Screamtime starts in New York as two friends Ed (Vincent Russo) & Bruce (Michael Gordon) steal some videotapes from a shop, heading back to an apartment to watch them the tapes turn out to be horror films...
First up is 'That's the Way to do it' in which an ageing puppeteer named Jack (Robin Bailey) gets grief from all sides of his family & when his wife & stepson want him ti burn his cherished Punch & Judy puppets people start turning up dead...
Then it's 'Dreamhouse' in which young married couple Tony (Ian Saynor) & Susan (Yvonne Nicholson) move into a new house, immediately Susan starts to see violent visions & hear strange noises but Tony thinks she is having a nervous breakdown...
Finally it's 'Garden of Blood' sees a broke teenager named Gavin (David Van Day) decide to rob the house of a pair of rich elderly sisters but hadn't counted on their stories of Fairies being true...
This English production was apparently directed by Stanley A.Long & Michael Armstrong under the pseudonym Al Beresford with Long credited as a producer too & Armstrong credited with the screenplay & casting, the British horror anthology had been very popular with the likes of Dead of Night (1945), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), The Vault of Horror (1974), From Beyond the Grave (1974) & The Monster Club (1981) to name but a few & one has to say that Screamtime tries to recreate that golden era with mixed success. The linking wraparound story looks to have been filmed by someone totally different & is at odds with the rest of the film in tone & style & I assume is there to add a bit of American-ness to it. The three stories are fairly solid but the low budget & obvious lack of resources don't help. From killer puppets to terrifying visions to killer Garden Gnomes one has to say that the makers tried & the stories could have been better with more money spent on them, they all take place largely in the same location with minimal special effects. At just under 90 minutes each story runs about 25 minutes long & I would probably say that the second story Dreamhouse is the best with a neat twist ending & was considered good enough for a full length feature film remake Psychosis (2010) which is also quite good. These anthology horror films can be great but rely on striking twist endings which is where Screamtime falls down a bit, while Dreamhouse is impressive, unexpected & memorable the other two are a little tame & predictable.
The production values are alright if cheap looking, the special effects vary with the living Garden Gnome surely one of the silliest things I've seen in a while. A little rough around the edges technically how can that kid set the Punch & Judy show on fire with an unlit electric lamp?! Some of the acting & death scenes are also poor with the Garden Gnome strangling a guy coming across as really camp & the shots earlier where row's of Garden Gnomes scare the geezer is hard to take seriously. There's a bit of gore, there's some blood splatter in the first story, some gory stabbings including a cool slit throat in the second & not much of anything during the third story. The stories do have a certain grimy low budget atmosphere that I liked, a sort of sleazy vibe to them that appealed.
Filmed here in the UK & in New York. The acting varies, some of it is quite good while at other times it's awful. Jonathon Morris who played Damien is probably best know for played Adrian in the sitcom Bread (1986-1991), Kim Thompson who plays Lady Anne has since found fame in the UK appearing in over 200 episodes of Emmerdale while David Van Day was one half of 80's pop group Dollar.
Screamtime is fairly enjoyable for what it is, the three stories vary in quality but they are all decent enough & they all have their own moments whether it's creepiness or silliness or gore. I can't say Screamtime is brilliant but it's a worthwhile watch especially if your a fan of horror anthologies.
First up is 'That's the Way to do it' in which an ageing puppeteer named Jack (Robin Bailey) gets grief from all sides of his family & when his wife & stepson want him ti burn his cherished Punch & Judy puppets people start turning up dead...
Then it's 'Dreamhouse' in which young married couple Tony (Ian Saynor) & Susan (Yvonne Nicholson) move into a new house, immediately Susan starts to see violent visions & hear strange noises but Tony thinks she is having a nervous breakdown...
Finally it's 'Garden of Blood' sees a broke teenager named Gavin (David Van Day) decide to rob the house of a pair of rich elderly sisters but hadn't counted on their stories of Fairies being true...
This English production was apparently directed by Stanley A.Long & Michael Armstrong under the pseudonym Al Beresford with Long credited as a producer too & Armstrong credited with the screenplay & casting, the British horror anthology had been very popular with the likes of Dead of Night (1945), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), The Vault of Horror (1974), From Beyond the Grave (1974) & The Monster Club (1981) to name but a few & one has to say that Screamtime tries to recreate that golden era with mixed success. The linking wraparound story looks to have been filmed by someone totally different & is at odds with the rest of the film in tone & style & I assume is there to add a bit of American-ness to it. The three stories are fairly solid but the low budget & obvious lack of resources don't help. From killer puppets to terrifying visions to killer Garden Gnomes one has to say that the makers tried & the stories could have been better with more money spent on them, they all take place largely in the same location with minimal special effects. At just under 90 minutes each story runs about 25 minutes long & I would probably say that the second story Dreamhouse is the best with a neat twist ending & was considered good enough for a full length feature film remake Psychosis (2010) which is also quite good. These anthology horror films can be great but rely on striking twist endings which is where Screamtime falls down a bit, while Dreamhouse is impressive, unexpected & memorable the other two are a little tame & predictable.
The production values are alright if cheap looking, the special effects vary with the living Garden Gnome surely one of the silliest things I've seen in a while. A little rough around the edges technically how can that kid set the Punch & Judy show on fire with an unlit electric lamp?! Some of the acting & death scenes are also poor with the Garden Gnome strangling a guy coming across as really camp & the shots earlier where row's of Garden Gnomes scare the geezer is hard to take seriously. There's a bit of gore, there's some blood splatter in the first story, some gory stabbings including a cool slit throat in the second & not much of anything during the third story. The stories do have a certain grimy low budget atmosphere that I liked, a sort of sleazy vibe to them that appealed.
Filmed here in the UK & in New York. The acting varies, some of it is quite good while at other times it's awful. Jonathon Morris who played Damien is probably best know for played Adrian in the sitcom Bread (1986-1991), Kim Thompson who plays Lady Anne has since found fame in the UK appearing in over 200 episodes of Emmerdale while David Van Day was one half of 80's pop group Dollar.
Screamtime is fairly enjoyable for what it is, the three stories vary in quality but they are all decent enough & they all have their own moments whether it's creepiness or silliness or gore. I can't say Screamtime is brilliant but it's a worthwhile watch especially if your a fan of horror anthologies.