Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  A pretty good story, it's more of a psychological thriller than a horror movie, like I thought it was, but if you're a fan of Barbara Steele you'll enjoy seeing her in this, as I did.

• Lafe F

  
  "Silent Scream" is a great atmospheric 1980 slasher film released the same great summer as "The Shining", "Friday the 13th" and "The Empire Strikes Back", which is probably why it became so forgotten. Apparently it was released on VHS for a… More
  "Silent Scream" is a great atmospheric 1980 slasher film released the same great summer as "The Shining", "Friday the 13th" and "The Empire Strikes Back", which is probably why it became so forgotten. Apparently it was released on VHS for a limited time, but it took me 27 years to finally find a copy to view. This needs a DVD release. The opening credits still felt very 70's with a police car driving towards the camera, and officers rushing into an old house to find a series of bodies. It doesn't make much sense until the end of the movie, when we can say "duh" to the movie makers for revealing essentially nothing significant. A cool premise: a group of college kids move to an Oceanside old mansion on a cliff, owned by a mysterious old lady and her peculiar son. There is also something creepy and murderous lurking deep within the walls of the house, watching them. I liked when the killer is watching one of the girls through a ceiling vent in her bedroom. One by one, the youth would meet up with their doom. The killings, though few, are quite shocking and blood-soaked. Most of the characters were likeable. The one annoying guy didn't last very long. The movie drops a notch halfway through when the killer's identity is revealed and shown onscreen too much. There were a few nice twists in the final act which were a lot of fun. The movie has a really good musical score, with screeching instruments and suspense building cues. There's a great scene where one of the vicious killings is viewed through the slats of the wall boards. Another good scene has a victim hiding herself in a bedroom closet while the killer repeatedly thrusts a sharp knife through the door frame. It's got that great 80's slasher feel.