The House that Screamed

If you watch enough movies, you can tell within the first five minutes if you’re in the hands of someone who really knows what they’re doing.  There’s a personality behind the camera, storytelling with visual intention rather than just coverage.  Hitchcock is the most obvious example but he didn’t have a copyright on the technique.  Spanish writer/director Narciso Ibanez Serrador, after the success of his Twilight Zone-inspired TV series Tales to Keep you Awake, moved to the big screen for 1969’s La Residencia, a gothic-giallo combo that pulls out all the stops, echoing the sexually-repressed films of Luis Bunel and predating the Italian wave of sexy thrillers. 

As the new student in a tough-as-nails boarding school, Teresa (Cristina Galbo) has her work cut out just trying to survive the everyday cut throat female politics.  But there’s also a killer on the loose, luring away troubled girls and covering up their disappearances as escape attempts.  The headmistress, Senora Fourneau (Lilli Palmer) is caught up in her own personal drama, taking out her repressed urges with violent punishments and keeping her teenage son under lock and key.  Turning young women into ladies becomes secondary to teaching them to survive!

 

La Residencia is masterful filmmaking on nearly every level.  Genre fans will note the similarities to certain Hammer Film formulas and Argento’s Suspiria right away, but Serrador got there first and delivers much more than extravagant lighting and murder sequences.  His film is so full of sexual tension there’s a near-constant flush of angst and anticipation.  This is horror for adults, for those who appreciate emotional conflict and much as the physical sort.  And it’s every bit as effective at both.

 

Packed with religious subtext and overt expressions of repressed sexuality, the film is a literal powder keg attached to an hour and 45-minute cinematic fuse.  All the gothic trimmings are in place, but Serrador modernizes his approach with clever editing, freeze frames and music cues that are as innovative as anything produced by the Hollywood New Wave of the ‘70s.  The murders are impactful rather than exploitive and still provide a shock.  A few narrative stumbles set the stage for an unexpected protagonist switch that is truly unexpected.  Even the theatrical version released by AIP as The House that Screamed, trimmed by nearly 15 minutes, is genre filmmaking that rises well above the bar.

 

With a brand new 2K restoration, Arrow Films release looks considerably better than the previous Scream Factory release, which used SD inserts to create the extended cut.  It’s seamless this time around with a new audio commentary, new interviews, alternate footage, fold-out poster and collector’s booklet included as extras.

 

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembodied visions of his ex-lover who refuses to go quietly into the afterlife.  And
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annabelle West is named the sole beneficiary…that is, if she can be proved sane afte
Read more

Impulse

Image
William Shatner, for all his ego and arrogance, always seemed comfortable being the butt of a joke.  His career outside of the  Star Trek  franchise was a bumpy road of corny TV shows and enjoyable B-movie dreck.  But he never delivered anything less than 100% “Shatner!”  Like 1974’s  Impulse , a regional drive-in quickie directed by William Grefé ( Stanley, Mako: Jaws of Death ) that casts the once and future Captain Kirk as a psychologically troubled con man whose childhood trauma leads to a string of murdered women.  After dumping the body of his last victim in a Florida canal, Matt Stone (Shatner) is on the prowl for another financial windfall, this time using a phony investment scam to entice Ann (Jennifer Bishop) into a romantic relationship.  But when Ann’s daughter, Tina, is witness to the murder of his business associate (Harold “Chop Top” Sakata), Matt has to clean up his tracks and speed up his escape plan.  That includes silencing Tina…and whoever else gets in his way.   Ta
Read more