Silent Scream 1980 Denny Harris

Aren't slasher movies great?  Maybe it's because I grew up in the '80's that I have such fond memories of those movies, the Friday the 13ths and Nightmare on Elm Streets that came out every year like clockwork, and then played continuously on HBO and Cinemax for years afterward.  I even love Happy Birthday to Me and April Fool's Day.  I'll watch them all, no matter what.  A few years ago, I saw a trailer for this movie on one of the 42nd Street Forever compilations (love the commentary) and I knew I had to see this.  Thanks to Netflix Instant, now I have.

This slasher movie doesn't have a holiday theme like so many of them do.  It's just about 4 college kids who are renting rooms from a creepy lady and her creepy son.  There's two boys and two girls, and they pair off fairly quickly ( the first night there, in fact).  After a night of drinking and a walk on the beach to their new house, one of them is killed.  That brings in the cops.  Here are the cops:

That's Avery Schreiber in the first photo.  You may remember him from such terrifying things as The Muppet Show and Love, American Style.  Both of these things make him the perfect choice for a hardbitten, no nonsense cop.  Here - look at him again....

Nope, I don't see it either....

The other guy is Cameron Mitchell.  He was an American actor who was stuck on TV, so he went to Italy and got tons of roles in Spaghetti Westerns and Giallos.  But he came back to America for this movie, and we are all better for it.

Anyway, after I got over having the least cop-like actors ever acting like the least cop-like cops ever, the movie got pretty good.  One of the characters, after the first murder on the beach, even says to another character, "Hey, you wanna go swimming?"

At which point the other character says, "You wanna go swimming?  Even with the murder that just happened?"

Then we get the classic comeback, "Hey, I moved into this house because it was on the beach.  I'm not gonna waste it!"

And then they go swimming....near where their friend was just murdered less than twelve hours earlier.....Awesome.

But then just when you think it's going to become completely predictable and boring, Silent Scream  throws in a few curveballs which totally make it worth your time.  You won't be able to figure it out right away, and it even serves up a little Nazi themed repression out of left field.  Basically, it goes a little batshit crazy towards the end, but in a good way.  You should definitely check it out.