Review of The Silent Scream

THE SILENT SCREAM (1979) is a low budget murder mystery/horror/slasher shot in California with a few recognisable faces in the cast. A young girl moves into a boarding house on the beach along with some fellow students from a local college. The owner seems to be a recluse although her geeky son seems friendly enough, but before long one of the students is murdered and the local police force put their best man on the job (an aged Cameron Mitchell). For the first hour, nothing much happens here apart from a PSYCHO-influenced murder or two, but around the hour mark it changes tack, there's a big twist and it gets a lot more fun. It's a basic film through-and-through, the usual cheapie spoilt by too much padding and too little atmosphere, and the young leads are quite dull, but it's a lot of fun to see both Yvonne De Carlo (THE MUNSTERS) and '60s scream queen Barbara Steele in the cast, and Steele in particular is the best thing in this; she really shines and makes the most of her small role.