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
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