Silent Scream (1980)

I got this tape from a small box lot on ebay. The synopsis on the back was pretty vague and very brief. I could not tell if this was a slasher movie or a haunted house or a thriller or what. Only one way to find out. My girlfriend the Cub has had to put up with this many times. I'm referring to when I pass over a movie that is obviously good (has cannibals, or killer apes, or sexual deviants) for the ~mystery tape~. Here is what I say to Cub.

"I don't know what this is, can we just put it on and see."

"What kind of movie is it?"

"I don't know."

"How can you not know?"

"It doesn't say."

"Well did you look it up on the internet?"

"I did, but I forgot what they said... Let's just put it in and if you don't like it, we can change the tape..."

Often the movie sucks, but we suffer through the whole thing. My fault totally, especially when I use my other technique to get Cub to watch a ~mystery tape~.

"It's supposed to be good."

"Did it get a lot of stars?"

"Um no, but people said it was good."

"Who said?"

"I'm not sure, someone.."

So I ruin Cub's life by subjecting her to some bad movies, she won't stand for the ones shot on video anymore, but as long as the movie is from the seventies, she is a good sport. She even pays better attention than I do.

Anyway, I love Cub too much as you can see, but I'm not done talking about her. The movie Silent Scream has the actress Barbara Steele in it, the actress who most reminds me of my girlfriend. She first appeared in horror films in 1960, in dual roles as the female lead and the villain in Mario Bava's Black Sunday. By my calculations she must have been 23 at the time and so was 43 in Silent Scream. I'm not good at math, but I know she is still alive today. Rumor has it that my old roommate has her autograph. I only have autographs of Jay-Z, Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Eminem, and Joe Strummer, but no horror stars. Actually, that's a lie, my Dad and I got Linda Blair's autograph one Halloween and presented it to my Mom on Christmas. This was strange because my Mom has no idea who Linda Blair is, but that is my Dad's sense of humor for you. I thought it was pretty funny. Next time I go home, and it's been 2 years plus since I've been there, I'll ask my Mom if she can find that autographed head shot we gave her maybe twleve years ago. It may be easier to find then my autograph collection which hopefully did not get thrown out with piles of ripped-up magazines that one of my pets shit all over. The Joe Strummer autograph, I gave that to my sister, since she liked the Clash more than I did. I asked Joe Strummer to draw a star on the paper and he seemed to think that was weird, but I had just seen him draw a star on another kid's 'Clash on Broadway' box set! I'm not making fun of Joe Strummer, he was a super nice guy, and perhaps the coolest celebrity to meet.

Anyway, Silent Scream is a slasher in a boarding house. The house has a secret stairway that leads to locked rooms where an unknown figure lurks. All the best action scenes and twists are in the last twenty minutes of the film. The weakest scene is a rip-off or tribute to the Psycho shower scene that takes place in a laundry room, with a clothesline as the famous shower curtain. I liked Silent Scream, and I think I'm smarter than I was before, for having seen it.



My tape looks the same as this, but it's blue, and from the Media label.
The Barbara Steele fan site, titled of all things, 'Silent Scream'. Yes it's named after this not-so-famous film.

Barbara Steele at cultsirens.com