User Reviews

For a SyFy movie, then I think that "Scream of the Banshee" was well over the average movies that they produce. This movie was actually well worth watching.

The story, albeit a bit weirdly and hastily tossed together, worked well enough despite it all. There were some really questionable things in the story, such as the coincidence that the ancient map was a map of their basement, and also the reason for Broderick Duncan's dismissal from the school. Just seemed like they needed a quick way to tie the ends together in the movie, and this seemed like the most plausible and best way to do it (insert buzzer sound here)! Despite the flaws in the storyline and events, the story was driven by a constant flow, and you want to see what happens next. So they did manage to do something right with the story after all.

I liked the concept of the banshee, though I had a somewhat other impression of a banshee than what was portrayed here. Yeah, I am damaged from years and years of playing Dungeons & Dragons. I got my banshee knowledge from here. I am not overly familiar with old Irish legends and lore, so I didn't really have much information (aside from the RPG stuff) about the banshee. But still, the end result in the movie turned out to be quite nice.

The cast in "Scream of the Banshee" was actually quite nice, although they did use Lance Henriksen to draw in the viewers, and he didn't have that big a part in the movie. But hey... The movie was in great parts carried by Todd Haberkorn (playing Otto) and also by Lance Henriksen (playing Broderick Duncan). This is not to say that the others in the movie were bad, just that these two were the ones pulling the heaviest load.

Moving on to the creature in the movie; the banshee. They actually managed to portray a really good image of such a creature - if one does believe in them! I especially liked the head in the box, that one looked awesome. There were times when the banshee had materialized that it looked really good as well, but there were also times where it was bordering on being painful to watch. And I am not sure how I feel about the last stage of the banshee, where it had no eyes. That was a bit too "alien" for this type of movie.

Don't be too hasty to write "Scream of the Banshee" off just because it is a SyFy production. It was well worth my time to sit down and watch it, and I was thoroughly entertained throughout the entire movie. Just take heed that even though the movie is labeled as a horror movie, don't expect to get overly scared out of your seat.

Come on now, let me hear you scream...

In 1188 A.D., in Limerick City, Ireland, Templar Knights chase a creature through the woods and trap her head in a box.

In the present days Professor Isla Whelan (Lauren Holly) and her two assistants are researching and labeling historical artifacts in the basement of the university where she works and they find an Irish glove and map with the name Duncan. Isla's estranged daughter Shayla Whelan (Marcelle Baer) finds a hidden space behind a wall with a box with the severed head, but they believe that it belongs to deformed person or an animal. Out of the blue, the head screams and they all bleed through the ears. They learn soon that the head is from a Banshee and in accordance with the mythology they are doomed to die. Their only hope is to find the lunatic and discredited Professor Broderick Duncan (Lance Henriksen), whose expertise is in the feminine spirit in Irish mythology.

"Scream of the Banshee" is an awful and boring, but never scary, SyFy horror movie. The messy screenplay is lame, with poor characters development and explanation of the Banshee mythology. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Gritos do Além" ("Screams from Beyond")

This TVfilm was a real turkey sorry Steven Miller. It begins with an horse chase a couple of Irish temple knights is chasing a woman on horse. Suddenly one of the knights throws away hes cross like shield and it turns into a box cutting the head of the woman. And now Presentday Somehow this Irish box gets into an American school behind a fake wall. And the students and Prof Ira (Lauren Holly) opens the box and hell breaks loose. The thing thats make this TVfilm so bad is the effects the banshee head is so fake. All the heavy noise that just makes the ears wanna take out divorce. No no no. As I say in the Summary this is "the scream of the viewer" for someone to turn off the TV.

I almost rated this lower because Afterdark should know better - films like "Crazy Eights" were inexcusable in their second year, and in their fifth, here's another film entirely as cliché and uninspired as any of those big-budget "horror" films regurgitated into cinemas in the last few years.

Actually, whereas many "Ring" clones feature mysterious deaths before the protagonist starts investigating, this time the characters are investigating weird happenings before they know anyone's dead.

And also the film focuses on several characters, not just the protagonist and love interest, the main threat is represented with practical effects rather than CGI, thankfully, and, um... oh, they're investigating exactly where the banshee came from instead of trying to determine why this creature exists, and...

Actually, that's probably every difference between this and your average "Ring" clone. Not that bad, albeit definitely not scary and very disappointing for a film that's supposedly horror festival material.

Can't say something bad. From beginning till the end it's interesting, but not very entertaining. What makes you wanna see the movie is definitely trailer & in the end it's worth it: not too much blood, some horror, some violence & interesting story. What makes it interesting? - Сourage. I mean courage of conclusions withing the story. Idea: 8 of 10. Trailer: 9 of 10. After watching trailer - you surely wanna see the movie. Esle: 3 of 10. I didn't liked technical side of movie, but I did liked actors performance & musical themes of movie. After watching the movie - you surely wanna see only trailer. Don't judge me, it's my first review.

In 1188 Ireland, some warrior horsemen chase and attack a red-cloaked figure. Obviously "Screaming Banshee" of the title, the pursued rider is brutally murdered. Flashback over… In the present, California college professor Lauren Holly (as Isla Whelan) is archiving some old relics. She happens upon an Irish gauntlet, which assistant Todd Haberkorn (as Otto) decides to wear. Also found is a metallic box, hidden behind a wall. The gauntlet opens the box and out pops the Screaming Banshee. Well, she doesn't exactly pop out, at first, but her spirit is released. To stop Screaming Banshee, Ms. Holly and her archivist team must seek out help from hammy old Lance Henriksen (as Broderick Duncan)...

In some early scenes, the Screaming Banshee looks intriguing and frightful. But, by the end, budget constraints have turned her into a very silly-looking monster. There is almost nothing given about the Banshee to make her interesting. Having a good moment here and there, relatively new director Steven C. Miller is either unable to interpret a good story, or improve upon a bad one. Some of the later sets look nice, but this is a hopeless Syfy TV Movie. With nothing much to comment on, daughter Marcelle Baer is most valuable player in the attractive cast sweepstakes. Her boyfriend Garrett Hines has great muscles. Perhaps most noteworthy is the creative pluck of Mr. Haberkorn's eyebrows.

*** Scream of the Banshee (2011-03-04) Steven C. Miller ~ Lauren Holly, Todd Haberkorn, Lance Henriksen, Marcelle Baer

Scream of the Banshee (2011) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows an archeologist who uncovers an ancient box with the head of a banshee inside. When he takes his artifact home to research it he discovers how deadly his artifact is...

This movie is directed by Steven C. Miller (Silent Night) and stars Lance Henriksen (Pumpkinhead), Lauren Holly (Dumb and Dumber), Eric F. Adams (Autopsy), Todd Haberkorn (Fairy Tale) and Garrett Hines (Black Lightening).

This movie has some potential with a good setup for the storyline and Lance Henriksen's involvement. The head was well done, the masks and makeup were solid and there's some good self mutilation scenes in this. Unfortunately the jump scares are weak, the acting and script are terrible and the movie ends up being really bad.

Overall this is another bad After Dark movie that I'd recommend skipping. I'd score this a 2/10.

Having a cool title and premise does not excuse a filmmaker from those making decisions that weaken their movie. Overzealous editing, camerawork, and lighting are no substitution for judicious storytelling or direction; cheap jump scares are altogether gauche. Scene writing and plot threads still need logical through lines from A to B, or at least through B to C, to tie a picture together. I'm given to understand that director Steven C. Miller wanted to make a darker feature than the intended television premiere would allow, and also that he took inspiration from mid-century genre flicks. I can see glimpses of both these elements in his thinking - in some of the practical effects including blood, gore, and props; in the narrative advancement that drops kernels of supernatural horror piecemeal as the tale comes together. Unfortunately, the end result doesn't particularly measure up in any capacity: despite all due earnestness in the production, 'Scream of the banshee' mostly just falls flat.

I don't think anyone's efforts were outright bad; I see the hard work that was put into this. I see what Miller wanted to do. But in one way or another every contribution just ended up being misguided. While practical effects look great, digital creations are, shall we say, less than seamless. The first time we see the titular creature it looks fantastic, but the special makeup and costume design somehow seem increasingly inauthentic as the length draws on; why change what didn't need to be? Andrew Strahorn's cinematography and Miller's editing are technically proficient, but exercised to wrong ends, trying to artificially heighten the horror violence but instead only overcooking it. Ryan Dodson's score is enjoyable in and of itself, but is employed in ways here that make it seem over the top. The production values are weirdly inconsistent; from one scene to the next the fundamental image before us might bear a different look and feel - sometimes exactly on point, at other times bearing the appearance in different ways of having been filmed in front of a green screen even for simple exterior shots, if not having been computer-generated outright. Miller's intent as director was true, but he takes cues from other genre flicks of the early 2000s, including TV movies, that severely reduce the best potential. The cast give the best performances they can to realize the material, but the combined effect of every other facet is to force them into a corner that strips away nuance and tact. Poor Todd Haberkorn seems to have suffered the most in this regard.

For all this, however, Anthony C. Ferrante's screenplay is surely the chief weakness. There are some genuinely good ideas in the writing, but by and large Ferrante's work is sadly a scattered mess. Characters should have been more than just empty shells; dialogue is mostly terrible, and sometimes cliched. In both these regards, I feel bad for Lance Henriksen, because his part has the dubious distinction of representing the worst writing of anything in the whole feature. Scene writing (and Miller's realization of it) is too often ham-handed and overdone, sometimes testing the limits of good sense or suspension of disbelief (example, watch for an early scene in which three characters obliviously walk past something on the floor). Like an old house that needs to be remodeled, the plot has good bones - yet the meat between those bones is in desperate need of revitalization. Some individual story beats are questionable; threads between beats and scenes are sometimes thin and falling apart. There is, after all, a complete story told herein, but it struggles to feel cohesive or even coherent as a substantial amount of Movie Magic is involved to weave everything together. It's a lot to try to take in.

I don't altogether hate 'Scream of the banshee.' I see what was put into it; I see what it could have been. As it stands, however, nothing quite fits together; the efforts of all involved are just slightly mismatched from what they should be. I wish Ferrante only the best, and I trust that he has grown in his skills as a writer since this was made, but his screenplay needed significant rewrites. I don't absolutely regret watching this film - I'm just disappointed. Good ideas; no major success in any fashion. My kindest regards to all who had a hand in this, and I hope to see more of what they can do elsewhere. 'Scream of the banshee,' however, is just not the fun horror romp it might have been.

Judging from the lack of information available about "Scream of the Banshee" (like budget and such) I expected a B-C class film (regardless to the IMDb rating and complaints by the spoiled snobs who like to whine online). I got exactly what I expected, but nothing less.

First of all, being a Horror fan, I always like seeing such combinations of sub-genres, in this case the supernatural Ghost Story and Monsters sub genres. Second, as a fan of D&D and fantasy RPGs, I was very happy to find a film about a Banshee!

The screenplay is pretty good, with a worthy enough story - but the script is sometimes amateur to the point of being painful to listen to. The acting is mostly good, except for Lauren Holly who simply lacks the charisma necessary for her character. The effects were mostly good considering the estimated budget (though the Banshee's face was very clearly a mask, and the giant hand coming out of the screen was almost a cartoon).

All in all, if you start watching this and expect a masterpiece, you'll be disappointed, and it will be your own fault. However, if you choose not to be too uppity and try this film expecting a low budget Monster flick - you'll have a pretty good time and enjoy a few well made scares, just as I did.

'SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE': Half a Star (Out of Five)

This B horror film was released as part of this year's (2011) 'After Dark Originals' series in theaters and on video but it was also originally released on the Syfy Network (which co-produced the film) as an original 'Syfy Network' TV movie. I didn't know this before watching the film and I kept thinking to myself while watching it that it was so bad it was almost like a 'Syfy' TV movie! There were also some dead giveaways during the film like fade outs, that would only be done for TV breaks, and abrupt music changes (at the same points). So going into the film with expectations of seeing a cool indie horror film picked up by 'After Dark' studios built me up for quite more and resulted in a pretty annoying disappointment. As far as 'Syfy' films are concerned I'd say it's about average (I think they produce the worst sci-fi and horror films imaginable and are a representation of one of the lowest points in modern cinema though).

This stars Lauren Holly and Lance Henriksen (in a glorified cameo) and boy have the mighty fallen. It was directed by Steven C. Miller and written by Anthony C. Ferrante and Jacob Hair. The story revolves around a banshee let loose in the world by an archeology professor, Isla Whelan (Holly), and her two students, Otto and Janie (Todd Haberkorn and Leanna Cochran). It was captured and beheaded in medieval times and now the head has turned up at Whelan's lab in a mysterious metal box. The head quickly starts screaming before it blows up and those that hear the scream (Whelan and her students, as well as a security guard) are caught in it's spell and will be destroyed by it, but not until they scream too. Whelan traces the box's origins to a Professor Duncan (Henriksen) and must track him down and figure out how to stop it before it kills them all.

In my opinion there's nothing fun or entertaining at all about these Syfy original films (well almost nothing). The special effects are always atrocious, the acting even worse and the dialogue and directing are almost non existent. What I hate probably most about these movies though is the God-awful musical scores. Music can do a lot for a film, good or bad, and with these films they take something pretty bad and make it even more unbearable. The music to these movies often annoy me to the point where I almost want to shut them off. These films are so poorly produced I'd say they're about on the same creative level as your average porn. There might be a tad more story and character development but not much. I hate these movies and the fact that 'After Dark' studios picked one up and marketed and distributed it as part of their series is disgusting.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSwub5D8YiE

Just in case you also occasionally wondered whatever happened to that gorgeously cute Lauren Holly after she starred in "Dumb and Dumber" (I know I have), here's your answer! She's still a very ravishing lady, albeit nowadays old enough to portray the mother of rebellious and irritating adolescents, and she picks out the most horribly incompetent film scenarios to star in. This made for TV (ugh!) flick, produced by the morons of Syfy channel (ouch!) is dull and derivative straight from the beginning, and just to make things even worse, it gradually get more nonsensical, inane and dreadful when approaching the finale. Holly stars as an archaeologist teacher who stays behind in school during summer, along with a couple of students including her own insufferable teenage daughter, to clean up the basement. In a sealed off room, they stumble upon a mysterious box that naturally must be opened. It contains an – admittedly rather cool looking – decapitated head of a medieval old hag that somehow remained intact. But then the head awakes and her scream causes your ears to bleed and your mind to implode! From then onwards, professor Whelan and her students are non-stop terrorized by nerve-wrecking screams and bloody hallucinations in which they witness their friends and themselves die a horrible death. The curious artifact once belonged to the obsessive (and fired) previous archeology professor Broderick Duncan, so Whelan and her crew sets out to find him. There's absolutely nothing of interest about "Scream of the Banshee"… The titular creature is a truly fascinating mythological being (originating from the Irish folklore), but unfortunately there are hardly any good movies tackling this topic. The 70's flick "Cry of the Banshee", starring genre veteran Vincent Price, is the best so far, but certainly not a masterpiece. This particular one is ultimately forgettable. There are a lot of bloody and gooey killings, but the make-up effects are too obviously fake and artificial, and the plot is completely devoid of tension and/or atmosphere. How embarrassing for the nonetheless very talented Lauren Holly. Lance Henriksen also pops up in the film, but at least we are used to see him in inferior and downright retarded movies and he also openly admits that he accepts certain film roles solely to pay for his speeding tickets and the alimony

well, story was half chopped off!

where she was from why and how! very weak character personality of professor, 2 death around of same group and police is like dumpster just cleanup rest of body parts!

that weird search engine made me laugh, no hazardous check before opening some important item with vibration give me a break.

with prof with only 2 students! what a prof!

in total well its just insult to poor banshee!

i just keep watching hope for some one actually make script for scary or syfy movies!

yes its good to use low angle dark position to scare people but after while it get boring and kissing of prof girl wont much help you know!

The cast and concept seemed interesting, but I was dubious seeing that it was low budget and that it was SyFy. As far as SyFy movies go, it is far from their worst, but it is not one of their better ones either. The cast aren't terrible, but the only ones really to come above their material are Lucy Hale and Todd Haberkorn. Marcelle Baer is not bad either, but her character is written poorly, while the casting of Lance Henriksson promised much but mainly because he is only on screen for ten or so minutes his efforts seemed wasted. The banshee was rather fake sadly, though the scream was terrifying, and the choppy editing and artificial-looking effects don't help. Neither do the hackneyed scripting, the dull, predictable and ridiculous story, the lack of any real terror or suspense or the annoying stereotypes for characters. Overall, not a complete waste of time but still pretty lame. 3/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is a complete mess on the execution of it. I like how the movie uses a banshee as its villain because that's an interesting type of spirit that is rarely used. The way she executed here is poorly done because they use her for mostly cheap jump scares, and her backstory isn't that flesh-out. Also, the characters experienced nightmares from her with aren't that interesting or creepy at all. The actual story is nothing too interesting, with the characters being haunted by her after hearing her screams. It's pretty predictable throughout and is not that enjoyable to watch. Also, some scenes feel like they are dragging itself way too long. The climax itself is underwhelming and not that suspenseful at all. The ending mimics the Raiders of the Lost Ark for some reason. Also, the screams from the Banshee get pretty annoying and obnoxious throughout.

You know, every once in a while, Syfy brings in an original movie that is actually really good (i.e. Dinocroc vs. Supergator, Maneater, Wyvern, Sunshine, Goblin, The Final, Splinter, Headless Horseman and maybe a few others). This has been added to that list.

Now, this isn't your average Syfy monster stalks and kills movie Syfy always puts in. This is a psychological thriller movie with great acting and some really scary stuff and a lot of blood.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a psycho-horror movie by Syfy. They will most likely never do that again (considering the next movie of the month, Ferocious Planet) so see this while you can. Its actually pretty scary. Not horror movie scary, psycho-horror movie scary.

One of the surprisingly few horror movies to feature a Banshee. Lauren Holly plays a university professor, who - with a couple of students - is working on an artifact cataloging project. An anonymous delivery containing an ancient armoured gauntlet and a hand-drawn map of 'section 3' - a rarely used university storage area - leads to the discovery of a false wall, behind which is a large metal box. Before you know it these genius's have released the spirit of a screaming Banshee (captured in Ireland by the Knights Templar in 1188 AD). But this Banshee doesn't warn of impending death; she goes around actively killing people with her scream. But in order to die, YOU have to scream too. If you can stop yourself doing that, you're fine! Well, you're not dead, at any rate.

This is an After Dark/Syfy co-production - and looks it. A prologue of slow-mo Templars on horseback hunting-down the Banshee is pretty atmospheric; but once the action shifts to present day it all starts to look very low-budget. Honestly, it could pass for an episode of Warehouse 13, or any of those supernatural shows (I could believe this was conceived as a pilot). The general plot is okay, but the details are lacking, with much unexplained. The dialogue too is REALLY bad in places (and not helped by some 'variable' acting). Earlier designs of the Banshee are good, but as the film nears its climax she becomes more monster-like in appearance (again, no explanation), and looks embarrassingly bad. And whilst most of the effects are practical, there is some AWFUL CGI.

This would have been better made in the late 80s/early 90s. It could fit right in with the vibe of Evil Dead or Night of the Demons (it would just need more gore, better makeup - and probably nudity!). Very poor. 3/10.