Scream for Help Year: 1984 Director: Michael Winner Written by: Tom Holland Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Natural Gas Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
I look forward to renting movies from the '80s, both because they are harder and harder to find, and because in the heyday of horror, even the bad movies often had some redeeming quality. Even if it was just that nudity was part of the movies back then. I find it sadder and sadder that a lot of the '80s movies had only that to redeem them.
In a plot that is largely the first person narrative of an unlikeable and unreliable girl, we find that a man is attempting to murder his wife and step-daughter. He has his reasons. All will be revealed. Literally.
The movie tries to walk the line between mystery and horror and sort of fails at both. I know that making a blend of genres, such as the horror/comedy, is not always the easiest, but these particular genres aren't that hard to blend. Just take a look at The Sixth Sense for a prime example of what can happen. They blow it here, though. The girl, who I found so difficult to like that I wanted the inept psychopath to win, knows everything and is able to make leaps in logic that defy reason. She also admits to having been in psychiatric care. Not really something that makes me want to believe her. Anyway, she naturally turns out to be 100% correct all of the time. Sort of steals the thunder from the mystery, doesn't it?
The acting was mediocre and the script horrible. I hated the protagonist and didn't really like the evil folk all that much either. The movie was difficult to watch for long stretches lacking any kind of suspense as it did. There is a sequence at the end that so defies logic that I almost turned the tape off. Coming from the same guy that wrote Fright Night, I would have expected better.
I don't think you should see this. I also don't think I should have seen it, but I am here to suffer for you. Please don't make my suffering useless.

Total Skulls: 21

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?