Scream – and Die! – promoted as Scream and Die – is a 1973 British horror thriller film directed by Spanish filmmaker José Ramón Larraz [as Joseph Larraz] (Symptoms; Vampyres; Deadly Manor) from a screenplay by Derek Ford (Corruption; Don’t Open Till Christmas, The Urge to Kill). Production company Blackwater Film specialised in sex comedies and this was their only horror genre entry.
The BBFC cut the UK release for an ‘X’ certificate on 30th August 1973, although their website provides no details of the censorship.
In the United States, Hallmark Releasing distributed the film as The House That Vanished, Psycho Sex Fiend and Please! Don’t Go in the Bedroom.
Main cast:
Andrea Allan (Dead of Night [TV series]; Vampira), Karl Lanchbury (Whirlpool; Deviation; Vampyres), Maggie Walker, Peter Forbes-Robertson (Island of Terror; Night, After Night, After Night; Doctor Who), Judy Matheson, Annabella Wood, Alex Leppard, Lawrence Keane, Edmund Pegge.
Reviews:
“The film is filled with many telling visual motifs, including countless shots of people peering through windows and cameras that bring to mind Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). As a model, Valerie is constantly the subject of voyeurism from the photographer who takes her photos, the audience who watches her primp and pose and finally the director himself.” Kimberly Lindbergs, Cinebeats
” … a strange entry into the world of British horror, more of an Italian giallo-style movie than a typically British horror film. It’s livened up by a few shocks and some very sexy scenes, but is an ultimately flat and uninvolving experience. As a lead actress, Allan is highly decorative, but sleepwalks through the whole film, seemingly unimpressed at the carnage going on all around her.” British Horror Films
“The film is sharp. The mystery builds at a slow pace that will please the viewer depending on their taste. Regardless, it’s hard to beat a film that has a naked girl with a monkey! It’s a little strange and slightly erotic in intent.” Horror Domain
“This is one of those illogical thrillers where you want to throttle the characters because of their stupidity. There is so much gratuitous nudity that eventually you may find yourself saying, “oh, no, here comes those boring boobs again.” Then again, you might not.” Gary A. Smith, Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956 – 1976
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“Whereas in his better films Larraz uses the ‘old dark house’ cliche and does something new with it, here it’s simply a location. Similarly, in those films he draws unsettling parallels between sexual and violent urges, and between love and obsession, here he merely uses sex and violence as titillation.” Cooler King, Cinema Delirium
“There are really only two or three significant events in the film; the rest is back story and padding…” Horror Express
“The absurdist of red herrings is provided by a neighbour who wears a black coat and gloves even indoors. The only truly effective scenes are those with a collection of birds kept in the basement, their fluttering wings nightmarishly intruding upon the heroine’s dreams.” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror
Choice dialogue:
“They were in the shadows the whole time.”
“She was knocked about, raped, and then strangled with a belt. Which all goes to prove the murderer had plenty of time to identify her.”
“A lot of people dislike old country houses.”
IMDb | Image thanks: Cinema Delirium | Temple of Schlock
Working against the bumbling and misdirected actions of the adults, the four students devise a plan to capture the beast and claim a lucrative bounty that will finally allow them to escape the confines of their backwards hometown.
