User Reviews

DVD PLAYER AT K-MART: $29.95.

PUBLIC DOMAIN DVD RELEASE OF THIS MOVIE + 3 OTHERS JUST LIKE IT: $5.95.

A CASE OF BEER & TWO BAGS OF SNACK MIX: $20

BEING ABLE TO WATCH THIS MOVIE DRUNK WITH YOUR FRIENDS: Priceless.

For everything else, there's the crap at Blockbuster. Who knows what the real story behind this movie is. It's graced those cheapo bargain bin horror DVD releases now for about seven years and has yet to be improved upon, as far as low rent, low esteem, low taste entertainment goes. Matthew is a boy with mommy issues who runs over his dad with a tractor, manages to get his arm mangled underneath the runaway machine, and is promptly shipped off to a juvenile mental ward or hospital for the young & psychotic for the bulk of his adolescence. Cue forward to about the age of 18 and Matthew -- who cannot even masturbate because he as been fitted with a razor sharp metal hook to replace his arm -- returns home to find his beloved, creepy mom about to marry one of the hayseed crackers who helped her run the farm after Matthew killed her husband. Imagine his disappointment. So Matthew promptly axe murders the pair of them and sets off on a killing spree across the byways of rural Kansas in search of someone else to be his mommy.

Instead, he finds promiscuous young couples who want him to go skinny dipping with them, a hooker with a heart of gold who paints truly awful paintings, drunk belligerent sailors, various low-wage domestic workers who can't even make chicken right, and a dog that is so unfocused on it's role in life that it doesn't even bark as he hacks up it's 80 year old mistress with a meat cleaver. All he wanted was a nuclear mother figure to tell him what to do and maybe beat him off, but no. Just people & things -- including the church -- which fail to live up to his need for protective authority figures with breasts. We all want things in life we can't have and all Matthew wants is the attention of women who have their own lives to live, don't have to measure up to his moral standards to get through the day, enjoy sex, and look good in the nude. It isn't easy being a psycho killer sometimes.

I mean look, what can you really say about a movie called SCREAM BLOODY MURDER? And, what do you say to people who watch a movie called SCREAM BLOODY MURDER and end up not liking it? Since there are about 14 movies titled or re-titled SCREAM BLOODY MURDER I can see how one might end up with this by mistake, but if you are looking for a movie called SCREAM BLOODY MURDER in the first place, dude, like, what were you expecting? Camus??

But when all is said and done and if you can find it within yourself to get into the spirit of things, this is a fast-paced, luridly subtexturalized and genuinely amusing little pre-Freddy Kreuger hacker about a maniac who isn't bright enough to realize he doesn't need axes, knives, meat cleavers or other weapons when he has a razor sharp metal claw molded onto that dead arm of his. This is all American exploitation horror made at a time when movies like this were the staple of drive-in movie double bills, and half of the time you weren't even bothering with what was happening on screen. Watching it in your dingy little apartment by yourself cold sober isn't exactly going to help improve one's perception of it since you'll be focused on things like plot holes, inept performances, tacky locations & fashions, laughable special effects, and a strange moralistic dichotomy that is at odds with the manner in which the film was meant to be seen: Drunk, in the company of friends. Or, half ignored while scoring with your date.

When used to fill either of those roles this retains it's power as a superior little example of low budget regionally made exploitation horror that is probably a lot better than it had to be, and more satisfying than most similar examples. I like that garden room at the mansion especially, and the idea of an artist making their living as a prostitute is actually somewhat Kafkaesque. One word to the wise: I've been trying to find an "uncut" home video version of this film for years & none seem to exist. I've sampled 2 different VHS and four DVD presentations, including the new one by Retromedia titled as CLAW OF TERROR -- which does look good compared to the others -- but they all show the same fullscreen 86 minute edit purporting to be the R Rated original version. Any one of them is as good as the other, or so it would seem, and it would be amusing to find out why SCREAM BLOODY MURDER was censored in the first place, and what became of the original elements. That's what makes me a FILM DORK, and this movie will always have a place close to my heart for setting it's sights low, aiming straight for the gutter, and scoring a bull's eye.

6/10

What surprised me the most about this movie was how gory it was. For 1973 this is a very bloody movie. The plot is simple. The main character is crazy and for reasons in his own deranged mind goes around killing people. It's a B movie, lots of mistakes and plenty of unanswered questions but you have to expect that from a B slasher movie. It's very simple and easy to follow, no in depth characters. There are some pretty disturbing scenes and I do not recommend the squeamish, children, or those prone to nightmares to view this film. If you're a fan of blood and guts B movies here's an early one that you should see. For the mainstream movie viewer, I would advise passing on this one.

The action begins with a young boy climbing onto a field tractor and running his dad over, then losing a hand himself when he jumps off and runs over his own arm. He's sent to a sanitarium and emerges as a young adult with a hook hand (Fred Holbert) years later, but with major mental problems. He goes on a grisly killing spree and ultimately keeps a prostitute (Leigh Mitchell) prisoner in a house. As far as sick and depraved psycho slasher movies go, this one delivered the goods and was uncompromising in most of its gore scenes. For what it's worth, PHANTASM's Angus Scrimm has a very small role as a doctor late in the film, and he's just terrible. I got a kick out of seeing a movie marquee that was playing "Charlton Heston in The Omega Man" in the background of one outdoor scene. **1/2 out of ****

Scream Bloody Murder (1973)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Matthew (Fred Holbert) is a deranged young man who has a serious mother issue. He kills his father with a tractor but when he goes to get off of it he ends up getting his hand caught in it. Now with a hook on his hand, he gets out of the hospital and is enraged when he learns that mommy has married a new guy. He soon hits the road slashing up various men and women who he feels are bad.

SCREAM BLOODY MURDER isn't a perfect horror film or even a good one but there are certainly enough interesting moments to make it worth watching if you're a fan of the genre. It should go without saying but Matthew here has bigger mommy issues than even Norman Bates and watching his madness was part of the entertaining and especially early on in the picture where this thing is basically a slasher way before that term would become popular.

The first forty-minutes or so basically has Matthew meeting a variety of people and eventually getting upset at them for a variety of reason. This causes him to lash out and kill whoever he is upset with. None of the violence is overly graphic or bloody but the scenes are certainly effective with some clever editing. The second portion of the film has him falling for a prostitute (Leigh Mitchell) who he wants to try and make "good" but when she doesn't want to play that he decides to kidnap her and hold her hostage.

Holbert's performance isn't one that I'd call good but there's a certain rawness to it that makes it work in this low-budget tale. The performance almost seems like a real person and thought the weakness of the performance actually helped a little. Mitchell was good in her role as the prostitute and the two of them worked quite well together. The biggest issue with the film is the entire second half as there's just not enough drama or suspense to make up for the lack of killings. Still, SCREAM BLOODY MURDER is an interesting little gem that is worth watching.

Many people call this the best and most gruesome horror film ever made. Many hacks have tried the idea of the hook killer,but none compare to this classic horror masterpiece. This is a must see for every single horror fan! The killer is guy named Matthew who lost an arm,now he's p***ed,invincible,has a deadly weapon for a hand,and wants to kill everybody!

This guy is pretty scary. From Norman Bates on down, there seems to be more terror in gentle souls than in the overtly violent ones. The movie isn't much. It's just going from one act of bloody violence tot he next. It always stretches the realms of reality when guys like this always seem to get away with everything so easily. Of course, they have the element of surprise, but their carelessness and the sheer numbers of attacks should do them in. Then, there are the demons. The motivations are in the character's head This makes it hard to be either sympathetic or non-sympathetic toward him. When you get right down to it, the director and screenwriter just wanted us to spend our money to watch people being torn to shreds and then cook up some way to punish this bad boy.

I don't know why the creators of this movie gave Matthew a claw hand because he only does two things with it - rip up a painting and kill one person. The other people he kills, he uses a different weapon. For example, a knife. Why would he need a knife if he has a claw hand? Despite the disappointing use of the claw hand, I liked this movie for some reason. One thing I liked about it was how unsexy it was. I know I'm in the minority of horror movie lovers, but I get tired of seeing the same old sexy clichés about male killers wanting to have sex with their victims. Or that women who have sex are bad. This movie's heroine (if you can call her that) was a prostitute and I thought she was likable. The killer doesn't rape her or kill "impure" women, like in so many other horror movies. His aim it to kill the men who touch the women, not the women who touch the men. And as we see, he has real hangups about even kissing a woman. He doesn't want any part in it.

Even though this movie is predictable, I give it credit for slightly going against the grain and portraying a killer who doesn't just want to kill beautiful women. He would rather kill the men who touch them. That is why this movie stands out to me.

Originally released under the less hook-like Scream Bloody Murder, Claw Of Terror opens with a young farmers lad Matthew starting up the family bulldozer and running over his father, as well as his own hand. Cut to ten years later, and Matthew is now a weird loner with a claw for a hand, who sees red whenever his mother Daisy is kissing someone else, and it doesn't take long - he comes home from the hospital to find Mr Parsons is sleeping in the big bed with Mommy. The honeymoon doesn't last long: Matthew gives Mr Parsons a few whacks with the ax, mama falls on a rock, and before you can say "rigor mortis" he's hitched a ride with newlyweds. But, as he's plagued with visions of his dead mother in increasing stages of decay, THEIR honeymoon doesn't last either. And this is in the first twenty minutes of the movie!

Claw Of Terror doesn't waste celluloid plunging you, the unwitting viewer, into a Freudian whirlpool of psycho-sexual deviancy. He's befriended by red-haired Vera, a hooker with a heart of gold, who becomes his Mommy substitute - not surprisingly, as she's played by the same actress. She lets Matthew call her Daisy and starts to believe his outrageous lies about his rich family, which he feels he must prove. Ingratiating his way into a mansion, he slices his way through the household; strangely enough, the one killing in the movie he is squeamish about is the family dog! He proceeds to romance his prostitute Mommy substitute with a closet full of dead bodies, and then - and only then - do things start to get weird.

On one hand there's an utterly unsympathetic portrayal of a deviant serial killer, and an almost unbearable streak of cruel humor underpinning the carnage. Matthew of course gets the best lines like "I get groceries and art stuff and kill people - but do you appreciate it? No!" On the other hand... there's some incredible imaginative photography you don't usually see in B-grade horror, with fantastic distorted angles, almost as distorted as the minds who dreamt up this celluloid nightmare.

Matthew will do anything for sweet easel exctasy. Even murder! Fred Holbert in his one and only movie role plays functional retard Matthew with the mother of all complexes, pun intended. A tractor "accident" leaves a young Matthew without a father and his mangled left hand is replaced with a hook. After being released back into his mother's custody he returns to his murderous ways as anyone with a pulse draws his ire. The bulk of the movie revolves around the relationship between Matthew and virtuous artist/hooker named Vera played by Leigh Mitchell.

Bad seventies cheese dominates this movie. Fred Holbert isn't bad as his character remains with a childlike demeanor despite his violent tendencies. What mystifies me is the fact that they gave this character a hook for a hand and he uses anything but that to kill with. This movie does have a few unintentionally funny parts. Matthew's run-in with a cane waving grandma and her useless dog as well as the most persistent candy sales-boy ever provided the lone bright spots. Scream Bloody Murder is part of mill creek entertainment's 50 chilling classics collection though I recommend finding it on the internet for free as it's worthy of one viewing and nothing more.

This is one demented piece of film making. The oft mentioned pre-credit sequence sets things off just nicely but little did I imagine that this would carry on in much the same manic fashion. Fred Holbert was rather stiff in the title role, and I see he did nothing else. Leigh Mitchell, on the other hand , was excellent as the lady in distress, and I'm surprised she did little else. Well written and decently directed, my public domain copy was a bit faded and jumpy but the passion (or possibly madness!) of the maker shines through. A little repetitive at times, there are nevertheless some super moments. I liked the sailor's arrival at Vera's dwelling. I loved the doctor's arrival and Vera's plucky post bath action. There is also a delicious moment when after a big surprise he casually picks up a limb momentarily so he can close the front door.

F**ked-up farmer's son Matthew only has eyes for his mother, so he hops onto his father's tractor and ploughs down dear old dad, mangling his own hand in the process. After years in an institution, Matthew, now equipped with a hook (who's stupid idea was that?), is finally allowed to go home only to find that his mother has just remarried.

When he sees his new step-dad making moves on his mum, Matthew wigs out and gets chop happy with an axe; unfortunately, mum catches him red-handed (and red-everything else) and also winds up dead. Matthew decides to hit the road, but everyone he meets seems to remind him of the dead couple back home, so he kills them too.

Eventually Matthew arrives in Venice, Los Angeles, where he befriends Vera, a hooker with a heart and a passion for painting. Amazingly, Vera doesn't pick up on the obvious signs that her new pal is a raving nut-job (even when he interprets her art as 'a man being tortured for chopping up the man who took away his mother'), but she sure gets the message when he abducts her, takes her to his mansion (the previous owner's body being stuffed in an upstairs closet, along with the maid), and treats her like his possession.

Scream Bloody Murder is an unjustly ignored, low-rent B-movie that has been been allowed to fall into the public domain—which is great news for fans of grind-house/drive-in sleaze because it allows them to check it out for next to nothing, via the internet.

I chose to watch this title at random from The Internet Archive, and boy am I glad I did, 'cos it has everything I could ever want from a '70s psycho film: a seriously insane killer with a mommy complex; umpteen mean-spirited murders (hell, even a dog gets it!); messed up hallucination sequences; a sexy female tied up and terrorised; and a few seriously tense and harrowing sequences including a doozy of a finale.

Recommended for those who like their entertainment rough 'n' ready and good 'n' bloody.

In SCREAM BLOODY MURDER, young Matthew is sent away to a mental hospital, after running his dad over with the family tractor (aka: bulldozer). The tyke also lost a hand when he jumped from the tractor.

Years later, adult Matthew (Fred Holbert) returns home, only to find that his mum has remarried. Looks like it's time for another "farming accident". Luckily for Mat, he now has a mechanical "claw" hand, making a double-bladed ax easy to use!

THWACK!

Instant annulment! Unfortunately, mama is slaughtered by accident! So, Matthew heads out on his own to seek his fortune, and to kill more innocent citizens.

Matthew is an interesting character, going from being semi-likable to pathetic to absolutely bananas! Sometimes, within seconds! No kidding! In this movie, someone is brutally murdered every few minutes with only the thinnest semblance of a plot to hold it all together! At least Matthew doesn't discriminate- young, old, male, female, black or white, he kills just because he's cray-zee! Hell, not even the dog is safe!

Then, when Matthew "falls in love", he really flies off the rails! This movie is one of those oddities that could only have been produced in the early 1970's.

THINGS THIS MOVIE TEACHES US: #1- Our mental health system has always been broken! #2- Hitchhikers should never be picked up! Ever! #3- Rotary wall phones can be dialed by tongue! Ah, we learn something every day!

Be on the lookout for Angus Scrimm (PHANTASM 1-4) as the terminally nosy Dr. Epstein!...

Ahh, Scream Bloody Murder, A.K.A "The Claw of Terror", A.K.A "The Horror movie where the killer has a claw prop but strangles people with his one free hand instead". This movie is weird. As a boy, young Matthew runs his dad over with a bulldozer for NO REASON, loses control, jumps off, and breaking all laws of physics, runs his own hand over leaving him with a claw for life. Years later, older Matthew has a bit of an oedipus complex and kills guys that touch women because its "a bad thing". He kills his Dwight Yoakum-esque stepfather and mother and runs away. After some random killings not-involving-a-hook he takes it upon himself to "care" for a prostitute and stabs a sailor to death with a Palet knife. He ties up the hooker and insists on calling her Daisy after his mother. Oh yeah and everyone he kills "haunts" him as a rear-projected demon. You could care less for any of the characters especially the hooker with a heart of gold. The only great thing about this movie is Fred Holbert as Matthew (His first and only movie sadly), who is a very creepy little man with insecurities about women, and great lines like, (to the tied up hooker) "See what I do for you? I buy you groceries, and clothes, and art stuff, and kill people...and do you appreciate it? No." But I do appreciate it Matthew. Rent this movie for good laughs and B-rated fun. And if anyone knows what became of Fred Holbert, e-mail me please.

This is another one of those horror movies in which the psychopath character already spent several long years (nearly a decade, in this case) in a mental asylum, but upon his release immediately goes on a killing spree that is ever more insane and sadistic than the crimes he got committed for in the first place. What the hell do they do with people in those institutions? Play Scrabble? Although completely implausible and extremely low-budgeted, "Scream Bloody Murder" certainly isn't such a bad horror effort. It actually surprised me a lot, since it's really well-directed, fairly suspenseful and very gore considering the time it was made. The murders surely involve screams and blood, alright! When Matthew was just a little boy, he ran an agriculture machine over his dad but lost his own hand in the process. When he returns home from the mental hospital (with a hook for a hand), Matthew goes berserk again when he learns that his beloved mother met someone else and got remarried. He expresses his feelings of disappointment with a shiny, sharp axe and splits. Matthew butchers some random people, because the voices in his head command him, and ends up in the house of a whore/artist – lovely combination, I know – who befriends him. Odd story full of holes and improbabilities, but entertaining thanks to the excessive bloodshed and one-time-actor Fred Holbert's decent performance. The girl is pretty good too and Angus Scrimm appears in a little role long before he became a genre icon with the Phantasm-films. Worth a peek in case you're a fan of offbeat 70's exploitation cinema.

Psychiatrists have identified well over a million males on the planet who have a problem with the fact that men have sex with women-there's some fancy name for it but whatever the central character here Matthew is one of them believing sex is the most disgusting thing in the World.Which is probably the reason why he bumped his own father off as he drives a tractor. As he jumps out the tractor runs over his own arm and he ends up with a metal hook. Then his new career as a killer begins with his mother's new husband-how dare he touch her-and the accidental death he causes to her.This wasn't really necessary to remove her from the picture-she could have died of shock! Though Matthew has a hook arm he doesn't really use it to kill people he relies on more traditional methods but when he stumbles upon a woman painting a picture he gets into conversation with her as she looks like his late mother but is also a hooker-a good enough reason to follow her last client and kill him. The same actress played both his mother and the hooker which may be why he insists on calling her his mother's name and as part of his plan to convince her he's rich he conns his way into a mansion and slaughters everybody in it. Thus the stage is set for the next act which is to abduct the hooker,tie her up and force her to at least get used to it-but the motive is not sexual its just to stop her leaving so its about Control. The film is fast paced and easy to follow with more killings on the way and at one stage even the hooker is attacked and dumped in the cellar with the other bodies. The police and the authorities are unaware iof any of this and the ending in a church is rather abrupt as the ghosts of all those he killed finally crowd in on him. Its not a satisfactory ending but then few of them are.You get the impression they kept adding stuff which was never concluded-not much point in the hooker concealing a weapon found in the bathroom when she never uses it.Or even the point of her insisting on having a bath just so Matthew could find it more distasteful when she appears nude and later tries to seduce him-which is more of a ploy as it transpires he is not aroused by the sight There's also no reason why he should keep her tied up because this isn't a bondage thing.Its just a movie which is saying "yes there are people like that who find sex disgusting"

First off the bat this is a ZERO budget production from all points down but, in truth, thats never hurt a movie in my opinion anyway.

This was made in 1973 and you can pretty much feel the influence of certain other movies which had made such an impact from 1968 onwards, it strives for that Last House feel and almost succeeds in some cases. The opening is pretty cool (love that squashed Dad effect!) but the actual storyline seems like its pretty jumpy and zooms along from start to finish, which is where it gets interesting.......

Anyone expecting gore galore better hit the road Jack because what we have by the end is some great scenes of 'Woman In Peril'and, yeah, she is treated pretty poorly but why the hell are you watching a movie called Scream Bloody Murder in the first place if you can't take some FAKE abuse? This film is like watching something on fast forward just to get to the money shot, taking in an ending which recalls both Maniac (1980) and a sublime Carnival of Souls (1962), its a shame people haven't got the gall to make stuff like this anymore because its got more originality than most of the celluloid waste thats forced down our throats these days. Check it out if only for Angus Scrimm in an early role.

Scream Bloody Murder (aka Claw of Terror, Captive Female and Matthew). This is NOT the greatest horror movie by any means but I was expecting the film to be far worse than it really is - it's better than I was guessing it would be.

Matthew killed his father with a tracker, one of his arms was mangled in the process and then he was sent to a mental institution for awhile where they tried to fix his mind and his hand by giving him a metal claw to use in place of the hand. His mother wrote him and told him that she had someone new in her life and when he got out the 3 of them could be happy living together... but Matthew didn't like that idea and when he got out of the institution he headed for home and killed his stepdad because he wanted it to be just him and his mom. His mother found the body and in an argument he was upset and killed her too. He got a ride out of town and ended up in a place where he fell for a girl but others will end up dead and the girl held hostage because Matthew decided he wanted to keep her.

Don't expect a high quality film here but it's better than I expected it to be. I will say it's very bloody at times - which I'm not overly crazy about that type of film but at least there is a fairly interesting story to go with the bloody stuff.

5/10

Yes I truly gave this flick an 8. Well done movie for a B Flick. Fixated Oedipus Complex Matthew, imagines every woman to be his mother from as early as 7.... leaving nothing but blood for every poor soul that dares to touch a woman or a woman that dares to like being touched, if you know what I mean. From murder, to theft to hostage holding . This film features a villain that is truly a villain in the true sense of the word. Just a teen but evil beyond his years, Matthew with his hook hand delivers before Freddy,Saw and of course Jason. We have a highly , intelligent bad guy here that dresses to impress so to speak, murdering into upper class. Good acting and done mostly in PG mode. Would have liked some R action with maybe some gratuitous nudity . Still, a nice unexpected surprise .

They don't make 'em like this anymore. Scream Bloody Murder is about as cheap and gritty as they come and filled with gore and performances that might be more comfortable on a community theater stage . Despite some setbacks, it's a intriguing story and it's got some good surprises up its sleeve and a serious mean streak.

Scream Bloody Murder is all about a young boy who loses his hand in a tractor accident and grows up to kill his parents and anyone else who angers him before focusing on a woman, kidnapping her, and holding her in a large house as his girlfriend.

The film does lag in it's 2nd act once the lead has captured his prey and the whole thing starts to feel like a claustrophobic stage play, but it picks up some steam at the end and even sports an appearance by Angus Scrimm (the Tall Man from the Phantasm films).

"Scream Bloody Murder" gets right down to business. A young boy runs over his father with a tractor before accidentally running over his own arm, and that's before the opening titles have rolled.

From there, the film becomes reminiscent of the John Fowles novel and subsequent movie "The Collector." After being released from an institution, the boy quickly does away with his mother's new husband and then the mother herself, meets a perky prostitute with whom he falls into a chaste kind of love, and keeps her captive in a mansion he's broken into so that no one else can have her. As I've written it here, the plot seems to make plenty of sense, but it doesn't necessarily cohere in the actual movie. The movie only does a half-assed job of addressing the psychological mother issues that motivate our main character, but that's probably for the best, since an attempt to be more ambitious would likely have strained the intellect of the people who made this movie and would certainly have strained the acting talents of the people in it.

In any objective sense, "Scream Bloody Murder" isn't a very good movie. But it managed to disturb me quite a bit despite that. It is creepy, and bad acting aside, there are some moments that chilled me to the bone, especially in the movie's last half when we're subjected to the prostitute's mental and then physical torture. During a dinner scene when the boy is forcing her to eat the steak he prepared for her and she refuses to eat more, he tells her he will cut out her tongue if she doesn't comply, and I know I for one certainly believed him.

Grade: C