The Screaming Skull

My sister & I had searched for this movie to see it again after we had nightmares for weeks after seeing this movie some 35+ years ago. I finally founding looking in a database in a video store computer and ordered it. You have to lighten up your screen some, to see all that goes on, and parts of it are too funny now---but it's not a bad premise for a scary story, and images like the skull in the bridal gown I will never forget. I now have to find the 1973 version of this film. I'm curious also to see the double feature---the DVD has a schlocky 70's vampire movie as the 2nd feature. So seeing it this summer after waiting over 30 years for it? It wasn't that bad.

OK, I could easily bash this film for its many...many flaws. Looking for scares, then steer away from The Screaming Skull. Aside from a scene where you hear knocking on a door with or by a skull, nothing in this film is even remotely chilling. The story is the biggest problem as we know what is going to happen way before it happens. No creativity here. The acting could be a lot worse though for a movie of this type. Lead actor Tony Hudson is below average, but everyone else is at least mediocre. Well, that means the other four in the cast of the entire film. Peggy Webber, busting out literally, plays a woman that was scarred seeing her parents drown as a child. Now, she moves into her new husband's estate where his wife died under questionable means. We then find out he has no money of his own and his new wife is loaded and has a history of mental hysteria. Where is this film going I wonder? Though it is short on scares, has grossly cheap special effects, and a story with virtually no "flesh," The Screaming Skull is one of those fun, bad movies to watch. A lot of other viewers were bored with all the talking, but I found the incompetence in this film quite charming for some inexplicable reason. Director Alex Nicol, also playing the "not-quite-there" Mickey, uses what few resources he has and at the very least makes a film with some unity and flashes of mediocrity at times. I have seen much, much, much worse!

This is an underrated film that seems to get more than a fair share of movie bashing. Some of this might be due to the warning at the start of the movie. Viewers are offered a free funeral if they die of fright during the showing of the movie. That offer does raise your expectations to an unrealistic level. There is no place to go from there but down. The scenes themselves are not ghastly or bloody. It isn't supposed to be that kind of a scary movie. "The Screaming Skull" is more of a psychological thriller and mystery movie. You have to remember the time this came out. Back in the late 50s, in a dark theater this was scary stuff. Compared to today's movies it's a little slow and is overshadowed by the graphic nature of modern horror films. This movie wasn't badly done. It's just a little outdated. It's still a decent movie and will probably remain popular with the movie fans of 50s horror. I think it holds its own enough that it's still a decent horror/mystery movie but it can't live up to the warning at the beginning of the movie. Watch this one remembering when it was released and forget that warning.

Yes, the acting in this isn't that great. Yes, the director plays one of the characters, which is pretty much always a bad sign for a horror movie (Glen or Glenda, Eegah, Incredibly Strange Creatures, etc.). Yes, the entire storyline is fantastically predictable and has been done a thousand times. And yeah, the special effects are really, really terrible. And no, it did not scare me enough that I was able to take advantage of their free funeral offer (Does that still hold for DVD's?) But other than that, it really wasn't that bad. So, a rich woman who was formerly in a sanatorium moves into her new husband's old home. His old wife had died there, in a way that the pastor takes every care to explain is suspicious. Then she starts seeing creepy things while her husband is away all the time. I guess there aren't really spoilers here because I'm not TECHNICALLY telling you anything, but anyone who's watched enough of these movies should know the rest by heart. But really, except for a few moments and one really annoying gardener, this manages to keep up a pretty good atmosphere. I thought that it wasn't bad for what it was. Definitely not 2.7

I can't believe the low rating this great film has gotten!

I remember watching "The Screaming Skull" on the late show (when TV actually showed decent stuff) and it scared the living hell outta me. It disappeared from TV, and of course years later having found it on video, it's not gonna scare me under the covers but it's still one of the best and most clever horror films of the 50's.

The plot is good enough - the ghost of a man's first wife haunts his new wife in their super-large house. But the film has a lot of great horror elements that work in its favor - the big house, the creepy house grounds, the grave on the grounds, the path through the woods area, the "odd" person (the gardener), the howling wind, the noisy windows, the scary painting, and much more, especially the skull that keeps on showing up all over the place.

The husband is the guy who played the husband in "50-Foot Woman" and he's just as good here. All the other actors/characters are just fine (there aren't many as the whole film takes place at the house), especially Mickey the Gardener, who loved the first wife (as a friend) and still talks to her as if she was alive.

The whole film has great horror atmosphere, one of the best instances ever of such I believe. There are many genuinely creepy scenes in the film, with the topper being the final incredible sequence, especially when the husband hears the knock on the front door. The look on his face is absolutely priceless as he goes to answer the door. Even after seeing the film so many times, when that door knocks, and the husband's face shows pure fear because he probably knows what's behind it, and he slowly goes to answer it, still gives me shudders!

It's great that "The Screaming Skull" is on DVD. This film definitely deserves a lot better than the films it often gets lumped in with.