the boyfriend vanishes. Naturally she tells people what she's seen upon returning to society, but her attempts to find the house again fail - the house has...errr...vanished. Anyway, she finds another bloke but the murderer is still out there...

The film features the cheap looking and very cheap sounding British style that many seventies British horror films feature. José Ramón Larraz photographs the film well and gives it a thick and foreboding atmosphere that does benefit it; although it must be quite difficult to make a film about an old house and not have some sort of atmosphere. The plot is the biggest problem with this film as it is really boring and not much of interest happens. There's a murder sequence that sees a naked woman get sliced that's well done and it's one of the few highlights. José Ramón Larraz does make an attempt to make up for the lack of plot with plenty of naked women, most of which are quite beautiful so that was nice of him. There's not a great deal of gore in the film, though it does seem to want to incorporate as much of the Giallo style into the film as possible. The characters in this film are pretty stupid and make daft decisions, and this stretches all the way to the ending which is completely obvious and can be seen coming a mile off. Overall, I can't say that I enjoyed this film much and I can't recommend it either.