RELEASE DATE: 1958
RATED: Unrated
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider
Our story begins one happy day which sees newlyweds Jenni and Eric Whitlock movie in together. The two, who�s duel sweetness would cause a diabetic to have seizures, wander around the empty home in post marriage bliss. Eric talks of his deceased wife Marian and mentions the gardener Mickey misses her badly. He says that her and Mickey used to spend hours together gardening. Although he is mentally impaired, I�m going to say that the ex-Mrs. Whitlock was a steady supply of booty for him with the way he laments throughout the movie.
Cue two more of the sparse cast, Mr. and Mrs. Snow. While Mrs. Snow helps Eric prepare dinner in the kitchen, Mr. Snow hangs out with Jenni and talks about Eric�s first wife. Apparently, she was running inside from the rain one day and slipped smashing her skull on a rock thus drowning in the garden�s pond. Apparently this is all news to Jenni who is rather sad to hear this.
After dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Snow bid adieux to the Whitlocks and have a brief conversation outside. It turns out that Jenni is loaded and Eric got himself a sugar mommy in her. That and she is a nice person compared to his old wife. Can you smell something fishy about to happen? I knew you could. This begins to set up a motive which will quickly become the basis for the next 60 minutes.
After a little off screen sexual encounter, Jenni wakes up to hear a noise in the house. She ventures out to find an old oil painting of Marian with a lily pad next to it. Eric arrives and informs her that it was Mickey and that he�ll give him a talking to the next day.
That morning, Eric goes off to work and Marian decides to kick back with the rather exasperating Mickey for the day. She talks Mickey into going to Marian�s grave to bring her some flowers. Mickey agrees and the two head out to the rather gaudy looking tombstone which has Marian�s death mask on it. Mickey tells Jenni that he sometimes hears Marian scream at night. Jenni, not much on the witty side, tells him the dead can�t scream. Mickey retorts with a �oh yes they do� kind of reaction and runs off. As you can tell the script�s dialog wasn�t exactly Shakespearean.
Anyhow, that evening Jenni fights through a bunch of nightmares of previously stated dialog. She finds herself waking up to a scream from the outside. Originally she thinks it�s a pair of peacocks that seem to wonder aimlessly around the Whitlock estate. However when she looks out�gasp�they aren�t there. Jenni, who apparently thinks peacocks only roust outside her bedroom window, starts to wander around the mansion again�.slowly. She eventually comes across a skull in a cabinet which causes her to go rather mad. She cuts on her hands and runs back to bedroom.
While in there she ponders for a bit what to do. She decides to go back to the scene of the crime which made her piss her pants before. Why, well aside this movie�s desperate attempt to kill time constantly, Jenni feels a need to pick up the skull and chuck it outside. This gives way to an odd point of view camera angle which I guess should be the skull�s or something. Oh wait a minute, I just gave away the next cheap scare the film gives the viewer. That�s ok, it will save you the 10 minutes or so it takes for Jenni to make it to the front door to discover the skull has somehow made it back to her. This causes her to pass out which gives way to Eric waking her up.
Eric has Mr. Snow come over to talk to Jenni. He tells her everything is explainable. The marks on her hand were from the cabinet and the skull is nowhere to be found. Matter of fact Mr. Snow informs Jenni and us that the skull would have been shattered to pieces from the fall. Um wait a minute�Jenni chucked it out of a two story window onto grass. Either he is referring to a skull made of fine china or he is just plain stupid. Either way, just remember that falling from a two story window is bad for you head because it will apparently shatter into pieces. Jenni also lets out some convenient plot exposition telling Mr. Snow that she once was put in a mental institution.
Anyhow, as the ashes settle Jenni looks into the pile to see a skull staring up at her. Eric claims he can�t see the skull and Jenni passes out for the 100th time in the film. However, little Eric has something up his sleeve because he picks up the skull after claiming not to see it. He dumps it in the pond and takes Jenni inside once again. However this is all done under Mickey�s watchful eye. Eric informs Mr. Snow that he will be officially moving out of the house so Jenni can be safe.
Jenni, awake once again, tells Eric she is sad to leave and informs him that Mr. Snow will scan the grounds for Mickey. Eric realizes that they may find the skull in the pond books outside to find it. Out of curiosity, how can the skull be linked to Eric? I mean, its in a pond with muddy water all over it. Regardless if someone like Mickey saw him do it, can�t he simply say �it wasn�t me pal�.
Oh well, Eric goes into panic mode when he finds out the skull is missing. He finds Mickey who claims not to know where the skull is but actually does. Mickey tells Mr. and Mrs. Snow of Eric�s evil doings and shows them the skull. They can�t believe Eric could do such a thing. Hmmm�money�boredom with Jenni�we need something resembling a plot�so on and so forth. Anyhow, the night Eric and Jenni are to move out, Jenni feels a need to find Mickey for goodbyes. However she comes face to face with the ghost of Marian. And no this isn�t one of her maddening glimpses either. It really is the ghost of Marian who kicks off one of the most ridiculous climaxes ever.
Marian chases Jenni through the garden up to the house. Jenni runs inside and Eric ends up choking her out. I am not exactly sure why he did this. After all, his whole plot as it seems was to drive her mad so he could take her money. Murdering her would prove no point now other than Eric wanting manly love in prison.
Oh well, while Jenni falls unconscious Eric hears a knock at the door. He answers it to come face to face with Mariane who apparently lost a little weight in the afterlife. He chucks a few things at the lab skeleton in a dress which disperses on the floor. Oh but she isn�t done yet. Eric runs outside and sees superimposed skulls screaming everywhere. This goes on for what seems like a millennium until Eric gets bit on the neck by Marian�s skull. He falls into the pond and wrestles with the skull much like Lugosi did with an octopus at another point in lousy cinematic history. The film ends with Jenni coming to and being carted off by Mr. and Mrs. Snow.
The Screaming Skull isn�t necessarily a painful watch but it is quite shoddy. It seems like the scenes repeat themselves in a painfully obvious manner and the brunt of the film is Jenni and Eric looking for something. Think Lord Of The Rings trilogy done in a house but without the special effects.
However, I�d say give the DVD spin if you�re looking for classic camp. Just understand the film really questions the viewer�s intelligence plot wise. Ok, we have five people (six counting the dead Marian) so any one of them could be messing with Jenni. Jenni, one of the five, could be crazy seeing things or it could be Eric or it could be Mickey. Mr. and Mrs. Snow really have no motive. As for the end result, an Agathie Christie book we have not here folks.
