11 December 2024
Scream and Die (1973)
98 min.
Directed by José Larraz.
With Andrea Allan, Karl Lanchbury, Maggie Walker, Peter Forbes-Robinson, Judy Matheson, Annabella Wood.
A routine, if well intentioned British horror.

Lovely fashion model Valerie (Allan) accompanies her boyfriend Terry to a remote English country house for a little nighttime thievery.

But there, poor Val witnesses a brutal murder and barely escapes with her own life.

Now the psycho has followed the hapless beauty home and it's up to Valerie to discover his identity before she loses her own.

Could the madman be her oddball downstairs neighbor? Her new (but strange) mask-making beau Paul?

This well made thriller is on the whole too humdrum to muster much power, but it does boast a very decent giallo-like opener replete with black gloves and a nice hiding scene in a secluded junkyard.

The bounteous Allan (a sort of Marilyn Chambers/Nancy Allen hybrid) delivers a pleasing enough performance here. The ending is half predictable, but ties up the loose ends sufficiently enough.

Also known as either The House That Vanished or Psycho Sex Fiend.

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