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 hand crawls... the hand threatens... the hand 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:

Oakley Court, Windsor Road, Oakley Green, Windsor, Berkshire, 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

Peter Cushing (Dr. Pope) and Herbert Lom (Sir Henry Fengriffin) both played Professor Van Helsing in films starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula: Cushing in Horror of Dracula (1958), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) and Lom in Count Dracula (1970). Cushing also played the role in The Brides of Dracula (1960) and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974).

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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

Featured in Movie Macabre: And Now the Screaming Starts! (1982)

User Reviews

And it's a shame that this isn't very good!

This period horror movie has all the right ingredients to be a success. It's got atmosphere, nice sets, Peter Cushing, an experienced horror director, a severed hand with a mind of it's own...but despite all this, it just doesn't work as it should. The principle reason for this is the plotting. It's slow, very slow, and there aren't a lot of things going on in the film. In fact, the film is so slow that even when there is something going on; it feels like there isn't, and this doesn't do the film any favours at all, as it feels like you're stuck in a time warp while watching it. It's a shame this isn't very good, as the cast and crew are experienced in the horror genre, and these guys together should have ensured a better film. I mean, we've got one of the legends of the genre; Peter Cushing, along with two of the smaller stars; Patrick Magee and Herbert Lom, and these guys are directed by one of Hammer Horror's big guns: Roy Ward Baker. How could the resulting movie end up so tragically miserable? You wouldn't think it could, but it did.

The plot follows a house that is under a curse due to some wrongdoing in the past. When the master of the house moves his virgin bride in, she starts experiencing various forms of horror. Like ghosts, severed hands, pregnancy...stuff like that. The first half of the movie is dismal; hardly anything happens, and the stuff that does isn't very interesting. Thankfully for the movie - and the audience - things pick up in the second half when a silly haircut wearing Peter Cushing enters the fray. He doesn't inspire the plot to do anything exciting and/or interesting really, but his screen presence is vast and it's hard to be bored when he's on screen, even if the rest of the movie sucks. The atmosphere and the sets are nicely done however, and this ensures that the dull plot has a nice area to inhabit. It's something of a waste, though, as a better story could easily have moulded around this setting; but at least the movie has some good points. None of the credible actors impress really, and it's more than evident that Cushing is on autopilot. But then again, that's all he needs to be on. If you have a desire to see every horror film ever made, I recommend this movie. Otherwise, it's maybe best to skip it.