With a name like And Now the Screaming Starts!, one might expect a familiar, cheap, unambitious, and exploitative film with little redeeming value. Director Roy Ward Baker meets many of these expectations, but the film also stands out as a unique blend of Roger Corman’s style of period horrors like House of Usher (1960) with the more graphic, exploitative films of the 1970s like I Spit On Your Grave (1978). Baker’s film resembles the former far more than the latter, but it stands as a testament to the changing sensibilities of 1970s filmgoers, particularly in the realm of “shock” horror.
Based on David Case’s 1970 novella, Fengriffen, the film tells the story of Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) and Charles Fengriffen (Ian Ogilvy). Set in 1795, the couple arrives at Fengriffen House. They repeatedly refer to the house as a castle, though the exterior establishing shots look more like a European estate or mansion. Semantics aside, Catherine’s marriage gets off to a really bad start, as she is violently raped by a spirit on her wedding night. She is also tormented by visions of a man with empty, bleeding eyesockets, a large birthmark, and one hand. His disembodies, severed hand also makes passes as the distressed bride, while Charles never sees anything and only offers halfhearted attempts to calm her down.
To make matters worse, Catherine has a startling encounter with the estate’s groundskeeper, Silas. She is mostly frightened because Silas bears the same birthmark as the man in her nightmares, although he also just maintains a creepy vibe throughout the film. Unfortunately for Catherine, nobody on the estate is willing to tell her anything about the mysterious woodsman. When various characters do try to help her learn more, they are met with a grisly end.
After an indeterminate amount of time passes, a doctor familiar with the Fengriffen family announces that Catherine is pregnant. He also privately pleads with Charles to tell her about the family’s sordid past. Charles, unwilling to believe in urban legends, concludes that Catherine is merely suffering from some kind of mental illness. He enlists the help of Dr. Pope (Peter Cushing) to help her overcome her visions and paranoia. During Dr. Pope’s thorough investigation of the matter, he uncovers the truth about the Fengriffen family and the terrible fate that awaits Catherine.
And Now the Screaming Starts! really capitalizes on its status as a British gothic horror that is both shlocky and surprisingly dark. Though some of the most graphic moments are only shown offscreen, there is enough violence and gore to keep viewers engaged, even while the story moves along at a snail’s pace.
The slow pacing is only made worse by a cast that rarely delivers. In fact, Peter Cushing is the one performer who brings any sense of legitimacy to the film, as Stephanie Beacham just plays an over-the-top damsel in distress and everybody else is completely forgettable. However, you probably aren’t turning to 70s B-movie horror to find great writing and performances. Fortunately, good acting never really gets in the way of pure low-brow nonsense.
This is part of what makes Ward Baker’s film so peculiar and memorable. It tries to be this classic gothic horror with its setting and story, but none of the other pieces are present. The costumes and hairstyles are rarely correct for the late 18th Century (though the camera always makes sure to keep Catherine’s cleavage in clear view). Similarly, the hairstyles and makeup are not even close, as they just use a vaguely 70s look for every character and just expect viewers to go with it.
Most of these things can be expected from a low-budget film. But the $500,000 budget appears to have been grossly misappropriated, with much of it probably going to Peter Cushing and Stephanie Beacham. While the film couldn’t really do without either actor and still retain its unique charm, there should have been more production value in the sets, costumes, script, and editing. Just about everything looks cheap and the story is hampered by bad cuts and repetitive exposition. Even the gore is laughably unconvincing, with special effects that were already two decades old at the time the film was shot.
As critical as I am of the film, And Now the Screaming Starts! will not leave my memory anytime soon. It should be a forgettable horror film, but somehow its story is just bizarre enough and its B-movie features are just cheesy enough to make it worthwhile. This is not to say that it is great or highly entertaining, but it is certainly worth your time if you like B-movie shenanigans and Roger Corman-style horror.
And Now the Screaming Starts! Movie Rating: ★★★ out of 5
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