This alternately grim and goofy curiosity doesn't offer a ton to distinguish itself among the crop of essential low-budget horror films birthed in the 1970's. However, for fans who have already made their way through all of the era's genuine classics, Scream Bloody Murder does feature enough effective moments to render it a worthy use of 90 minutes.
The plot is centered around an unhinged moppet named Matthew who is institutionalized after murdering his father via tractor for no apparent reason and then managing to run over his own hand when the deed is done. When he is discharged several years later, now outfitted with a metal hook to replace his lost appendage, he returns to the family farm just in time to discover that his beloved mother has remarried. His already dicey mental state disintegrates completely when he sees his ma (gasp!) kissing her new husband, a scandalous act that prompts him to summarily kill both of them. He wisely decides a change of scenery might be a good idea and hits the road, racking up a couple more victims along the way before eventually making the acquaintance of a prostitute named Vera, who he develops an ardent obsession for after talking to her for a total of three minutes. Determined to "save" her from her line of work, he locates a nearby mansion and slaughters its occupants, then takes Vera to the appropriated home so they can live there happily ever after together. The only thing standing in the way of Matthew's blissful vision is Vera's understandable aversion to being kidnapped and held prisoner by her demented paramour, and her desperate attempts to escape launch the film into its uneven but satisfactory climax.
Splatter enthusiasts will be pleased by a couple of suitably bloody set-pieces, while horror scholars may find the brief appearance of a barely recognizable pre-Phantasm Angus Scrimm of interest. Unfortunately, a nifty story with ample opportunities to flower into an engaging thriller is largely squandered here. The psychological duel between captive and captor is confined to the last third of the film, and moments like one harrowing sequence when Vera attempts to use the phone to call for help while bound and gagged are glossed over far too quickly to generate any true tension. Fred Holbert's Matthew isn't ultimately all that menacing, no matter how many interlopers he kills along the way, so some of the tale's potency is diluted by questionable casting. And while the character demonstrates some adequately disarming sociopathic proclivities while luring other cast members into lowering their guards, his interactions with Vera are basically creepy from the moment he meets her, which makes it a bit baffling to behold this streetwise prostitute who has ostensibly met enough unsavory men to immediately spot one actively nurturing a friendship with some random puppy-dog stalker who wanders onto her porch without preamble and insists on calling her "Daisy".
Still, Scream Bloody Murder does plenty of things right. Though abbreviated, there are several vignettes which adeptly highlight Matthew's maniacal fixation on his unwitting bestie, and his complete sexual disinterest in her is certainly novel given the rape-y mindset of many of the period's more infamous grindhouse offerings. Consequently, the way Vera eventually uses her abductor's intimacy aversion against him infuses the movie with its most suspenseful scene. The spectral images that haunt Matthew throughout his campaign of carnage are orchestrated very well, lending the affair a handful of truly unsettling moments. And the finale is genuinely shocking, putting a ghoulish exclamation point on the story and leaving us in the audience reeling from a display of kaleidoscopic mayhem that appears to have inspired William Lustig when he was putting the finishing touches on Maniac several years later.
A benchmark, this is not. But Scream Bloody Murder is assuredly entertaining and modestly intriguing. I've sat through way worse outings than this, and so have you.
The plot is centered around an unhinged moppet named Matthew who is institutionalized after murdering his father via tractor for no apparent reason and then managing to run over his own hand when the deed is done. When he is discharged several years later, now outfitted with a metal hook to replace his lost appendage, he returns to the family farm just in time to discover that his beloved mother has remarried. His already dicey mental state disintegrates completely when he sees his ma (gasp!) kissing her new husband, a scandalous act that prompts him to summarily kill both of them. He wisely decides a change of scenery might be a good idea and hits the road, racking up a couple more victims along the way before eventually making the acquaintance of a prostitute named Vera, who he develops an ardent obsession for after talking to her for a total of three minutes. Determined to "save" her from her line of work, he locates a nearby mansion and slaughters its occupants, then takes Vera to the appropriated home so they can live there happily ever after together. The only thing standing in the way of Matthew's blissful vision is Vera's understandable aversion to being kidnapped and held prisoner by her demented paramour, and her desperate attempts to escape launch the film into its uneven but satisfactory climax.
Splatter enthusiasts will be pleased by a couple of suitably bloody set-pieces, while horror scholars may find the brief appearance of a barely recognizable pre-Phantasm Angus Scrimm of interest. Unfortunately, a nifty story with ample opportunities to flower into an engaging thriller is largely squandered here. The psychological duel between captive and captor is confined to the last third of the film, and moments like one harrowing sequence when Vera attempts to use the phone to call for help while bound and gagged are glossed over far too quickly to generate any true tension. Fred Holbert's Matthew isn't ultimately all that menacing, no matter how many interlopers he kills along the way, so some of the tale's potency is diluted by questionable casting. And while the character demonstrates some adequately disarming sociopathic proclivities while luring other cast members into lowering their guards, his interactions with Vera are basically creepy from the moment he meets her, which makes it a bit baffling to behold this streetwise prostitute who has ostensibly met enough unsavory men to immediately spot one actively nurturing a friendship with some random puppy-dog stalker who wanders onto her porch without preamble and insists on calling her "Daisy".
Still, Scream Bloody Murder does plenty of things right. Though abbreviated, there are several vignettes which adeptly highlight Matthew's maniacal fixation on his unwitting bestie, and his complete sexual disinterest in her is certainly novel given the rape-y mindset of many of the period's more infamous grindhouse offerings. Consequently, the way Vera eventually uses her abductor's intimacy aversion against him infuses the movie with its most suspenseful scene. The spectral images that haunt Matthew throughout his campaign of carnage are orchestrated very well, lending the affair a handful of truly unsettling moments. And the finale is genuinely shocking, putting a ghoulish exclamation point on the story and leaving us in the audience reeling from a display of kaleidoscopic mayhem that appears to have inspired William Lustig when he was putting the finishing touches on Maniac several years later.
A benchmark, this is not. But Scream Bloody Murder is assuredly entertaining and modestly intriguing. I've sat through way worse outings than this, and so have you.