FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is one of the most disgusting, horrifying, and just plain nasty movies I have ever seen. It touches on subjects such as incest, necrophelia, and also has some strange stories that include voodoo, a traveling carnival, and a bunch of depraved and creepy kids (a la Children of the Corn). If you like horror movies, though, and think you can stomach this, I say give it a try.
It was a nice suprise to see one of my all time favorites, Vincent Price, presenting the four-part anthology. His atmospheric voice and often creepy face are perfect for a movie like this.
The stories revolve around the fact that Price's niece is presently being executed for murder. Price is explaining to a reporter how it is not her fault she is like that, but Oldfield, Tennessee made her such. According to Price, Oldfield could turn anyone, no matter how angel-esque and sweet they are, into a bloodthirsty maniac. He explains this by telling four examples of the depravity and horror this town has had in its past. And so the movie begins.
The first story, about a nerdy little man who isn't very popular with the town and is married to his sister, is by far the nastiest of the bunch. You won't believe some of the stuff in this segment. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that this guy does some pretty sick stuff with a corpse, resulting in dire consequences. It stars Clu Gulager (Return of the Living Dead, Initiation) as the freaky little guy, though you may not recognize him immediately, he looks a bit different.
The second story is my favorite. It is about a lowlife crook (Terry Kiser) who is betrayed by his wife and, as a result, is shot by a couple of mobsters. He makes it just barely to a boat, lies down in it, and floats. He wakes up in this voodoo guy's little shack, and over time begins to hear strange chants from outside. I'm not saying anymore, except that this movie has the best ending, and will make you cringe.
The third story is probably the most boring, but still not bad. It is about a traveling carnival, and one hell of a mean carnival owner. People swallow glass, are about 2 feet tall, and have screwed up faces in this freakshow. They get their power from... oops, I almost gave that one away! Though it gets a bit tedious after awhile, it is at least atmospheric and has some crazy gore effects (Chest point of view, anyone?).
The fourth story, about a group of ragtag Yankee soldiers stumbling upon a group of abandoned hick kids, is by far the creepiest. The kids' parents died in the Civil War, and they pretty much govern themselves. They also rewrite the Bible to fit their, let's see, ghastly ways. Sound creepy? It is.
Overall, this is a great horror anthology. It has atmosphere, scares, gore, smart concepts, and also has the courage to break some (pretty nasty) taboos. If you like horror, Vincent Price (though the average Vincent Price fan may find this to be a bit much), or just being frightened and spooked out, I totally recommend FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM.
Nicely Depraved
I really like "From a Whisper to a Scream", it caught me off guard. I was not expecting a truly depraved quartet of stories and was assuming it would be more in the vein of the Amicus Studios anthology films. Those were a little "cleaner" in their presentation and now seem dated. This film really captures the feel of the old "Tales from the Crypt" comic book and results in an excellent choice for horror fans. I especially liked seeing Vincent Price in the wrap around segments as he brings a nice air to the proceedings. The four stories themselves are truly "out there". They deal with things like zombie babies, glass eaters, voodoo and all the stuff that made the fifties comic book mentioned above worthwhile. The gore content is high and well executed, the acting is good and many fringe stars appear in this film. I think it is a great movie for Halloween. The only complaint is the last story is not as good as the other three. If you have a stomach for "unclean" horror, this will fit the bill.
"...one is never too old for nightmares."
The 80s saw a mini-resurgence of the horror anthology film format popularized in the 60s and 70s, primarily by a studio out of England called Amicus (affectionately known as `The Studio That Dripped Blood'). This new crop included The Monster Club (1980), Creepshow (1982), and this little, late entry nugget titled From a Whisper to a Scream (1987) aka The Offspring, to name a few...co-written and directed by Jeff `Mr. Sequel' Burr (Stepfather II, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Puppet Master 4), the film includes some notable performers like Vincent Price (The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Monster Club), Clu Gulager (The Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge), Rosalind Cash (Tales from the Hood), and Susan Tyrrell (Big Top Pee-wee, Cry-Baby). Also appearing is Terry `Bernie' Kiser (Weekend at Bernie's, Mannequin: On the Move), Harry `Grandville' Caesar (The Longest Yard), Cameron Mitchell (The Toolbox Murders, The Swarm), Ron Brooks (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), Miriam Byrd-Nethery (Stepfather II), and Martine Beswick (Thunderball, One Million Years B.C., Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde) in a small, but memorable part.
The movie is comprised of four tales of grotesque ghoulishness, tied together with a fifth, or wraparound story, featuring Price as a librarian/historian of the little southern town of Oldfield, Tennessee (Tenneseeing is believing!). Seems the town, which has a dark and troubled past, draws upon people to do nasty things...the first tale proper features an almost unrecognizable Gulager as Stanley Burnside, a mild, mousy man with about the thickest pair of glasses I've ever seen. Anyway, Stanley's got the hots for a babe he works with, but she seems hardly interested (not surprising as Stanley's got an creepy `albino' vibe going on). Stanley finally manages to wrangle a date, but things go from bad to worse (worse being murder) as an obviously repressed Stan loses his cool (I'm thinking he probably should have tossed one off prior to the date). Things get particularly weird as Stan wants a second date, even if he has to break into the funeral home to do so...the second story, set about thirty years earlier than the first, features Kiser as Jesse Hardwicke, a two-bit hood who, after being betrayed by his girlfriend, is shot, left for dead, and found by a resident of the swamp played by Caesar. Turns out the old man practices some kind of voodoo, and has a valuable secret which Jesse, being the greedy, ungrateful, rat slimeball he is, will stop at nothing to acquire. The third story, set in the 30s, features Rosalind Cash as a cruel and sadistic owner of a traveling carnival show that stops in Oldfield. Seems most everyone who works for her has done something bad in their past, and now she provides them protection, asking only one thing in return...complete and utter devotion. Did I mention she's a witchy woman? The trouble begins as one of her `performers' tries to break free of her grasp. The fourth and final story is set near the end of the civil war, and features Cameron Mitchell as an a-hole leader of a small group of Union soldiers separated from their unit. Learning that the war has actually ended, the group decides to sack and pillage some towns, Oldfield being first on the list. They get waylaid though, by a band of local orphans who've got plans of their own.
I liked the overall structure of the film, in that the intent being to show how the town was build on a history of violence, starting from the present and working back in reverse, chronological order. As far as the individual stories, they were hit and miss. The first was okay (Gulager especially good), but lacked the strong twist I was hoping for...it could have delivered a more powerful punch had the director not telegraphed the ending with text displayed on the screen (if you've seen the film, you probably know what I mean). The second tale, however, did have a most excellent twist, and turned out to be the best of the bunch, in my opinion. It kept things simple, which is probably why it worked better than the others. This one actually reminded me a lot of the stories from the old EC comics like Tales of the Crypt, or The Vault of Horror. The third story, the one about the traveling carnival, was my least favorite, as it had no real twist, was an anemic tale, and contained a whole lot of really bad acting, especially by Ms. Cash, who proved she could chew up the scenery as well as anyone. The other thing it had a whole lot of was blood in a spectacularly pointless sequence. I liked the fourth story about as much as I liked the third, which is to say not a whole lot. It was interesting, and showed some promise, but eventually petered out, especially in terms of the expected twist ending. And then there's the wrap around story...Vincent Price, looking pretty aged here, adds a lot to anything he's in, as he was an actor with incredible screen presence, along with being a consummate professional...too bad he wasn't utilized better than he was here. I did like the notion of who his character was and how he presented the stories, but again, there was something lacking, and I grew tired of his character continually harping on the evil inherent in the town (yeah, we got the point by now). The wraparound pieces in these horror anthologies general tend to be weak, but this one is especially flaccid. Overall the direction throughout is solid, but the writing was lacking in general, producing one, really good tale, one so-so, and two not so hot. I do enjoy a good horror anthology, and while I felt the effort was here, I have seen better...
The picture is presented in both fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) on this DVD. The picture quality is decent, but I did notice some slight `graininess' resulting in a lack of overall sharpness. It's not terrible, but I think it could have been cleaned up a little. The Dolby Digital mono audio comes through well enough. The only extra feature is a poor looking theatrical trailer for the film, which really is much of a feature, but oh well...
Cookieman108
If you enjoy horror anthologies like this, I'd recommend checking out some other films like Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1967)*, The House That Dripped Blood (1970)*, Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972)*, From Beyond the Grave (1973), and The Vault of Horror (1973). Not all are available on DVD at this time, but should be...
*denotes film is available on DVD in the states, as I write this (Torture Garden was just recently released).
Jack sholder's 80's classic "ALONE IN THE DARK" is a unique slasher gem with some real substance to it! An intelligent scary film with a great little twist & only one weakness keeping it from being flawless & thats the unrealistic,un-emotional,overacting,bad dialog haveing,useless,annoying little blonde girl!(if she had any more dialog it may have ruined the movie!) With that said Martin Landau is truly excellent & scary as hell as The Preacher! This one is a horror fan must! More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Martin Landau DVD Release Date: Released the 13 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I had this on Laserdisk years ago and the quality was HORRIBLE!It does look like MGM cleaned it up ALOT and it looks pretty clean compaired to the Crummy LaserDisk Version.I just wish the deleted scenes were included as well as a booklet.The Commentary by Cast members was lacking.Can you say "Boring As Hell?".They did not say anything about how a scene was done or behind the scenes.He seemed like he was not all there during the commentary.He remembered nothing and asked alot of weird questions to other cast members about filming(was he all there during filming too?).Is he ok?He is a funny actor and seems like a nice guy,I hope he is ok.The other cast members(including Lee),seemed like they were asleep and not really into the commentary much.With the exception of Carrie Lorraine,who... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Stuart Gordon DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Aside for being classic in the aspect of its cheesy lines and terrible acting, this film should never be watched unless you are looking for a good cure for your insomnia. I can't imagine anyone actually thinking this was a "good movie." More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kevin Connor DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Throughout the mid 60s and early 70s, Hammer Studios counterpart, Amicus Productions, also known as the Studio That Dripped Blood, formed through a partnership with producers Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, churned out a series of wonderful little horror anthologies including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972), Tales From The Crypt (1972), The Vault Of Horror (1973), From Beyond The Grave (1973), and this feature, titled Torture Garden (1967). Written by Robert Bloch (Psycho, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum), and directed by Freddie Francis (The Evil of Frankenstein, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Tales from the Crypt), the film features Burgess Meredith (Rocky, Clash of the Titans), Jack Palance (Hawk the Slayer, Alone in the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jack Palance - Burgess Meredith Director(s): Freddie Francis DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It was only a matter of time before Christopher Lee's Dracula visited Swinging London, arriving fashionably late for the party in 1972. In the previous Hammer Films Drac picture, Scars of Dracula, the 19th century Count D was dispatched with a carriage-wheel spoke, a demise included in the opening sequence of Dracula A.D. 1972. The vampire's ashes and fancy ring are handed down to a young Londoner named Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame) who looks as though he's seen A Clockwork Orange too many times. Proposing that his hippie posse look for new kicks ("yet as old as time"), he holds a Black Mass and summons you-know-who. Peter Cushing joins Lee yet again; luscious Stephanie Beacham, in an amazing shag haircut and purple velvet, is Cushing's granddaughter. She... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Alan Gibson DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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