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DEATH
SCREAMS
PLOT
A young, lovemaking couple sit by a river. As a train passes overhead,
so does a rope over their heads, as a stranger strangles them.
Dead their bodies fall into the river... The bloodthirsty psycho then
sets his sight, on a group of teenage friends. He stalks them while
they attend the town's carnival, and proceeds to follow them after they
leave to party the night away by the town's river, and graveyard.
But bad weather sends them to shelter in an abandoned house, where the
psycho awaits... with his machete!!!
REVIEW
Also known as "House Of Death", this rather rare 1983 slasher, while being
a little slow, hits the viewer with some gory highlights, and a strange plot.
The plot is basic slasher...sex crazed teens+isolated location/psycho with
weapon =death. But a few things add a slight layer of originality to the
proceedings. The locations used are all different (a river shore, a town
carnival, a graveyard, a local pub, and an abandoned house) and actually
look good, thanks to cinematographer Darrell Cataract (who also did it for
one of my slasher favs FINAL EXAM). His work builds up a creepy atmosphere to
the small town, where shots of bodies floating down a river, are intercut
with the happiness of a carnival
A major bad point against the film is the acting, which almost destroys any
atmosphere set-up. Ex-Playboy Playmate, Susan Kiger makes an ok heroine as Lily,
whose only major contributions to the film is, the telling of a ghost story
(the "Drip Drip" story), and the revelation of the killer. An overweight Sheriff
turns up, as a bit of law enforcement, as do the usual clichés... the retard,
the jock type (here a baseball coach) and the slut (here a waitress, who takes
a turn at skinny-dipping). Their are also a bunch of other people who are part
of the group of friends, but they are hardly referred to by name, and only have
something to do when they die.
The set-up of the film is a tad slow, and nothing really happens till around the 40,
around the skinny-dipping slut gets her throat hacked out. Before that we are treated
to the carnival, the death of a total stranger ( who pops up and within minutes she has
an arrow in her back and is being suffocated on an abandoned carousal ?), and
one of the most confusing deaths ever (especially when you find out who the killer
is). But the film does take time to get to know Lily (slightly), and feature a couple
of cool stalking scenes (especially one where the slut is nearly hacked in a backyard,
but doesn't notice a thing). But once the teens arrive at the graveyard, everything
quickens up, and more people start to die. A great scene is where a poor girl falls
through some stairs, and has her belly stabbed by the killer.
While the makers could of worked slightly better with the story line, the film
does show a lot of promise...especially in it's settings and last 30 mins (once they
get in the house).
GORE
While being rather cheap...the gore presented here is all good. You get
treated to a throat hacking, a couple of decapitations, bloody strangulation's,
belly stabbing, and a neat scene where a guy gets both his hands chopped
off. The killer also gets stabbed, falls out a window, gets impaled on tools in
a shed, and then finally gets his head blown off.....GOOD STUFF.
SOUNDTRACK
Rather good little score by Dee Barton (who also scored Play Misty For Me).
The happy carnival tune is slightly annoying, but overall the score works well,
and helps add suspense to some scenes.
BOTTOM LINE
Overall this is a neat little slasher package, while a tad slow and quite confusing,
the gore, locations and atmosphere, make this flick cheesy enough put on top of
a pizza, and good enough to sit down and have a fun time watching it. Just don't
go in expecting an unknown slasher classic (JUST BEFORE DAWN), or you may be
severely disappointed :)
Review
By: Schizo
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