The Silent Scream is an enjoyable early golden-era slasher film. As it was made early on in the slasher boom, it's got a little different flavor/tone than some of it's more well-known brethren. Ostensibly, it was made to ride the coattails of Halloween, but honestly it's almost more of a mystery-thriller akin to Psycho rather than an outright slasher.
And it's got a pretty solid cast to boot. I ended up with it as a random recommendation from the algorithms at Netflix, so I was pleasantly surprised with getting not only Cameron Mitchell and Barbara Steele, but also Rebecca Balding (who I really liked in one of my recent favorites The Boogens). So from the credits on up, I was hopeful.
And it mostly delivers. The Silent Scream has a decent amount of tension and a pretty good story. It's about a young college student named Scotty (Balding) - she is desperate for a place to live as she has transferred to school just before the semester starts. Somehow, she comes across a nice big house on the coast with rooms to rent, and manages to snag a room. She has three other housemates renting rooms in the house - rich guy Peter, hot guy Jack, and other girl Doris. Also at the house? The homeowner Mrs. Engles, who is apparently ill and needs it to be quiet, as well as her slightly strange son Mason. And maybe someone (or something?) else... Then, as you may guess, our young renters start turning up dead. Will the cops (including Mr. Cameron Mitchell and his awesomely mustached partner) be able to find the killer before he strikes again? Will any of our young renters survive? Tune in to find out!
There isn't one thing that really sticks out about The Silent Scream... there isn't any one big "aha" moment, great scene, or great performance that gives it its own identity. It's just pretty consistent across the board. It's adequately disturbing, well-directed, and well-acted. It's almost too bad that there isn't something that makes it stick out more - a particularly memorable kill or crazy performance would probably make it more fondly remembered.
It's not really a "fun" film by any means. As a modern viewer, I think you mostly expect the victims to mostly be assholes or idiots - people that you kind of want to see killed... a lot of times, you are rooting for the killer. That is not the case here. You actually end up liking these kids, and the backstory is really more tragic than anything. There isn't much humor to the proceedings - one of the roommates is kind of a joker, but otherwise this is a pretty moody, bleak film.
It's not going to win over any gore-hounds though. Yeah, you get some bloody knife stuff here and there, but this still a late 70's slasher - there are no crazy prosthetic effects or anything like that. Most of the time, you get the Psycho treatment - the knife being lifted up into the frame, then stabbing down out of it, again and again. More than once, you actually get some of the signature Psycho stings that accompany the stabbings too. I'm not sure if there is any copyright laws that pertain to that, but The Silent Scream has got to come pretty close to violating those if they exist. And while it mines some of the same thematic ground as Psycho (with family playing a big part), The Silent Scream isn't a rip-off by any means. More like a nice homage.
I am a bit curious as to why director Denny Harris didn't ever end up making any more films. As I said, The Silent Scream is very competently made - it looks really good, and Harris has a good command of the camera and gives the audience a good concept of the layout of the house (which comes into play more than once). The Silent Scream ended up being his sole film credit.
A little wikipedia research says that it had a "tumultuous post-production process where a large portion of the film was re-shot." I guess this would make some sense - considering he gets top billing, Cameron Mitchell is not featured very prominently in the film. (I love the guy, but I don't know if he's enough of a name to market a film on his own, especially if he's just in a handful of scenes.)
Overall, I liked The Silent Scream. It's got a decent atmosphere and is serious enough to be an enjoyable diversion from your typical slasher films.
I would recommend this film.
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