Screams of a Winter Night

This flick is way better than the garbage Hollywood produces today.

I think to truly enjoy this movie you need to be interested in indie horror low budget films. You won't get no Gone with the Wind out of these old films. The stories were interesting, but a little bit more needed to be explained in "The Green Light" story. What was it? The ending could've explained better too. Anyway, this is better than the low budget shot on video trash you end up getting at Blockbuster. I hope this finds a re-release on DVD and in a cleaned up letterboxed format if possible.

Superb regional horror film about a group of friends who go on a weekend excursion to a lakeside cabin in the wilds of Louisiana. Once there, they start telling each others various "true" stories of the macabre. The place they're staying happens to have a morbid history of it's own, but is it really true? I had been wanting to see this film for many years, but with the tape being exceedingly rare, it took a good while before I got the opportunity. After finally checking it out, it rapidly became my new favorite anthology.

The first story, "Moss Point Man", is a combination of bigfoot tale and old urban legend. It's the weakest of the lot, but it's short. The second bit, "The Green Light", is the best as three fraternity pledges must spend the night in an old building where a mysterious green light has been seen emanating from the upper floors. This one has a unique ending and some creepy moments with the guys hearing sounds from the floors above them. The third and final tale, "Crazy Annie", involves a girl who goes crazy after an attempted date rape. The story is typical, but it's well-acted by the main girl.

That said, this is the only omnibus I've seen where the wrap-around segment is actually the strongest aspect of the picture. The area our characters are staying is said to be plagued by an Indian wind demon. The opening credits are very effective as one family's encounter with the malevolent entity plays out via sound only. Once our main group arrives, John, the one guy who know about the place's history, shows another guy the old house and graves of the family. This is another unsettling scene, one that gave me a "Blair Witch" vibe.

As the film plays out, the wind builds and builds, culminating in a terrific ending. There's also some intriguing subtext about the nature of scary stories and the basis behind them.

A cheap and unknown, but scary horror movie about some teens who travel to a cabin, deep in the forest. On their way to the cabin they get some warnings from a local drunk who scare them with ghosts and other horrible things which took place there some years ago (I wonder if the people behind "Friday the 13th" got some inspiration here). Inside the cabin and around the fire place the kids start to tell scary stories about a blood-thirsty female student and a legend of an Indian ghost. This stories is what the movie mostly is about, but in the end the teens find them selves right in the middle of a rather unfriendly storm which seems to come from nowhere.

Recommended for horrorfans which liked Friday the 13th.

With an incredibly bad first half filled with unlikable characters and boring stories, this movie does a complete turn around in its last half. Primarily an anthology film with numerous stories being told at your stereotypical cabin in the words by your stereotypical adults playing teens, complete with the nerd, the sexist jock, his lover and Mistress, the unlikable female friend, the cool guy and his girlfriend and a bunch of others ready to die screaming when the film deems it time. Sadly the stories don't live up to the wrap around one and it's insanely over the top finale. But its that last 10 minutes or so filled with pure bad movie insanity, including over the top acting and screaming, outlandish effects and crazy lore that will leave you so in shock you will feel you've seen a so bad its good masterpiece. Unfortunately it's not quite so, it's very very tedious in set up, it's bad print will have you questioning flashes on screen, it's actors choices will have you rolling your eyes, and it's side stories can feel like major slogs to get through. Still, it's something that needs to be witnessed, especially by those brave souls who truly love trash.

This is certainly no award winner, but I was very pleased to have found out the name of this film. For many years, I've had a memory of a particular scene where a guy has gone bonkers and is clawing at a green light bulb that is covered in cobwebs. I located it at a local video store (to think, they've had it all these years!). I saw this with my sister and her friend during one a horror movie marathon at our little local two-screen cinema back when I was only 6 or 7 years old. It scared me to death! In watching it recently, it has some spooky parts, but it's definitely not the horrific movie of my memories..... All in all, it's a low-budget trilogy of spooky stories....