The House That Vanished

Valerie and her boyfriend Terry witness a murder in an old abandoned house. They had heard the sound of a car arriving and they hid themselves. A couple had come in. They could only see the girl because He remained always in the shadow. She undressed herself and sat on his lap. Suddenly a switchblade flashes out. She's stabbed to death.

Valerie in her panic rushes blindly out of the house. Outside she waits for Terry. He doesn't come. Then she hears footsteps. Again she runs and runs.... Somehow she manages to get home in the morning.

In London Valerie goes back to her routine. She tries to contact Terry, be he's disappeared from sight. And worst of all, when Valerie looks out of her window she sees Terry's car parked in front of her house. The killer knows who she is and where she lives! When Valerie speaks with her friends about it, they advise her to not contact the police. After all Terry is a shady dealer, and she could get involved in a very nasty business. But what happened to Terry? Is he still alive?

The killer is stalking her, and he will strike again...

By the description, you could think that "Scream and Die" is a very suspenseful thriller. But you would be wrong.

"Scream and Die" (the title is misleading) should be seen by those that like a weird atmosphere: the thick fog that envelops the house when Terry and Valerie arrive there, Valerie's friends and neighbors, the early 70s mood, the subtle and effective soundtrack, and the bizarre! Most viewers will guess from the beginning who the killer is. But that's not really important. I enjoy "Scream and Die" because it's atmospheric and feels natural (characters and environment), but it is at the same time dreamy, and sometimes surreal. The beautiful and delicate Andrea Allan is Valerie. She is a joy to behold!

If you like the films of Larraz this is another one to add to your collection

THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED is pretty good atmospheric psychological thriller. I had very little hope for it when I started watching this Larraz film. To make matters worse, the video transfer is very dark, grainy and the sound had some weird looping technical glitch. I quickly thought then that the movie flatlined from the get go, certainly during the scene with the woman undressing in front of the killer, which was a tad ridiculous. But when the movie ended, to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it. The film is not the greatest ever made and there are a lot of faults to it (pacing is one of them) but the atmosphere is very good and the story is more about the intertwining aspects of location and identity than horror or violence. THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED reminded me a lot of Mario Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON. It's like a twisted soap opera. This film deserves a better transfer, on video or DVD, than the one that's for sale on eBay (from Media), which I bought for 50 cents!!!

The throat-grabbingly monikered 'Scream and Die!' aka 'The House That Vanished' (1973) is another relatively obscure, José Ramón Larraz 70s horror excursion that is entirely undeserving of its current ignominious position of lost title. All the requisite, Larraz terror-traits are in abundance here, luridly libidinous, scantily clad buxom lovelies, creaky, dimly-lit, doom-laden domiciles with some elusive, sexually 'unusual' maniac enthusiastically slaying a series of shrieking, tantalizingly top-heavy females!

The Giallo-esque plot of some sordidly sinister, shadow-stalking, black-gloved killer rarely strays from convention, but where the estimable, Larraz succeeds, and many other genre filmmakers so often fail is that he manages to excitingly generate a palpably erotic and decadent tone amongst all the heavy-breathing, gleefully gory 'gash and slash'. Complementing the sublime plenitude of fecund, candle-lit décolletage, he also darkly infuses the admittedly generic premise with ominous oodles of genuinely unsettling Gothic motifs. After reading a few glibly dismissive reviews of 'Scream...and Die' I really wasn't expecting much, but contrary to low expectations, Larraz's warped, twist-headed thriller proved to be an uproariously entertaining terror flick with a scintillating series of deliciously sinister set pieces that managed to evoke a sweaty-palmed, Poe-like sepulchral chill. My positive opinion hasn't changed in 15 years, when in Samhain is this fine psycho-slasher going to be restored?

SCREAM...AND DIE! (or "The house that vanished" (1973))is the unknown piece of horror and sex that the master José Ramón Larraz did in England in the seventees. It's an erotic thriller with psychopatic murderer (Karl Lanchbury) perfomed by a beautiful model called Valerie (terrific Andrea Allan)involved in a haunting mistery and sadistic murders occurred in a isolated manor in the forest at midnights. Scream and die has an excellent and very particular quality in images and atmosferes. The movie is slow, yes, but this thing is normal in Larraz's movies: the story is very slow and predictable, but it's too sexy (the love scenes are really good and erotic) and brutal sometimes, and has the mark from the director of masterpieces as "Vampyres" and "Symptoms", both from 1974. The fog, tne night, the sounds of the killer walking with his black gloves following Valerie, the anguish in her face in her firsts shots, the slowly music give to the film a personal sight. The first murder seen by the hidden Valerie and husband as intimate witnesses and the escape from the manor are a classic composition of horror shots, wonderfully executed by the "voyeurisitic filmmaker" with a rare and genuine talent. It's a really brutal moment of sophisticated murder and "naïve" sex. Scream and die has the very personal "touch" of the catalanian director, all the constants that are in the most part of his baroque, sensual and horrific world (Emma puertas oscuras,La muerte incierta,Vampyres, Symptoms,Estigma,Whirpool, Deviation or Deadly manor) are present in here. The spiral of terror and tension grows very slowly -step by step- describing the world of this sexy model for fashion photographers in a continuated state of danger. Larraz creates a really personal style in a very traditional thriller that must be remembered by the tension,the british locations in Kent in winter,the quiet and dead moments of inusually fascination, the use of the photography, the artistic colors and the incredible dark shots of nights, the typical "english" fog, the horror moments and the clever sex that impressed me a lot in my adolescence. Scream and die has a kind of elegance in the horror genre that others horror thrillers hasn't. All the personal obsessions of José Larraz are here in a fine lesson of cinematography in his best period of his career, the british period. The fans of José Larraz need to know his firsts features, as "Whirpool" (1970) and "Deviation" (1971)-nobody has said anything more specific about these movies? (Please: more information and reviews in IMDB or other places,webs, etc.) and his last contribution tot the terror lately in "Deadly manor"(Savage lust, 1990)produced by his old british friend Brian Smedley-Aston. When the fans of José Ramón Larraz, Brian Smedley-Aston (editor of "Performance" ,etc.), his actresses and his horrific world will have a web or a personal page about the director? Where are the fans of this spanish/british filmmaker?. Goodbye!

The House That Vanished (1973)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Model Valerie (Andrea Allan) is with her rather worthless boyfriend as they drive around in the fog. They come upon a house and the boyfriend goes inside to steal from it but soon the two of them witness a murder. The next day Valerie manages to get back home but she hasn't heard from her boyfriend and she fears that he's dead so with the help from a friend she tries to track down that mysterious house.

José Ramón Larraz's THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED is a film that seems to be remembered thanks in large part to its American promotional material. The trailer and poster of the film played off the same tagline (It's Only a Movie... It's Only a Movie...) that made Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT a hit. The promotional material on this film is quite impressive and it's clear that it worked because the film gained a cult following despite the fact that it's really not that good.

There are some good things to be found here with one of them being the atmosphere. I thought the director did a nice job at building up a rather sinister atmosphere and this here was without question the highlight of the picture. Another nice thing was the fog and its thickness as the couple drive through it. I thought these scenes were rather effective and the idea of a house being hidden by the fog was something I liked. I also thought Allan was quite attractive and helped keep you somewhat glued to the film.

As far as the rest goes, it's pretty bad. The worst thing about the film and what eventually kills it is the fact that the pacing was just awful. The film has a very slow pace, which is fine if you're able to capture some sort of slow-burn but that's not what happens here. The film continues to grow more and more boring as it comes to an end and what's worse is the fact that it's really not too hard to figure out who the killer is. We're treated to some bloody violence and plenty of nudity but this here can't stop the boring feeling.

THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED wasn't as awful as some make it out to be but there's no question that the atmosphere was wasted.