From A Whisper To A Scream

From a Whisper to a Scream (1987)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Jeff Burr

Starring: Vincent Price, Susan Tyrrell, Clu Gulager (RIP), Terry Kiser, Rosalind Cash

From: Conquest Pictures

Note that I posted two reviews tonight within a few minutes of each other. With that noted, here is me tipping my cap to the late Clu Gulager.

Perhaps I could have waited to see this until the spooky season coming up in a week and a half; as I have many ideas in mind for what to watch September and October (although little is set in stone yet) it is alright for me to pay tribute to the late actor now. Some of his best-known work in the horror field (the second Nightmare on Elm Street, and arguably his most memorable role, in The Return of the Living Dead) I’ve already reviewed here so I went with something that has a decent amount of views on Letterboxd. Plus, watching at least one anthology AND a film featuring Vincent Price will actually be done for spooky season this year.

The framing story: Price-in his last horror role; I’ve heard different accounts on if he liked the role or even wanted to do it-talking to newspaper reporter Susan Tyrrell about his niece Martine Beswick, who was just executed for being a serial killer. As she first killed as a 7 year old (!) she is naturally someone of interest to the media. Instead, he tells her how their town of Oldfield, Tennessee was apparently built on cursed ground as many bad things have happened, which is done with a recounting of several stories

Old Clu is the star of the first story; he’s a socially awkward dude named Stanley who is a caregiver to his sister and tries to date his much younger lady boss. Lest you want to root for the chain-smoking Schaefer Beer drinking character trying to hook up with her, things go badly and Stanley does some rather gross things so no, he’s in fact a villain. Still, Clu is swell in the part, as expected. The other tales are set in decades past and they are brought to life in a satisfactory manner, even with an apparent small budget.

As with all anthologies, they vary in quality and as w/ most, there’s a variety present. Here, there are carnivals (named after Lovecraft, who is an author you should only like for his stories and NOT his personal beliefs… but let me not even get started on that controversy), voodoo, and the American Civil War. Of course, there are multiple dream sequences-and even a dream within a dream at one point-but those are easy fake-outs, I suppose… the movie is rather mean-spirited so there’s that. The score was also interesting; at first it sounded like something from Carpenter then it did manage to fit each segment. In addition, it was nice to see some other familiar faces, such as Terry Kiser, Rosalind Cash, Lawrence Tierney for a minute, and Cameron Mitchell.

It's not a must-see among even 80’s horror anthologies, yet was still a fun time for me despite some flaws. The Deep South setting (it was actually filmed in Dalton, Georgia) does add some nice flavor. The director and one of the writers both went on to bigger projects… the former-Jeff Burr-directed a few Puppet Master films and also Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (a movie I like more than most) while writer Darin Scott did the same for Tales from the Hood while producing that, To Sleep with Anger, the first Stepfather sequel and even Menace II Society.