HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Scream for Help Diabolical Dad
Year: 1984
Director: Michael Winner
Stars: Rachael Kelly, Marie Masters, David Allen Brooks, Lolita Lorre, Rocco Sisto, Corey Parker, Sandra Clark, Tony Sibbald, David Baxt, Bruce Boa
Genre: Thriller, TrashBuy from Amazon
Rating:  4 (from 1 vote)
Review: Ever since the mother of Christie Cromwell (Rachael Kelly) remarried, her daughter has been suspicious of her new stepfather (David Allen Brooks), but hasn't been able to prove any wrongdoings he may be up to. Christie's mother (Marie Masters) is a rich woman, and the girl believes that her husband is after her fortune, to the point that he's willing to kill for it. This belief is only strengthened when Christie returns home from school to find that the wiring in the house suddenly gone faulty and electrocuted a handyman, making her think her stepdad was trying to electrocute her mother, and that's not the only plan she thinks he has up his sleeve...

Michael Winner does Alfred Hitchcock in Scream for Help, and by "does" I mean makes a mockery of his style and plotting to conjure up this laughable would-be thriller, which was scripted by Tom Holland, the future creator of Fright Night. There are parallels between the vampire story and this one as they both have a teenage protagonist who leaves the grownups unconvinced when they say there are potential dangers afoot thanks to someone they know, but while that outright horror film had a nice line in humour, the laughs here stem from the generally ridiculous tone and frequent plot developments that we are asked to swallow.

Of course, there was one eighties movie where the killer stepfather idea went like a dream - or a nightmare - and that was, well, The Stepfather, but this is definitely not in that league. Winner was well into his phase of crassness by this time, and between his Death Wish sequels he took the same dunderheaded approach to what might have been an atmospheric little chiller. It's not all his fault, as England doubles unconvincingly for America, the cast seem all at sea and go for outright caricature when all else fails, and the script has a wealth of lunacies that when filmed in the cold light of day simply appear ludicrous, such as when Christie's best friend is deliberately run over and killed after admitting she is pregnant.

Evidently this type of movie's equivalent of the cop thriller's policeman with one day left to go before he retires, there. For some reason the police in this don't find anything suspicious about the friend's demise, not even when Christie tells them she knows who did it: stepfather Paul, naturally. In spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, everyone over the age of eighteen is sure of his innocence, although the girl goes to great lengths to prove otherwise and eventually discovers that Paul is part of a gang of three, with two scuzzy individuals, Brenda (Lolita Lorre) and her husband posing as her brother Lacey (Rocco Sisto). This trio go to quite some effort to secure the cash, to the point where it would be impossible for them to get away with the crime.

So the last half hour of this is Christie and her mother being terrorised by the gang in their own home, apparently not thinking to pick up the phone to the law when they noticed them walking up the driveway. If you were being generous you could say that as we are seeing everything from Christie's point of view, so events are exaggerated to the stage where the adults are conspiring against her, but really there's not evidence we should be taking this on anything but face value. Still, there is the mayhem to appreciate, with the teen relying on her ingenuity to best the baddies, as Winner's relish for violence had by this decade descended into self-parody. What is not quite so satisfying is the scene where her best friend's boyfriend painfully relieves her of her virginity - and he's supposed to be sympathetic. Missteps like that abound, so you do tend to be rolling your eyes as much as much as laughing, but Scream for Help is just stupid enough to be entertaining for bad movie connoisseurs. The music by John Paul Jones, let's say, is an acquired taste.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 5133 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 

Michael Winner  (1935 - 2013)

Opinionated British producer-director whose early comedies - You Must Be Joking, The Jokers, I'll Never Forget Whatsisname - were promising enough, but come the seventies he had settled into a pattern of overblown thrillers.

Of these, Death Wish was a huge hit, and Winner directed two similar sequels. Other films included horrors (The Nightcomers, The Sentinel), Westerns (Lawman, Chato's Land), thrillers (Scorpio, Dirty Weekend) and disastrous comedies (Bullseye!). Also a restaurant critic.

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
  Stuart Watmough
Paul Shrimpton
Darren Jones
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
   

 

Last Updated: