PLOT
The town Oldfield has an eerie past as related through four tales of it's dark history
REVIEW
"Welcome to Oldfield...."
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM begins with a prison execution set in the town of Oldfield, Tennessee, where we meet reporter Beth Chandler among the attendees witnessing a doomed inmate receive her final sentence. Afterwards the reporter pays a visit to town librarian and uncle to the recently deceased, Julian white, played by none other than one of our biggest legends in horror, Mr.Vincent price. As it turns out Oldfield has a rather sinister history to it, as made evident by the four macabre historic Oldfield tales he shares with the reporter:
.Stanley Burnside: Old, Silver white hair, coke bottle glasses, depraved, chock-full of perversion and a severe fixation on a girl named Grace, he eventually receives his comeuppance for taking his obsession to the extreme
.A wounded man is found and cared for by a lonely shack-living good Samaritan, who seems to display signs of immortality, the man's greed and selfish nature overtake him as he sets out to learn the secret for himself
.Carnival glass-eater Steven is at the mercy of his tyrannical boss, her voodoo incantations, and his love for one of his spectators
.Civil-war era tale of adorable cherub-faced kids and their sanguinary hijinks
In Horror cinema, A favorite sub-genre of mine is the anthology film: Trilogy of terror, Creepshow, Tales from the crypt(1972), Nightmares, Cat's eye, 3 Extremes, Twilight zone: the movie, Black sabbath, Tales from the darkside: the movie, Trick 'r treat, Two evil eyes, Body bags, (most of which will eventually receive their own reviews in the not too distant future) are great examples of how you can cram multiple stories and different concepts within one creative effort and make it work
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is another fine example, and serves the format quite well, the film is nothing near ambitious and at their core the stories are quite simple, but they are effective. If anything that simplicity is what I value most out of this film, it never sets out to out-gross, preach, educate, or serve any other purpose other than to tell gruesome tales, and these are quite gruesome. Much like the classic EC Comics "just desserts" most of the offenders get what they deserve in true horror fashion
THE GOOD
.There are several instances of great gore, although nothing on the creature front except for one brief but hilariously awesome exception, which to me is a highlight of the film as it initially took me by surprise, I only wish they would have ran along with that twist a lot more, it seemed notable enough that they based the film's original "official" title on it (THE OFFSPRING)
The town Oldfield has an eerie past as related through four tales of it's dark history
REVIEW
"Welcome to Oldfield...."
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM begins with a prison execution set in the town of Oldfield, Tennessee, where we meet reporter Beth Chandler among the attendees witnessing a doomed inmate receive her final sentence. Afterwards the reporter pays a visit to town librarian and uncle to the recently deceased, Julian white, played by none other than one of our biggest legends in horror, Mr.Vincent price. As it turns out Oldfield has a rather sinister history to it, as made evident by the four macabre historic Oldfield tales he shares with the reporter:
.Stanley Burnside: Old, Silver white hair, coke bottle glasses, depraved, chock-full of perversion and a severe fixation on a girl named Grace, he eventually receives his comeuppance for taking his obsession to the extreme
.A wounded man is found and cared for by a lonely shack-living good Samaritan, who seems to display signs of immortality, the man's greed and selfish nature overtake him as he sets out to learn the secret for himself
.Carnival glass-eater Steven is at the mercy of his tyrannical boss, her voodoo incantations, and his love for one of his spectators
.Civil-war era tale of adorable cherub-faced kids and their sanguinary hijinks
In Horror cinema, A favorite sub-genre of mine is the anthology film: Trilogy of terror, Creepshow, Tales from the crypt(1972), Nightmares, Cat's eye, 3 Extremes, Twilight zone: the movie, Black sabbath, Tales from the darkside: the movie, Trick 'r treat, Two evil eyes, Body bags, (most of which will eventually receive their own reviews in the not too distant future) are great examples of how you can cram multiple stories and different concepts within one creative effort and make it work
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is another fine example, and serves the format quite well, the film is nothing near ambitious and at their core the stories are quite simple, but they are effective. If anything that simplicity is what I value most out of this film, it never sets out to out-gross, preach, educate, or serve any other purpose other than to tell gruesome tales, and these are quite gruesome. Much like the classic EC Comics "just desserts" most of the offenders get what they deserve in true horror fashion
THE GOOD
.There are several instances of great gore, although nothing on the creature front except for one brief but hilariously awesome exception, which to me is a highlight of the film as it initially took me by surprise, I only wish they would have ran along with that twist a lot more, it seemed notable enough that they based the film's original "official" title on it (THE OFFSPRING)
.VINCENT PRICE - While his presence is reduced to the wrap-around story it is no less what you'd expect from a horror legend, even with the simple role that he was given he dominates the film by just being Vincent fucking Price. A common footnote about this movie is Vincent Price's thoughts regarding the film, which were not favorable, calling it "terrible", it's a shame, but at the very least he was no less brilliant than before in roles past, in what turned out to be one of the last movies of his career
.The kids in the 4th story - It's always impressive to see little kids act well and especially when the job entails being villainous as well as, in this case, deal with some pretty morbid shit, they made playing "Pin the severed arm on the dead body" look natural
THE BAD
. Having only one director - This film is directed by Jeff Burr, who has overseen other Horror cuts such as LEATHERFACE: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, PUPPETMASTER's 4&5, and the truly abysmal PUMPKINHEAD II: BLOOD WINGS. In films such as these I consider it best when multiple directors work on the individual stories, giving each tale it's own flair. I feel in this case it would have definitely improved the film, the director did the best he could but perhaps a nice solid directing team would have catapulted the movie even further
THE FINAL CURTAIN
In short, FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is a solid entertaining horror movie, a hidden gem among the pile of bodywork from the great era of 1980's Horror cinema, certainly worth a watch, and if you enjoy necrophilia, voodoo, blood and psychopathy in your horror movies, you wont be disappointed
RATING 6.5
*Available on NETFLIX instant streaming
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