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Review: And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973)

And Now the Screaming Starts Stephanie Beacham

&NewLine;<p>With a name like <em>And Now the Screaming Starts&excl;<&sol;em>&comma; one might expect a familiar&comma; cheap&comma; unambitious&comma; and exploitative film with little redeeming value&period; Director Roy Ward Baker meets many of these expectations&comma; but the film also stands out as a unique blend of Roger Corman’s style of period horrors like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;3WpgVwW"><em>House of Usher<&sol;em> &lpar;1960&rpar;<&sol;a> with the more graphic&comma; exploitative films of the 1970s like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;3I1PuFb"><em>I Spit On Your Grave<&sol;em> &lpar;1978<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; Baker’s film resembles the former far more than the latter&comma; but it stands as a testament to the changing sensibilities of 1970s filmgoers&comma; particularly in the realm of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;shock” horror&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Based on David Case’s 1970 novella&comma; <em>Fengriffen<&sol;em>&comma; the film tells the story of Catherine &lpar;Stephanie Beacham&rpar; and Charles Fengriffen &lpar;Ian Ogilvy&rpar;&period; Set in 1795&comma; the couple arrives at Fengriffen House&period; They repeatedly refer to the house as a castle&comma; though the exterior establishing shots look more like a European estate or mansion&period; Semantics aside&comma; Catherine’s marriage gets off to a really bad start&comma; as she is violently raped by a spirit on her wedding night&period; She is also tormented by visions of a man with empty&comma; bleeding eyesockets&comma; a large birthmark&comma; and one hand&period; His disembodies&comma; severed hand also makes passes as the distressed bride&comma; while Charles never sees anything and only offers halfhearted attempts to calm her down&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To make matters worse&comma; Catherine has a startling encounter with the estate’s groundskeeper&comma; Silas&period; She is mostly frightened because Silas bears the same birthmark as the man in her nightmares&comma; although he also just maintains a creepy vibe throughout the film&period; Unfortunately for Catherine&comma; nobody on the estate is willing to tell her anything about the mysterious woodsman&period; When various characters do try to help her learn more&comma; they are met with a grisly end&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>After an indeterminate amount of time passes&comma; a doctor familiar with the Fengriffen family announces that Catherine is pregnant&period; He also privately pleads with Charles to tell her about the family’s sordid past&period; Charles&comma; unwilling to believe in urban legends&comma; concludes that Catherine is merely suffering from some kind of mental illness&period; He enlists the help of Dr&period; Pope &lpar;Peter Cushing&rpar; to help her overcome her visions and paranoia&period; During Dr&period; Pope’s thorough investigation of the matter&comma; he uncovers the truth about the Fengriffen family and the terrible fate that awaits Catherine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>And Now the Screaming Starts&excl;<&sol;em> really capitalizes on its status as a British gothic horror that is both shlocky and surprisingly dark&period; Though some of the most graphic moments are only shown offscreen&comma; there is enough violence and gore to keep viewers engaged&comma; even while the story moves along at a snail’s pace&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;12&sol;AND-NOW-THE-SCREAMING-STARTS&lowbar;still5-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"And now the screaming starts&excl;" class&equals;"wp-image-2589"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>And Now the Screaming Starts&excl; <&sol;em>&lpar;1973&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The slow pacing is only made worse by a cast that rarely delivers&period; In fact&comma; Peter Cushing is the one performer who brings any sense of legitimacy to the film&comma; as Stephanie Beacham just plays an over-the-top damsel in distress and everybody else is completely forgettable&period; However&comma; you probably aren’t turning to 70s B-movie horror to find great writing and performances&period; Fortunately&comma; good acting never really gets in the way of pure low-brow nonsense&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This is part of what makes Ward Baker’s film so peculiar and memorable&period; It tries to be this classic gothic horror with its setting and story&comma; but none of the other pieces are present&period; The costumes and hairstyles are rarely correct for the late 18th Century &lpar;though the camera always makes sure to keep Catherine’s cleavage in clear view&rpar;&period; Similarly&comma; the hairstyles and makeup are not even close&comma; as they just use a vaguely 70s look for every character and just expect viewers to go with it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Most of these things can be expected from a low-budget film&period; But the &dollar;500&comma;000 budget appears to have been grossly misappropriated&comma; with much of it probably going to Peter Cushing and Stephanie Beacham&period; While the film couldn’t really do without either actor and still retain its unique charm&comma; there should have been more production value in the sets&comma; costumes&comma; script&comma; and editing&period; Just about everything looks cheap and the story is hampered by bad cuts and repetitive exposition&period; Even the gore is laughably unconvincing&comma; with special effects that were already two decades old at the time the film was shot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As critical as I am of the film&comma; <em>And Now the Screaming Starts&excl;<&sol;em> will not leave my memory anytime soon&period; It should be a forgettable horror film&comma; but somehow its story is just bizarre enough and its B-movie features are just cheesy enough to make it worthwhile&period; This is not to say that it is great or highly entertaining&comma; but it is certainly worth your time if you like B-movie shenanigans and Roger Corman-style horror&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">And Now the Screaming Starts&excl; Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>And Now the Screaming Starts<&sol;em> &lpar;1973&rpar;&comma; the film is currently available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;3Vqgy4y">stream&comma; rent&comma; or purchase via Amazon<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;shudder&period;com&sol;movies&sol;watch&sol;and-now-the-screaming-starts&sol;537bc6b13630f8e1">Shudder<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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