And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973)

England, 1795: the young Catherine has just married Charles Fengriffen and moves into his castle. She becomes the victim of an old curse that lays on the family. On her wedding night she is raped by a ghost and gets pregnant.

Director:

Roy Ward Baker

Writers:

Roger Marshall (screenplay by), David Case (novel)

Stars:

Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Cushing	...	Dr. Pope
Herbert Lom	...	Henry Fengriffen
Patrick Magee	...	Dr. Whittle
Stephanie Beacham	...	Catherine Fengriffen
Ian Ogilvy	...	Charles Fengriffen
Geoffrey Whitehead	...	Woodsman / Silas
Guy Rolfe	...	Maitland
Rosalie Crutchley	...	Mrs. Luke
Gillian Lind	...	Aunt Edith
Sally Harrison	...	Sarah
Janet Key	...	Bridget
John Sharp	...	Henry's friend
Norman Mitchell	...	Constable
Lloyd Lamble	...	Sir John Westcliff
Kay Adrian

Storyline

In 1795, in England, the young woman Catherine moves to the house of her fiancé Charles Fengriffen in the country to get married with him. When she arrives, she feels interest in the portraits of the Fengriffen family, particularly in the one of Charle's grandfather Henry Fengriffen, which seems to have a sort of evil entity possessing it. While admiring Henry's face, a severed hand attacks Catherine through the picture on the wall. Later, she gets married with Charles, beginning her journey of mystery, eerie apparitions, secrets and deaths, and having her days filled with fear and the nights with horrors in a cursed family.

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Plot Keywords:

death | hand | ghost | severed hand | curse | 

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Taglines:

The dead hand that CRAWLS, KILLS and LIVES!!!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 February 1982 (Norway)

Also Known As:

Now the Screaming Starts

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Middlesex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amicus Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film takes place in 1795.

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Goofs

The ghostly hand is a right hand throughout the film but when it appears to kill Mrs Luke it is suddenly a left hand.

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Quotes

[Charles explains that his family's ancestral manse is haunted]
Charles Fengriffen: Ghosts galore. Headless horsemen, horseless headsmen, everything.

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Alternate Versions

US version is missing two scenes from the original British release: Peter Cushing's discovery of an eyeless corpse and Ian Ogilvy's smashing the skeleton against a gravestone.

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Connections

References Rebecca (1940)

User Reviews

Curious neglected tale which is about as nasty as the Hammer stylemovies got.

Odd film, this. Not being the biggest fan of Hammer, I always felt Amicus a more competent stable (neither really produced a film that was actually frightening, but they could be entertaining, and Amicus were glossy and lurid.) This one is a little-known piece that always gets bad reviews but I happen to like it. Firstly, it has a splendid cast. Secondly, the camerawork is something to behold, the sickly lurid colours blending in with the gorgeous period costumes and attractive, dramatic locations. There is also a little more going on here than meets the eye. Perhaps a subtle nod to the Glamis Castle story...? There's a little bit of class war going on, and despite its vivid rape scene I can't help feeling this isn't quite the exploitation movie it appears. For an early 70s movie it does at least treat the issue seriously; the effect it has on the victim and the fact that no measures can atone for it are believable.

A word to the excellent music, beautiful but interspersed with a spooky zither. And Geoffrey Whitehead is very good. The graveyard climax is pretty powerful too, and the closing shot as a camera wanders an empty room to the Bible is a cut above what one expects from this genre. The bad points are the tacky severed hand, the occasional Grand Guignol hamminess and the fact that the film does rather overplay it's hand...it spends so long building up to its revelation that by then it will always be a let down.

And one other criticism...Catherine recovers from her wedding night ordeal ridiculously quickly, which totally contradicts the film's central premise. Still, the open window symbolism and the Malleus Mallificarum references are neat, as is the wonderful scene of Charles standing by the window as the snow falls and reading the lines from Milton's Comus. This film honestly isn't as bad as you may think and you could certainly do alot worse on a dark winter evening!