**SPOILERS** Effective horror/slasher movie that's a lot better than you would have first thought it would be. With 1960's Italian movie Horror Queen Barbara Steele playing Victoria Engels a shut-in and lobotomized psycho. Being kept hidden away in the family mansion by her mother Mrs. Engels, Yvonne De Carlo, and her creepy younger brother Mason, Brad Rearden. Who's in for a big big surprise, towards the end of the movie, that will completely freak him out and make Mason even more wacko then his very unstable big sister Victoria. Who turns out to be; well that's by far the biggest surprise in the movie.
Needing quick and ready cash for the upkeep of the house Mrs. Engles has a number of rooms rented out to collage students which makes her son Mason a bit nervous. Since Victoria is being hidden in the house and the fact that there will be a number of strangers roaming around the halls and stairways may will upset her and drive the deranged and unstable Victoria to break out and attack them. Sadly Mason turned out to be right.
With Scotty, Rebbeca Balding, together with fellow collage students Jack Peter & Doris, Steve Doubet John Widelock & Juli Andeiman, renting rooms at the Engels house Victoria is awakened from her fantasy world and goes on a murder spree. Victoria attacks and kills both Jack as he was lying drunk on the beach one morning and then Doris who she attacked and murdered in the basement while she was doing her laundry.
Earlier detectives Sandy McGiver & Manny Ruggin, Cameron Mitchell & Avery Schreiber, were put on the case and pressured by their chief to solve it as soon as possible. With the murdered Jack's father,a big time businessman, wanting results before he come to town, to identify and claim his son's body,from a aborted business trip in Europe.
After Victoria murders Doris both Mrs. Engels and Mason panic hiding her body in the attic. But Mason who worshiped and idolized his dead father, a highly decorated WWII US Army veteran, got the shock of his life when his mother told him the truth about his true blood relationship to his sister! That completely flipped him out and made Mason, if at all possible, even more nuts and homicidal then Victoria.
Now in full military regalia, his father's Army uniform, Mason goes on a shooting spree accidentally killing his mother, who was trying to keep Mason from shooting his sister, only to miss his real mark or intended victim Victoria until he had to reload his gun again. Even then Mason couldn't finish her off so now in total frustration, of him not being able to live up to is father's high standards as a combat vet, puts the gun to is head and blows his brains out.
Scotty who earlier found out the Engel's family secret and was attacked beaten and tied up, by Mason and his mother, tried to free herself. But now has the on-the-loose psycho Victoria to contend with and with the police being alerted about Victoria's whereabouts. It was found out that she was released from a mental institution 13 years ago, after an attempted suicide, into the custody of her mother Mrs. Engels. It soon became apparent that she's the prime suspect in Jack's murder but with time running out would they, the police, be able to prevent Victoria from murdering Scotty and even her boyfriend Peter before detective's McGiver Ruggin & Co. can come to their rescue?
Babara Steele sheds her glamorous image playing a very unappealing and lobotomized psycho and does an excellent job doing it. The movie "Silent Scream" itself is a lot better then your average slasher film with more depth and a much better script to it which more then compensated to it's very low budget and lack of special effects in the blood and gore department.
Needing quick and ready cash for the upkeep of the house Mrs. Engles has a number of rooms rented out to collage students which makes her son Mason a bit nervous. Since Victoria is being hidden in the house and the fact that there will be a number of strangers roaming around the halls and stairways may will upset her and drive the deranged and unstable Victoria to break out and attack them. Sadly Mason turned out to be right.
With Scotty, Rebbeca Balding, together with fellow collage students Jack Peter & Doris, Steve Doubet John Widelock & Juli Andeiman, renting rooms at the Engels house Victoria is awakened from her fantasy world and goes on a murder spree. Victoria attacks and kills both Jack as he was lying drunk on the beach one morning and then Doris who she attacked and murdered in the basement while she was doing her laundry.
Earlier detectives Sandy McGiver & Manny Ruggin, Cameron Mitchell & Avery Schreiber, were put on the case and pressured by their chief to solve it as soon as possible. With the murdered Jack's father,a big time businessman, wanting results before he come to town, to identify and claim his son's body,from a aborted business trip in Europe.
After Victoria murders Doris both Mrs. Engels and Mason panic hiding her body in the attic. But Mason who worshiped and idolized his dead father, a highly decorated WWII US Army veteran, got the shock of his life when his mother told him the truth about his true blood relationship to his sister! That completely flipped him out and made Mason, if at all possible, even more nuts and homicidal then Victoria.
Now in full military regalia, his father's Army uniform, Mason goes on a shooting spree accidentally killing his mother, who was trying to keep Mason from shooting his sister, only to miss his real mark or intended victim Victoria until he had to reload his gun again. Even then Mason couldn't finish her off so now in total frustration, of him not being able to live up to is father's high standards as a combat vet, puts the gun to is head and blows his brains out.
Scotty who earlier found out the Engel's family secret and was attacked beaten and tied up, by Mason and his mother, tried to free herself. But now has the on-the-loose psycho Victoria to contend with and with the police being alerted about Victoria's whereabouts. It was found out that she was released from a mental institution 13 years ago, after an attempted suicide, into the custody of her mother Mrs. Engels. It soon became apparent that she's the prime suspect in Jack's murder but with time running out would they, the police, be able to prevent Victoria from murdering Scotty and even her boyfriend Peter before detective's McGiver Ruggin & Co. can come to their rescue?
Babara Steele sheds her glamorous image playing a very unappealing and lobotomized psycho and does an excellent job doing it. The movie "Silent Scream" itself is a lot better then your average slasher film with more depth and a much better script to it which more then compensated to it's very low budget and lack of special effects in the blood and gore department.