Scream Bloody Murder

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!...

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.

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.

Even before the opening credits roll "Scream Bloody Murder" lives up to its title.

Little Matthew(Fred Holbert, in his only film performance) decides he digs his father better dead, and apropos of absolutely nothing, runs him over with a tractor. Even more inexplicably, he manages to mangle his own arm in the process.

Sent away to a mental institution for many years he comes home a teenager with a hook for a hand and an axe to grind(literally) with his mother and new stepfather who soon die painfully for having the unmitigated gall to get married and seem happy about it on the very day he came home from the loony bin.

He then goes on an all out run.... away from the mother of all Oedipus complexes, cutting a bloody swath through everyone he meets, from a young couple giving him a ride out of his small town, to whoever happens to stand in his way.

Meeting painter/hooker with a heart of gold Vera(Leigh Matthews, a two film wonder), things look up a touch for our protagonist. He compliments her art, renames her Daisy,brings her flowers, and kills a john for treating her poorly. If that isn't love, he doesn't know what is.

Desperate to impress and to make good on his claims of wealth and success to fulfill his weird white knight fantasy of "saving" Vera/Daisy, he murders the entire residency of the closest fancy house he can find, kidnaps his lady love and steals from locals to provide her with all the creature comforts you could possibly need while tied to the stolen bed of a psychopath. The resulting action/reaction struggle of Vera/Daisy's survival instincts and Matthew's manias eventually lead to a quirky but extremely satisfying bloody climax, proving the old adage of "where ever you go, there you are".

This film is amateurish on near every level (hammy acting, garish color, jerky cinematography, thin as gossamer plot) and the print that has passed into public domain and an epic ton of multi movie DVD sets is blown out and grainy.

However, "Scream Bloody Murder" succeeds almost in spite of itself. It doesn't bother with overambitious story touches it wouldn't have had the budget for, keeps the plot moving quickly, the body count mounting tidily and the dialog simple. Holbert rips through his campy lines with delightful abandon, and Ms. Matthews manages to be appealing enough to root for despite being little more than a cliché archetype. It isn't trying to teach us moral lessons or have pretensions to high art. It's the mania, madness and mayhem fans of the genre want to see....and while it is often goofy, it is never boring.

By going further than is necessary at every possible turn, the creators of "Scream Bloody Murder" managed to polish their turd into an excellent bloody Valentine, and a forgotten little gem of B film.

6.5 stars

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).