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"Hammer House of Horror" The Silent Scream (1980)
7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A Claustrophobic and Sadistic Tale, 15 July 2006
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
When Chuck Spillers (Brian Cox) is released from prison, he tells his wife Annie (Elaine Donnelly) that he had been visited by an old man, Martin Blueck (Peter Cushing), along his sentence for robbing a safe, and Blueck had given some money for him to help a fresh start in life. On the next morning, Chuck pays a visit to Blueck in his pet shop to thank the support and is invited to work for him feeding his animals in his private zoo while he is traveling. Blueck explains that he trains animals, conditioning then to obey some signals. A couple of days later, Chuck sees a safe in the store, and decide to open it, being trapped in a weird situation and disclosing the truth about Brueck.
"The Silent Scream" is a claustrophobic and sadistic tale about a man afraid to lose his freedom and his captor. The story is intriguing and long, with many twists. Sometimes I had the impression that the film was ending, but actually there was a new plot point. The central trio – Cushing, Cox and Donnelly – has great performances in this attractive good tale. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "A Casa do Terror 3: Grito Silencioso" ("The Houses of Terror 3: Silent Scream")
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Old-fashioned Hammer Greatness!, 8 December 2006
Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls
Of all thirteen Hammer House of Horror episodes, "The Silent Scream" is the one I've been looking forward to seeing the most, understandably because it stars horror legend (and Hammer veteran) Peter Cushing as well as a rather young Brian Cox. All episodes are worth watching, of course, but the presence of two major stars like these always raises your expectations! And with good reason, as "The Silent Scream" is by far the scariest and most intense tale of the entire series! It's a disturbing story with several nail-bitingly creepy sequences and possibly the freakiest climax ever. Brian Cox, still in an early phase of his career here, plays a man freshly released from prison and returning home to his wife. To earn some money, he goes to see a peculiar old pet store owner (Peter Cushing) who frequently came to visit him in prison. The old man, Martin Blueck, offers him a job as feeder of his collection of wild animals he experiments with in the basement. Blueck is working on some sort of advanced guarding system with open cages that electroshock the animals when they come out before the correct bell signal is given. Chuck rapidly discovers that the old man is a sadistic creep who also intends to test his invention on human guinea pigs… Peter Cushing is simply amazing in his role! His character is purely evil personified, yet plausibly disguised as a fragile old man who seemingly loves all of God's creatures. But once he closes the doors of his store, he's a relentless and sick bastard who only cares for his cruel experiments. "The Silent Scream" contains no gory situations or special effects, but the suspense-level is almost unbearably high and constant. I certainly wouldn't recommend this short movie to people who suffer from claustrophobia, as they probably won't survive the 50 minutes of playtime. The script is horror in the purest meaning of the word, meaning that whenever you crave the good characters to get saved, something new and even worse happens to them. This eventually results in the aforementioned climax, which is truly astonishing. It's a fabulous entry in the series, presumably the best even though I still have seven more to see, nicely directed by Alan Gibson ("The Sadistic Rites of Dracula") and stating once more that Peter Cushing was an absolute master.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Hammer House Of Horror: The Silent Scream (Alan Gibson, 1980) (TV) ***, 27 October 2007
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta
A very good episode with, for Hammer, an unusual sociological theme – revolving around an original (and fascinating) premise, where a system of 'prison without bars' is tried on an inveterate petty thief (played by a young Brian Cox). The identity of his deceptively sympathetic captor (the ever-reliable Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing in his final effort for the studio which made him famous) supplies a twist eventually which is, frankly, predictable…but, imbued with the star's idiosyncratic pragmatism and authority, the characterization is completely believable – chilling in its implications, but still essentially human. The pet-shop-housing-a-private-zoo setting adds flavor – and excitement – to the already tense proceedings (aided immeasurably by having two such powerful, yet totally opposite, personalities at work); along the way, Cox' wife and even a police sergeant become involved in the situation. Improbable though it may be, the final twist – in which Cox and wife discover they've merely exchanged one prison for another, with rescue a lot harder to come by this time around! – is a real beauty; this is actually followed by yet another involving Cushing's own ironic fate. By the way, the title refers to the sound-proof, electrically-wired booth in which virtually all the characters end up at one time or another. Director Gibson had helmed the last two sorry entries in the Hammer Dracula series; he proves more adept at dealing with psychological - as opposed to supernatural - issues.
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Effective TV outing, 15 August 1999
Author: Matthew Naylor from Lincoln, England
This installment from the Hammer House of Horror is fairly effective. The plot concerns a recently released prisoner trying to find work, who falls under the spell of peter Cushing. Needless to say, things don't work out smoothly!
There is a tiny cast of only 5 named characters, but this helps with the claustrophobic feel of the story. Peter Cushing is at his purring best as a pet shop owner with a mysterious past. On the whole, a rewarding, if unchallenging experience.
Plot Holes Ahoy, 19 May 2008
Author: Theo Robertson from Isle Of Bute , Scotland
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I believe it was Alfred Hitchcock that came up with the concept of " The ice-box effect " . What he meant by this was that someone watches a film enthralled then after it was over they'd pop in to the kitchen , take a cold beer out of the ice-box and as the dry clean taste of cold beer flows down the throat that someone will suddenly realise " Hey wait a cotton picking minute , that would never happen in real life because .... " The Silent Scream had the ice-box effect on me also
Fellow reviewer Paul Andrews has brought up some very good points . You have to suspend disbelief in order for the story to work but it's impossible to buy in to it . Chuck Spillers is a thief but the whole story set up revolves around Blueck knowing that Chuck will try to break in to his safe . Supposing we swallow this then what ? Mrs Splillers arrives to find Chuck kept prisoner but he doesn't want her to inform the police because he tried to break in to the safe ! Now let me see , you've got a Nazi war criminal who illegally keeps exotic wild animals in his pet shop and who has effectively kidnapped someone and is holding them in a cell and the victim doesn't want to be rescued in case he's accused of being a thief . If he gets rescued then is questioned by the police why not just deny he tried to break in to the safe ? The story also has a massive plot hole at the end when the Spillers return to their house only to find it electrified ? How on earth would Blueck know they'd go straight home instead of contacting the police ? It's also impossible to believe the Spillers would spend the rest of their lives there . Wouldn't a postman come to their house to deliver letters or bills for example ? Wouldn't they throw a chair through the window to alert a passer by ?
Despite this The Silent Scream is one of the better tales from THE HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR which unfortunately means it wasn't such a great series . Not to be too negative it is filmed in an impressive cinematic way . Peter Cushing whilst not an actor with a great range does do what he does best and that's playing restrained villains who seem genuinely affable at first glance . It's also good to see Brian Cox when he was a virtually unknown actor and considering all the characters are effectively illogical plot devices Cox does give a good performance
One of the most disturbing finales in small-screen horror history, 15 August 2006
Author: EckyThump from United Kingdom
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
The Hammer House of Horror TV series was responsible for a number of infamous sequences that burned themselves on the collective consciousness of a generation begging to stay up past their bedtime - the flood of gore from an overhead water pipe that brings a children's party to an abrupt end, a little girl messily devouring a dead lamb, a hitch-hiker with wonky teeth and a mouldy fingernail, several nasty deaths, and - for this reviewer, at least - the entirety of this mind-bogglingly sadistic episode. Peter Cushing was scary - that sums him up. It's what he did. Nobody would have complained if his headstone had borne just three words - 'Peter Cushing. Scary'. I can't think of a more fitting testament to a unique talent. In this story (summarized well enough in the other reviews), he's not just scary, he's cruel as well. And when you think he couldn't get any crueler, he does. Several times. The nastiness just keeps on building, and when you think everything's going to end happily, along comes the finale and it's an absolute killer. When the soundtrack went dead and the picture froze on Cushing's convincingly demented bellowing, juxtaposed with the passing motorists who naturally can't hear him or his victims, it was only my close proximity to the smallest room that prevented me from soiling my trousers. I was six at the time it was broadcast, and it was this truly chilling little tale that turned me into a lifelong horror fan. Watching it again recently, it still sends a good-sized jolt up my spine. Peter Cushing. Scary. No more needs to be said.
1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Really strange Hammer House of Horror episode., 14 January 2008
Author: Paul Andrews (poolandrews@hotmail.com) from UK
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Hammer House of Horror: The Silent Scream starts as safe-cracking thief Chuck Spillers (Brian Cox) is released from a two year stretch in prison for, well, safe-cracking & stealing. Back home & within five minutes like a typical woman his missus Annie (Elaine Donnelly) is complaining about the lack of money, Chuck actually has to find a job. He pays a visit to a pet shop owned by Martin Blueck (Peter Cushing) who visited him while he was in prison, rather generously Martin offers Chuck a job feeding his animals while he is way which Chuck accepts. However Chuck sees Martin's safe & decides to break into it & steal Martin's money, unfortunately for Chuck Martin has bobby trapped the floor & Chuck falls into a solid steel square metal room as Martin has unusual plans for him...
The Silent Scream was episode 7 from this unfairly short lived horror anthology series made for TV by Hammer studios & originally aired here in the UK during October 1980, the first of two Hammer House of Horror episodes to be directed by Alan Gibson (followed by The Two Faces of Evil (1980)) this is a really odd entry into the series. The script by Francis Essex takes itself extremely seriously & is certainly different & I don't think I've ever quite seen anything like it before. The idea of Peter Cushing's character trying to train animals & Chuck to behave themselves & create some sort of prison that doesn't need walls or cells is simply ludicrous. I mean who is going to utilise this system if he ever succeeds in making it work? The Government certainly wouldn't because a small thing called the 'Human Rights Act' which prevents torture or electrocution & zoos wouldn't use it either since a cage is much cheaper. The plot is contrived & very silly at times which I couldn't take seriously, there's an early scene when Cushing explains that he 'caught' all of his animals, I'm not being funny but you just don't find grizzly bears, lions, panthers, baboon's & kangaroos running around in Britain! He certainly wouldn't have 'caught' them abroad & got them back through customs either. Also you need to suspend your disbelief at the twist ending when it turns out the Spiller's whole house has been electrified! I don't think so, I really don't. There is some fun to be had here & it's certainly something different but it's so silly, doesn't have any real horror elements & the plot is so full of holes it simply doesn't have the dramatic impact that it wants.
Shot on 35mm film & the experience Hammer had in making feature films means these Hammer House of Horror episodes look really good & very cinematic. The plot here is so silly that it's not scary, there's little tension & the contemporary setting doesn't do it any favours either. The acting is alright & I'm a huge Peter Cushing fan & could watch him in just about anything although this isn't one of his better roles.
The Silent Scream is different from the normal run of the mill horror but that doesn't automatically make it any good does it? It's just so silly & 'out there' to be really gripping & entertaining, still at least it only lasts for an hour & it's probably worth a watch if your looking for something unconventional.
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