Scream and Scream Again (1970)

 

So the initial post on this site is a 1970 shocker that features three classic horror icons, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. In a bit of a surprise, they each have relatively small roles, at least when it comes to screen(or scream) time. Cushing is out in one scene, and Lee has maybe three or four. Price is a little more prominent but if you timed the scenes out of a 95 minute movie, I’d be surprised if it added up to much more than ten.

Regardless of the three stars, this film is really odd for one main reason, the story lines seem schizophrenic. There is a fascist country with near Nazi like iconography, and one of the Military Officers, appears to be climbing the ladder of power by killing those who question his methods. Meanwhile, in Great Britain, a serial killer is on the loose, picking up girls and then physically mutilating them, including draining them of their blood. We also have patients in a mysterious clinic, being dismembered, one limb at a time, and we don’t know who is doing it or why.

Most of the story follows a police procedural, as a pathologist works with the detectives, to try and capture the serial killer. A by-the-book inspector connects one of the victims to a Dr. Browning, the Vincent Price character, who seems to have some medical research that he is engaged in on his estate. Later, when they have laid a trap to ensnare the killer with a decoy, that suspect ends up suspiciously at Dr. Browning’s property.

The 1970s trappings include a club scene with a rock band. The music is not memorable and everyone seems to be struggling to dance to it. We never really see much of the murders, just a little bit of the aftereffects. There is however a very lengthy chase scene and cars run through the countryside and towns at a reckless pace, but there is not much more than that. When the suspect runs across the farmlands and into a mountain wall, there is a little bit of excitement but it was still odd.

The best scenes in the film suggest the terror that the story wants to provide. A woman is to be tortured, and we are shown the instruments to be used, but not their application. The patient in the clinic, can’t get any response from the nurse and he is losing limbs every time she comes in. The serial killer manages to escape his handcuffs in a way that would make “127 Hours” seem more reasonable. Does it all come together in the end? Sort of. There is a connection between the stories but it feels like a contrivance and the end of the film plays with the notion that there might be a sequel, or at least, we have more to dread.

The only nudity in the film came from an as yet unanimated corpse that is moved from a storage area to an operating table and then back. There was nothing titillating about the scene and the only shocking moments concern a vat of acid, that does not seem to offer any gruesome moments to give us nightmares. I accessed this film on Tubi, and watched a few commercials, but the film seemed unedited. The best thing about it is that it is short.