Silent Scream reviewed by-Xander Kane.

SILENT SCREAM-Review by Xander Kane.

Hello Good people,
I would like to introduce and thank the man Xander Kane to the Blog,
Please find below his review of the underseen Silent Scream,if you haven't seen it i would suggest you do,its a good one!
Take it away mr Kane!
Jonny T.

The Silent Scream 1980


Directed by: Denny Harris

Starring: Rebecca Balding, Cameron Mitchell, Avery Schreiber, Barbara Steele

A young college girl is looking for a room to rent out for the semester. After a frantic search she finds a nice house near the ocean. The house is owned by an older woman and her son. There is also 3 other college kids renting rooms in the same house. These characters are your average college kids. The old lady keeps herself held up in her room and does not come out much. Her son Mason who also seems to be college aged is your nerdy stereotype. There is also a cop in the film but to be honest he is pretty forgettable. He is there to serve his obvious purpose in the film.

The film seems to use tension opposed to bloody kills. It's pacing as a whole is pretty slow but not enough to lose interest. The fact that it has some pretty mild kills is surprising. After all when you think of an 80’s slasher you think tons of nudity and gratuitous violence. Just like most films there is a small love story but it seems its only purpose is a nude scene. It was quite pointless to moving the plot along. It does not harp on the love story very much so don’t worry. The tension sometimes seems to drag a little too much. It is an early entry into the slasher genre and a forgotten one. You strongly see the influence of Alfred Hitchcock. Especially the setting in which the film takes place. It is very much like Psycho. And it makes the film very effective in setting the mood at times.

The reason this film does not flop is because of the director. In the wrong hands this could have been a disaster. He just managed to pull off some great camera shots and picked the perfect location to tell the story. Denny Harris died in 2007 at the age of 76. The only film that I could find to his credit is Silent Scream. I don’t know why he never directed anything else. For this to be his first film it definitely showed promise of a good directing career.


Even though it is slow at times the length of the overall film is fine. As a whole it is well shot, well acted, and well written. Sure to please most of your slow burn and many slasher fans. It is a shame that more people haven’t seen this film. In a genre that became over saturated with teens having sex and doing drugs and then getting brutally murdered. This offers something much less mindless. The creepy vibe that you get at times is a great feeling that I had almost forgotten. Many slasher films seem to miss the mark on setting this kind of tone. This is more for someone who enjoys slow burns and simplistic plot. Especially for anyone who is a Barbara Steele fan.
Xander Kane 7/10

SILENT SCREAM TRAILER.