Review of And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012

Produced by Amicus Productions and directed by the ever reliable Roy Ward Baker (A Night to Remember (1958), The Vampire Lovers (1970), Scars of Dracula (1970) and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)), this is a complex but effective horror film with a good cast, but it does get a bit complex for it's own good, which tends to work against it.

Set in rural England in 1795, it starts when young Charles Fengriffen (Ian Ogilvy) marries Catherine (Stephanie Beacham), and they settle down in the family home, but when Catherine becomes obsessed with a painting that has a mysterious, hypnotic quality about it, she starts seeing things, like a dismembered hand crawling across the floor, and on the wedding night, Catherine is sexually assaulted by some unknown entity.

When the hallucinations get worse, Charles turns to Dr. Whittle (Patrick Magee), who is at a loss what to do, but he calls in psychologist Dr. Pope (Peter Cushing), who learns the horrible truth about Charles' grandfather Henry (Herbert Lom), and the curse a woodsman called Silas (Geoffrey Whitehead) put upon the name of Fengriffen.

It's got it's good moments of bloody scares and what you'd expect from a 70's horror film, it's got good costumes and sets too, and it manages to do a lot with not a lot of money. A bit of work could have gone into the script mind, as it does seem a bit confused and muddled at the end, which feels a bit silly.