The other reviewer on here either worked on the film or is crazy. They say the film has an eerie atmosphere just like Wicker Man. To compare this film to Wicker Man is not only an outrageous stretch but a blatant lie. Possibly the reviewer has not seen The Wicker Man. I hold Wicker Man in very high regard and find the comparison insulting. Despite the fact this movie was filmed in a historic haunted house i did not find it atmospheric at all, mostly due to the cheap lighting, bad costumes and flat acting. I really had higher expectations for this. Not recommended. Boring.
8 Reviews
Don't bother, it's not good.
Sleepin_Dragon27 November 2020
I am absolutely gutted by the quality, or rather the lack of quality about this film, you are told that you're in for a series of chilling stories, in reality you're given four very tedious tales.
The introduction was fantastic, you have to hand it to Ian McNeice, who's presence and delivery are great. Sadly the stories themselves are dull, and the acting is questionable.
On the plus side there is Johnny time, I'm sure many would have sooner enjoyed Johnny time as opposed to dinner with those two idiots.
Poor, 3/10.
The introduction was fantastic, you have to hand it to Ian McNeice, who's presence and delivery are great. Sadly the stories themselves are dull, and the acting is questionable.
On the plus side there is Johnny time, I'm sure many would have sooner enjoyed Johnny time as opposed to dinner with those two idiots.
Poor, 3/10.
Disappointing
scarlettsdad21 January 2019
Like another reviewer, I also wanted to like this film. It's supposed to be in appreciation of the Hammer movies of the 70s as well as other horror venues, and as a fan of Hammer and American International films from my youth, I was hopeful that this would be enjoyable. However, it pales far in comparison.
Gone are the bright, rich colors and creepy music. All of the sequences are gloomy and dark. The acting is wooden at best, and I struggled with boredom throughput the film. In one episode, a girl stabs someone in the chest with a pitchfork. The tines only go in about an inch-hardly fatal-but the recipient immediately gushes blood from their mouth and collapses. Then the girl puts her hands to her face and they are covered in blood. How in the world do you get blood on your hands while holding a pitchfork? Minor, yes, but annoying. This is not "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave." It is just not scary or interesting. In all, a disappointment.
Gone are the bright, rich colors and creepy music. All of the sequences are gloomy and dark. The acting is wooden at best, and I struggled with boredom throughput the film. In one episode, a girl stabs someone in the chest with a pitchfork. The tines only go in about an inch-hardly fatal-but the recipient immediately gushes blood from their mouth and collapses. Then the girl puts her hands to her face and they are covered in blood. How in the world do you get blood on your hands while holding a pitchfork? Minor, yes, but annoying. This is not "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave." It is just not scary or interesting. In all, a disappointment.
The House of Screaming Death
henry8-319 February 2021
The Architect (McNeice) introduces 4 horror stories a la Hammer / Amicus tales of the sixties set around an old house. The first, a short romantic ghost tale, the second is about witchcraft, the third a vampire on the loose and finally a nasty ancient demon.
So, on the plus side it is always a treat to see the great Ian McNeice at work. On the down side the stories and script are dreadful, it is not at all frightening, the acting is lousy throughout and technically it suffers as well - some cheap effects and make up plus some of the sets are daft (note the spotless, modern bar in the old vampire story with electric ceiling lights with a lady drinking white wine out of a modern wine glass). Best avoided.
So, on the plus side it is always a treat to see the great Ian McNeice at work. On the down side the stories and script are dreadful, it is not at all frightening, the acting is lousy throughout and technically it suffers as well - some cheap effects and make up plus some of the sets are daft (note the spotless, modern bar in the old vampire story with electric ceiling lights with a lady drinking white wine out of a modern wine glass). Best avoided.
Be nice
martingray110 April 2021
OK, so the acting is poor at times, the sound is horrible in the second story... but for a no-budget community project this is a decent time passer. The vampire story is easily the best, with a clever ending, and the film's climax was something I never saw coming. It did indeed bring back happy memories of the (obviously better) Hammer and Amicus films and, moreso, ITV's Thriller series of Seventies Saturday night.
This is a labour of love and I say, thanks for trying.
This is a labour of love and I say, thanks for trying.
Good independent film
apocalypso-686027 August 2019
This is a lovingly put together homage to Classic British horror, with lots of little Easter eggs got fans of the genre to look out for.
It starts slowly with a haunting ghost tale before taking us into stories of witches, magic, murder and demons, all interconnected to one a single cursed house.
If you are expecting a big budget horror or a modern slasher flick you will be disappointed, but this is worth a watch for anyone that enjoys a tribute to the bygone age of film making.
It starts slowly with a haunting ghost tale before taking us into stories of witches, magic, murder and demons, all interconnected to one a single cursed house.
If you are expecting a big budget horror or a modern slasher flick you will be disappointed, but this is worth a watch for anyone that enjoys a tribute to the bygone age of film making.
A fantastic British horror flick that's both crisp and refined
mishaarvind24 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
A brilliant independent offering, which is refreshingly refined in its storytelling and tone. Filmed in the West Midlands, the film pays homage old school British Gothic Horror flicks, such as the Hammer films, namely though its rustic and errie tone.
The House of Screaming Death is an anthology movie, which opens with the host - The Architect - who roams the halls of Bray Manor, which is nicknamed the House of Screaming Death due to its creepy history.
Built in the 1200s, the house has seen many occupants either lose their minds or die gruesome deaths. The Architect shares four stories involving past occupants of the house, each a disturbing tale that delves into the dark and supernatural.
The first story - The Lady in Grey - follows a former war veteran forced to take a job as a caretaker at the Bray Manor, as his age and injuries render him unsuitable for service during the Second World War. Haunted by ghosts from his past, the caretaker spirals into grief as the energies in the house begin to take its toll.
The Witch in the Mirror, the film's second story - is less subdued. It opens with a woman performing a black magic ritual, which leads to her seeming death. Years later, when her grieving husband passes away, the house is passed onto their niece Lily, who moves into the abode with her boyfriend.
However, they are warned not to get caught between two mirrors, and soon - spurred on by the dark energies in the house - Lily's dark secrets are revealed with some unsettling consequences.
The suspense is amped up in the film's third story. Set in the 18th century, The Vampyre tells the tale of Thomas, a dapper traveller who arrives in a sleepy village that is gripped by the disappearances and mysterious murders of many of its residences. With angry villagers blaming the incidents on a clawed creature, Thomas dismisses the talk as superstition and leaves to spend his first night at the Bray Manor, where he is temporarily staying.
However, he soon notices a strange man lingering near the house. Believing him to be in need, Thomas follows him to a mysterious dwelling and learns that his new acquaintance is social pariah rejected by the other villagers for his near deformed appearance. But the story takes a dark turn when Thomas discovers this man's link to the clawed creature.
The movie then ventures onto it's last story, The Diabolique, which takes the film to more disturbing heights. The segment starts in the halls of the Bray Manor, where a young woman wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers that her brother has been brutally killed in a sinister occult ritual.
Two years later - in the year 2015 - the Bray Manor is being renovated into a restaurant, which is headed up by a snobbish business woman and her down-to-earth nephew. However, dark forces are wide awake in the house, and the young woman returns to stop whatever it is from taking more lives. Once the final story reaches its disturbing conclusion, The House of Screaming Death then moves back to the Architect, who turns out to be more than just a storyteller in a gripping finale you never see coming.
In spite of it's small budget, The House of Screaming Death is an impressive feat. The rusty feel of the Manor contributes to the film's eerie tone, which is reminiscent to the 1970s classic The Wicker Man.
There are some great performances in the film, namely from Matthew Kinson, who plays the creature in The Vampyre. His hunched posture, and gravelly voice builds an atmosphere of foreboding when we are first introduced to him, the latter - coupled with the wide-eyed menace in his eye - becoming more terrifying as he goes on the kill.
Although the first story didn't feel like a horror film, the quality of the stories improve one by one. The second story introduces some concepts that set the tone for the following stories, and has some memorable scenes, particularly those involving the necromancers - hooded bird creatures that wouldn't look out of place in a demented version of The Mighty Boosh.
But the film only really improves in its delivery when the third story begins. The pacing, suspense and storytelling is immaculate, with some brilliant scenes that - to use a clique - will have you on the edge of your seat.
The final story is where the tone of the film delves into something quite menacing, which is what a good Horror flick should do. Again, with some great storytelling and a pace that moves the story along, The Diabolique mixes gore and fantasy with a plot twist that leads to an unsettling cliff-hanger.
But just when it feels like the film has finished with its twists and turns, it pulls out another that makes The House of Screaming Death one of the most satisfying indie Horror films to grace the screen.
The House of Screaming Death is an anthology movie, which opens with the host - The Architect - who roams the halls of Bray Manor, which is nicknamed the House of Screaming Death due to its creepy history.
Built in the 1200s, the house has seen many occupants either lose their minds or die gruesome deaths. The Architect shares four stories involving past occupants of the house, each a disturbing tale that delves into the dark and supernatural.
The first story - The Lady in Grey - follows a former war veteran forced to take a job as a caretaker at the Bray Manor, as his age and injuries render him unsuitable for service during the Second World War. Haunted by ghosts from his past, the caretaker spirals into grief as the energies in the house begin to take its toll.
The Witch in the Mirror, the film's second story - is less subdued. It opens with a woman performing a black magic ritual, which leads to her seeming death. Years later, when her grieving husband passes away, the house is passed onto their niece Lily, who moves into the abode with her boyfriend.
However, they are warned not to get caught between two mirrors, and soon - spurred on by the dark energies in the house - Lily's dark secrets are revealed with some unsettling consequences.
The suspense is amped up in the film's third story. Set in the 18th century, The Vampyre tells the tale of Thomas, a dapper traveller who arrives in a sleepy village that is gripped by the disappearances and mysterious murders of many of its residences. With angry villagers blaming the incidents on a clawed creature, Thomas dismisses the talk as superstition and leaves to spend his first night at the Bray Manor, where he is temporarily staying.
However, he soon notices a strange man lingering near the house. Believing him to be in need, Thomas follows him to a mysterious dwelling and learns that his new acquaintance is social pariah rejected by the other villagers for his near deformed appearance. But the story takes a dark turn when Thomas discovers this man's link to the clawed creature.
The movie then ventures onto it's last story, The Diabolique, which takes the film to more disturbing heights. The segment starts in the halls of the Bray Manor, where a young woman wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers that her brother has been brutally killed in a sinister occult ritual.
Two years later - in the year 2015 - the Bray Manor is being renovated into a restaurant, which is headed up by a snobbish business woman and her down-to-earth nephew. However, dark forces are wide awake in the house, and the young woman returns to stop whatever it is from taking more lives. Once the final story reaches its disturbing conclusion, The House of Screaming Death then moves back to the Architect, who turns out to be more than just a storyteller in a gripping finale you never see coming.
In spite of it's small budget, The House of Screaming Death is an impressive feat. The rusty feel of the Manor contributes to the film's eerie tone, which is reminiscent to the 1970s classic The Wicker Man.
There are some great performances in the film, namely from Matthew Kinson, who plays the creature in The Vampyre. His hunched posture, and gravelly voice builds an atmosphere of foreboding when we are first introduced to him, the latter - coupled with the wide-eyed menace in his eye - becoming more terrifying as he goes on the kill.
Although the first story didn't feel like a horror film, the quality of the stories improve one by one. The second story introduces some concepts that set the tone for the following stories, and has some memorable scenes, particularly those involving the necromancers - hooded bird creatures that wouldn't look out of place in a demented version of The Mighty Boosh.
But the film only really improves in its delivery when the third story begins. The pacing, suspense and storytelling is immaculate, with some brilliant scenes that - to use a clique - will have you on the edge of your seat.
The final story is where the tone of the film delves into something quite menacing, which is what a good Horror flick should do. Again, with some great storytelling and a pace that moves the story along, The Diabolique mixes gore and fantasy with a plot twist that leads to an unsettling cliff-hanger.
But just when it feels like the film has finished with its twists and turns, it pulls out another that makes The House of Screaming Death one of the most satisfying indie Horror films to grace the screen.
The House of Screaming Death
lennieh19 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The title of the film does it no favours, as it is too reminiscent of the disappointing 1984 horror comedy "Bloodbath at the House of Death".
However the presence Ian McNeice was enough to persuade me that the film was worth a look.
McNiece doing his best Niall McGuinness impersonation enthralls with his straight to camera welcome, and pondering philosophy is both disconcerting and disturbing, beginning the slow reveal to the end of film twist.
As "The Architect" our host first proudly reads us the diary of a former caretaker of his house who decentered in to madness owing to a growing obsession with the ghost of the grey lady who supposedly walks the halls of the house forever seeking her lost love and repentance for her suicide, as he envies the victims of the blitz exploding far away in London, but which he imagines all about him.
Over tea, the architects relates the story of a young couple who inherited the house from an Eisoptrophobic uncle, who as a condition of the legacy insists no mirrors be ever brought in to the house, as it turns out for good reason.
Far and away the highlight of the film is the third story, which could truly have been the entire film.
A young student takes up residence in the house to work on his scientific studies in the year 1888.
The local Vicar warns him that the village is a cursed place the house especially so, terrorised by a ravening beast of the night , that feed for the previous year of the villagers, until it was trapped and mortally wounded in the last days of the winter.
In the Local Tavern "The Slaughtered wolf" the Priests words prove true as the locals warn of how strangers are not welcome, because when strangers arrive evil follows and the beast goes abroad.
In the following day the young man becomes aware of a wretched vagrant moving about the lanes outside of the house, and taking pity on him follows the unfortunate man to an abandoned crypt, where he has made a home for himself, surviving on scraps and warmth from candles.
The youngster and the man become friends and the student exchanges food for company and stories of history, nursing him back to health so that he made leave the village and start a new life in one of the great cities.
However when the killings begin again the student begins to believe he made a terrible mistake.
The twist to the third tale is both horrible and disturbing, a tale not as it seems of a supernatural monster, but of something far far worse.
The last story of the conversion of the house to a motel in the modern day is a simple demonic possession story and is probably the weakest of the tales.
The architect then thanks his audience for their rapt attention and we for the first time see who they are. They are the victims from his stories and the residents of the hotel, who have served as inspiration for both his stories and for his crimes , as we are shown again the same deaths we have seen in the tales, but carried out simply and efficiently by the architect himself around the house and the building work being carried on there.
The film fails only because of a lack strong direction and low production values. The over flowery dialogue, though this is obviously supposed to be the poor writing style of the architect himself, cannot really be excused since we have been given no reason to know that.
The dedication to Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the end credits is a nice touch and shows the loved that went in to creating the movie.
My suggestions, rewrite and expand it, change the title and sell it as a TV series, and it would be a hit.
The last story of the conversion of the house to a motel in the modern day is a simple demonic possession story and is probably the weakest of the tales.
The architect then thanks his audience for their rapt attention and we for the first time see who they are. They are the victims from his stories and the residents of the hotel, who have served as inspiration for both his stories and for his crimes , as we are shown again the same deaths we have seen in the tales, but carried out simply and efficiently by the architect himself around the house and the building work being carried on there.
The film fails only because of a lack strong direction and low production values. The over flowery dialogue, though this is obviously supposed to be the poor writing style of the architect himself, cannot really be excused since we have been given no reason to know that.
The dedication to Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the end credits is a nice touch and shows the loved that went in to creating the movie.
My suggestions, rewrite and expand it, change the title and sell it as a TV series, and it would be a hit.
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