Search - Silent Scream on DVD

Patricia H. from MEDINA, OH
Reviewed on 10/8/2008...

ok not that very good

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

"When the hood appears.....friends Disappear!" Not that thi

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 04/23/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"When I actually used to go to theaters to see splatter flicks instead of waiting for them to come out on videotape (this was a long time ago, like, last century), I noticed that most of the audience consistent of groups of young teenage girls. This makes sense when you realize that at that time outside of splatter flicks, where it is the young virgin female who is usually the only one left alive by the time the credits roll, there were not a lot of movies where the heroine got to be the hero. So teenage girls go to be scared and teenage boys go to see the blood and gore. Okay, they also go for the obligatory nudity in such movies, which is why it is ironic that early on in "Silent Scream" there is a scene that will truly horrify teenage boys. A male college student walks in on two female college students getting it on. Not only does he get to watch, but he also gets to join them. But when they start to get to the big moment he wants to stop to put on a condom and that just ruins the moment for one of the young women, who storms off.

Now, I was going to argue that this is the most horrifying scene in the film and that none of what happens to the teenagers becoming dead in this 2005 movie will bother adolescent males half as much as the thought that a woman would be turned off by you wanting to use a condom. But then I started getting ticked off at the idea of safe sex being turned into a sick joke, not just because you take this scene at face value, but also because the scene actually turns out to be the start of a plot point in this film and one of the lamest integrations of a romance into a splatter flick I have ever seen. I thought it was bad enough to imply sexy woman hate safe sex (which is a horrifying notion in a different way), but to turn it into some sort of ploy that ASSUMES that is the case is even worse. By the time romantic music is playing beneath the tender exchanges of Mark (Scott Vickaryous) and Nicole (Melissa Schuman) during all of the carnage this film from directors Matt Cantu and Lance Kawas has totally jumped the tracks.

I was somewhat encouraged at the start of "Silent Scream" because the killings start pretty quickly and I thought we were going to skip the whole long section most splatter films begin with where you set the stage and then have to wait for the fun to begin. But that part comes in the film after the first wave of killings. There were also a couple of fairly creative kills early on, and I liked the ones where the killings were essentially off camera (e.g., Amy getting "trapped," Steve in the car, and was that Sandy that was caught behind the tree? I swear most of the characters are dead before I know their names). However, after the opening act the creativity goes way downhill along with the rest of the movie and by the end you are looking at your scorecard at a whole lot of mandatory deductions, especially once you get to the payoff(s) at the end, and I just have to round down.

There are four different actors playing "The Figure," which I assume was an attempt to change the size and shape enough for you to try and confuse you when trying to figure out which of the obvious suspects actually is the killer (then again, maybe the cold in Michigan was knocking out the visitors from sunny California). Of course the biggest clue comes not from the number of actors running around in the snow playing the killer, but the very beginning of the film. Was I surprised by the twist at the end? Yes, but my response was more "you're kidding" than any sense of positive amazement by the revelation. Yes, if you go back and watch the beginning the ending is set up, but I just did not like what the movie did after the twist is revealed. Basically they come up with something that gets you thinking, and then they throw it away because they could not come up with anything better. The more you think about what is happening at the end, the less impressed you are going to be.

This movie was originally entitled "The Retreat," and while I doubt that most members of the target audience for this film immediately thought of the bitter retreat of Napoleon and his army from Moscow in 1812, there were probably not thinking of a splatter flick where a group of psychology students are sent by their professor to a snowbound cabin deep in the woods of Northern Michigan (i.e., where cell phones do not work). So now on DVD it is entitled "Silent Scream," which is an interesting choice for two reasons. First, that is as close as you can get to "The Silent Screen," an infamous and controversial 1984 video that used ultrasound to show an abortion. Clearly Lionsgate thinks everybody who would rent this film is too young to remember that association. Second, none of the screams in the film are silent. They might be muffled, or cut off, but they are not silent. The menu has a woman screaming, "Help me!" To be fair, if they had called in the "Parka Killer" people would have assumed it involved the writer Dorothy Parker and everybody would have thick New Yawk accents and calling it "The Hood" would throw potential viewers completely off track. But the title is the least of this film's problem."

Another solid indie slasher

J. Cook | Buffalo | 12/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Much like Bloody murder, Shredder and Plasterhead we have another low budget slasher. This time it's a winter setting at a cabin where teens are being maimed by a hooded killer with an axe.

I won't go too much into this, but don't expect a masterpiece. It's a cliche slasher film with a good amount of t and a. I thought it was solid comparatively speaking... it's really well shot with some pretty well done gore. I'd really suggest this for fans of the aforementioned films.

"

Boring!

J. Krencs | Whitehall, PA | 04/12/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I rented this at our local video store because its description made it seem like it would be a good psychological thriller. I was VERY disappointed. It was just another cheesy DTM (dead teenager movie). If you're really interested in a good DTM, then check out the Final Destination series."