mark.waltz Review of The House That Screamed

The House That Screamed (1969)

The Old Dark School....and no mystery.

[4/10 · 16 October 2016]

This film is a real puzzlement. It sets itself up to be a potentially good little thriller but I couldn't decipher a plot, only elements of a story with really no conflict, just a dark atmosphere with unhappy people. Dour school head mistress Lilli Palmer has no reason to be as dour and imperious as she is, although she is in charge of this student body which consists of mostly young women with noted disciplinary problems. One particular student is involved with her young son who locks himself in the grates between the boiler room and the girl's showers and can't get out. Several of the girls have supposedly run away, and a few others are part of Palmer's disciplinary team, holding one girl down as she gets a whipping. That's pretty much all there is as far as story, what little it is, more occasionally a few tense individual moments exposing the various secrets of the girls, structured with eerie music and sound effects over the dark photography. Yes, the scene with the young boy stuck is cringe worthy to those suffering from claustrophobia, and a last minute gruesome murder is also shocking. But I just expected more after an interesting set-up with the follow up a total let down.