Scream Bloody Murder

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).

Scream Bloody Murder (1973)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Matthew (Fred Holbert) is a deranged young man who has a serious mother issue. He kills his father with a tractor but when he goes to get off of it he ends up getting his hand caught in it. Now with a hook on his hand, he gets out of the hospital and is enraged when he learns that mommy has married a new guy. He soon hits the road slashing up various men and women who he feels are bad.

SCREAM BLOODY MURDER isn't a perfect horror film or even a good one but there are certainly enough interesting moments to make it worth watching if you're a fan of the genre. It should go without saying but Matthew here has bigger mommy issues than even Norman Bates and watching his madness was part of the entertaining and especially early on in the picture where this thing is basically a slasher way before that term would become popular.

The first forty-minutes or so basically has Matthew meeting a variety of people and eventually getting upset at them for a variety of reason. This causes him to lash out and kill whoever he is upset with. None of the violence is overly graphic or bloody but the scenes are certainly effective with some clever editing. The second portion of the film has him falling for a prostitute (Leigh Mitchell) who he wants to try and make "good" but when she doesn't want to play that he decides to kidnap her and hold her hostage.

Holbert's performance isn't one that I'd call good but there's a certain rawness to it that makes it work in this low-budget tale. The performance almost seems like a real person and thought the weakness of the performance actually helped a little. Mitchell was good in her role as the prostitute and the two of them worked quite well together. The biggest issue with the film is the entire second half as there's just not enough drama or suspense to make up for the lack of killings. Still, SCREAM BLOODY MURDER is an interesting little gem that is worth watching.

The action begins with a young boy climbing onto a field tractor and running his dad over, then losing a hand himself when he jumps off and runs over his own arm. He's sent to a sanitarium and emerges as a young adult with a hook hand (Fred Holbert) years later, but with major mental problems. He goes on a grisly killing spree and ultimately keeps a prostitute (Leigh Mitchell) prisoner in a house. As far as sick and depraved psycho slasher movies go, this one delivered the goods and was uncompromising in most of its gore scenes. For what it's worth, PHANTASM's Angus Scrimm has a very small role as a doctor late in the film, and he's just terrible. I got a kick out of seeing a movie marquee that was playing "Charlton Heston in The Omega Man" in the background of one outdoor scene. **1/2 out of ****

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

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!...