Monster
Crap Nominee: From A Whisper To A Scream
Welcome
To Moldfield
1987
After
dealing with several crap films forced upon me from Fantasy Football winner Gus
Richlen, it is finally time for me to do something different and this
definitely is something different as we get to talk about horror anthologies.
It’s such an easy idea where there are several stories that cannot be their own
film, but are great as shorts combined with either a frame story or something
else making the stories work together. Classics include Creepshow, Trick R’
Treat, Trilogy of Terror, Tales From The Crypt (70s movie), and Tales From The
Darkside: The Movie. It is a genre that I really like and normally I don’t find
bad versions (but if I do, I will hate it). Just to be clear here, this is not
one of those really bad films.
So
how did we get this film. Well, we have 5 former film students come together
and decide that they want to make horror stories based around a old southern
town that may be cursed with one being the director despite the fact that he
had very little experience with making a Hollywood film. In fact, he made a
civil war film called Divided We Fall so this was easily his first horror
movie. Of course I’m talking about Jeff Burr Then they got many of the actors
the old tried and true way of Hollywood, by knowing a friend who is an actor and
convincing them to be in this film.
The
names they got are plenty of cult and horror stars for this anthology at the
time. Names like Clu Gulager (former western actor who is known to horror fans
for being in Return Of The Living Dead, while also being Jeff Burr’s former
acting coach), Rosalind Cash (who was known for films like Klute, The Omega
Man, and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai), Cameron Mitchell (who was in a
bunch of films like Blood & Black Lace, Nightmare In The Wax, The Toolbox
Murders (the original one), The Island of the Fishmen, Without Warning,
Frankenstein Island, and even has been in an anthology film that is the
awesomely bad Night Train To Terror)
Although
Not Intentionally As Night Train To Terror Was A Bunch Of Unfinished Films
Parts Put Together With God & Satan Deciding On Souls All The While On A
Doomed Train That Is Transporting One Of The Most Laughably Bad Bands In A
Movie.
Susan
Tyrrell (who was in Wizards; Forbidden Zone; Fire & Ice; Butcher, Baker,
Nightmare Maker; Angel; and has also been in an anthology film with the
terrible Coming Attractions (aka Loose Shoes)),
It
Takes Real Talent To Be Terrible To Make A Comedy Film With Bill Murray In It
Be Not Funny Whatsoever
And
midget actor Angelo Rossitto. Don’t know who he is? You ever seen Freaks?
Yep….He
is the guy on the table pouring the wine as they do this chant. If you haven’t
seen Freaks, I think you probably should watch that film as it is definitely a
scary film where despite being called exploitive and ending Todd Browning (the
director of Dracula)’s career, you will see that the freaks aren’t the evil
ones.
He
Was Also The Midget Half Of The Fighter Known As Master Blaster
We
also have actor Terry Kiser who while at the time had not been known to horror
and cult audiences yet, would more than make up for it afterwards by being in
films like Weekend At Bernie’s and Tammy & The T-Rex.
But
the biggest name they got for this film is Vincent Price. They got him by
coming to his house with wine (knowing Vince is a wine connoisseur) and being
nice to him. Vincent Price of course is well known to horror fans for films
like The Fly (original), Return of The Fly, The Tingler, The Raven, Pit &
The Pendulum, The Abominable Dr. Phibes (and its sequel), House Of Usher,
Masque Of The Red Death, House On Haunted Hill, The Last Man On Earth, and so
many others that if I keep naming them all, it would take forever. Vincent
Price was also no stranger to anthologies like The Monster Club, Twice Told
Tales, and Tales Of Terror.
Vincent
Price Would Probably Also Want Me To Know That He Really Likes Dogs And Has A
Great Book About His Favorite Dog He Ever Had Called The Book Of Joe: About A
Dog And His Man
I
Know How You Feel, Vincent. I Love My Dog Maili Too.
Of
course, there are people who were also in films that have been inducted into
Monster Crap. Of course you know Terry Kiser was in Friday The 13th
VII: The New Blood,
You also know that Cameron Mitchell was in one of my early inductions in Space Mutiny
Will Huston (though uncredited in this film) would later be hanging with Kane Hodder as his brother in Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings.
Gene Whitham was Harry in Grizzly, David Del Valle was also in an uncredited role in Chopping Mall, and heck, even the director of this film Jeff Burr would go on to direct a Monster Crap film.
With
all that out of the way, let’s get to this movie.
We
begin with…
Opening
Title Card Drop With Heart Beating As They Reveal The Cast
The
glass breaks on that title card as we begin with a woman coming out of a
bathroom in a towel.
This
woman puts on a wedding dress and the door opens with a man showing up in a
suit.
Don’t
You Know It’s Bad Luck To See Your Wife In The Wedding Dress Before You Two Get
Married?
They
dance with the guy grabbing her arm. We then see this was all a dream as that
same woman is now at a place of execution as she is going to be executed for
his murder via lethal injection.
And
This Is Where We Have Our First Problem As Between 1960 To 2007, No One In Tennessee Was Executed And It
Wasn’t Until 2000 That They Changed The Execution Method To Lethal Injection.
The Method Of Lethal Injection In 1987 (The Time Of This Film) Would Have Been
The Good Ole Electric Chair.
Oh
Yeah, And A Character We Will Learn More About Beth Chandler Is There As Well
The
woman is executed and we find out she was Catherine White, who is the niece of
Julian White, who Beth decides to deliver the news of her niece’s execution.
Just
So You Know Where Oldfield Is
And
we finally meet Julian White.
Basically
we find out that Catherine committed her first murder at age 7 and doesn’t stop
until she is 32. Julian basically shrugs off the execution as just something
that happens in this town and more evil will happen in this town of Oldfield as
well since he says that town is cursed with evil. We then go into the story of
Stanley Burnside which is the first story in this anthology and the first thing
we see is Stanley with a dead body he calls Grace, saying he should have bought
her flowers.
He
then starts performing oral sex as the corpse starts coming alive with a smile.
But
thankfully this is a nightmare that Stanley screams awake from.
He
then screams when he sees someone covered in a yellow sheet next to him.
It
Is The Body Again And It Makes Him Give Her Breasts A Good Motorboating
Thankfully,
this was another dream and he is completely awake. We then go to a barbecue.
He
seems to have his eye on the lady in the blue dress named Grace.
Stanley
gets so distracted that his burgers are burning. A guy comes over and sees that
he is looking at Grace. He also has the hots for her and he gets a beer before going
over to try his luck. We then go back to night at Stanley’s place as he is
giving his sister Eileen an ice bath.
If
You Find Any Of The So-Called Brother-Sister Dynamic Here Creepy, It May Help
To Know That The Actress Playing Eileen Here Is Clu’s Actual Wife.
Eileen
here is very week and has had high body heat ever since she had Rheumatic
Fever, which is really not well and she is of course very co-dependent on her
brother to take care of her. But anytime someone wants to talk to Eileen, he
lies and says she is out and then lies to her by saying it was a wrong number
so both seem to be in this strange phase of living together.
We
then go to the packing plant that Stanley works at and he is given a company
pay for the delivery. Stanley is very awkward around Grace and it seems she
just puts up with it. Grace apparently got a rose from a secret admirer and
Stanley tries practicing how he will ask Grace out. Stanley finally gets up the
nerve to call Grace and ask her out, while also revealing he was the secret
admirer. Originally she isn’t interested, but when she finds out he was the
secret admirer, she accepts.
The
two of them go out to a restaurant and it is clear from the very beginning that
Grace is merely doing this because he sent her the flowers. She is very cold to
him and it really makes you wonder why in the hell she even accepted the date.
As he talks to her, we get this weird moment of blood coming out of her mouth.
Don’t
Even Ask Me Why These Dream (or In This Case, Day Dream) Sequences Happen At
This Point Of The Story.
We
are of course snapped back to reality and back in the car, Grace basically
indicates she has no interest in this relationship continuing any further and
wishes they just stayed co-workers. He then forces himself on her and when she
rejects him, he strangles her to death.
After
seeing what he has done, he sings his song that he wrote for her and cries. He
gets her out of his car and leaves her dead body on the side of the road.
The
next day, the boss announces the murder of Grace, the co-worker who talked to
Stanley at the barbecue finds it a shame as he was about to ask her out. Stanley
has obvious wounds on his face and just doesn’t want to say what they are from.
It comes night time and Stanley breaks into the funeral home and there, he goes
the Katie Vick route.
Then
we immediately go to a night where she is already buried.
Seriously,
We Have What Looks Like Is About To Be Necrophilia (We Don’t See The Act
Itself) And Then We Cut To The Grave Already Being Filled. I Don’t Think Things
Go That Fast.
Nine
months later, Clu Gulager comes home with ice and Eileen needs an ice bath
immediately.
And
For Some Reason Went Insane With The Make Up
While
bathing her, Stanley decides that he is tired of being with his sister so he
just stabs her with the ice pick.
And
then he tries to drowns her in the same ice bath.
He
thinks that is enough, but it isn’t so he strangles her to death with the
straps on her robe.
Stanley
then goes to watch cartoons and drink beer while singing the song that he made
for Grace. Unbeknownst to him, a hand comes out of Grace’s grave.
If
You Are Thinking That Hand Is Too Small To Be Grace’s, You Might Be Onto
Something
Stanley
hears something and thinks it is Eileen, even Eileen is dead and he should know
that. He then hears something break. It is a plate, but there is also some
green slime left over.
He
Better Be Careful Because Slimer Might Be Nearby
Soon
enough, he is bitten in the hand by a creature.
He
also gets psychologically tortured as the creature throws his sister’s body
down the stairs. Instead of getting out of the house, he goes upstairs where he
gets pushed down the stairs. He meets the creature and finds out that…
The
Monster Is The Child Conceived By Stanley’s Necrophiliac Rape Of Grace.
The
creature calls him “daddy” and attacks Stanley as the last thing we see or hear
is Stanley’s screams.
The
screen goes red and we transition to a glass of wine that Julian White is drinking.
Vincent
Price And His Wine
Beth
doesn’t really believe any of this (and why should she) and Julian tells her
about the librarian that used to live here being buried here as he used to
bring women to this house for romantic interludes and one of those women’s
husband found out about this and dealt with the two of them with his axe.
Yep….both bodies buried here. He says that some nights that you can hear the
lovers scream…..and yet he never called the cops about this or anything.
Beth
thinks that is a good story, but it tells her nothing about her niece. Julian
says all of this has to do with this cursed town and then goes back even
further in time to 30 years ago with a man by the name of Jesse Hardwick. We
then go to a trailer park where Jesse being woken up by his girlfriend.
The
Girlfriend Is Dressed To Go To The Funeral
The
girlfriend then tells Jesse that she is leaving him for good and has revealed
Jesse’s location to the McCoy brothers, people that Jesse ripped off.
Jesse
makes a run for it, but is ultimately shot.
They
leave him to die and Jesse gets on a boat before losing consciousness.
But
an oar comes in to take the boat which means he was found by a passer by on a
boat. While unconscious, Jesse a bad dream about being on the boat at there
being blood and hands coming out of the water to drag him in.
Jesse
awakens in a place with an elderly man named Felder Evans.
He
introduces himself and when asked if he lives here all alone, Felder says he
doesn’t now as he thinks Jesse is going to live with him. Felder also believes
in voodoo and prays to the voodoo spirits. Jesse sees him during one of these
chants and sees him drinking a liquid of some kind that Felder made. Jesse
later asks Felder (while Felder is doing some wood carving to make a duck) how
long he has been living out here and Felder doesn’t even remember how long (aka
been a long ass time). Felder talks about herds of buffalo and if you stay
still, they won’t be disturbed by you so you can carve wood to your hearts
content, which Jesse finds strange as there hasn’t been herds of Buffalo in
Tennessee in a long ass time.
When
Felder goes out to gather some mushrooms, Jesse decides to look around and
finds an old scrapbook. It reveals that Felder Evans has lived back in the
1800s and became a freed slave before he disappeared, basically telling that
Felder has lived for more than a 100 years and has somehow found a way to not
die. When Felder comes back, Jesse demands to know how he has survived so long
and wants himself to be able to live for a long time as he sees riches in this
formula for eternal life. Felder does the ceremony again, but it doesn’t work
to Jesse’s satisfaction so he knocks the old man up, ties him up, and throws
him into the water.
Thinking
he killed the old man, Jesse ransacks the house trying to find the liquid that
has been keeping the old man alive for so long. Suddenly, a mud covered Felder
barges him and hits Jesse with an oar, knocking the con man out.
Jesse
wakes to find out that the old man has tied him up. Felder then reveals that he
had already given Jesse the liquid when he was dying on that boat. Felder is
upset that Jesse tried to kill him for something he already had as he pours
lamp oil on him. He says he gave Jesse enough formula to make him last 70 years
so anything he can do will hurt, but wont kill Jesse. He then chops off Jesse’s
arms and legs, then burns him with a torch.
He
leaves his head and body (limb-less) in a bag on the streets, where he is found
by a car passing by.
Jesse
is sent to a hospital where they bandage him up and leave him in a burn ward.
The doctor says that despite all the blood loss and stuff, he is somehow still
breathing. The doctor doesn’t think the man can hear him and he tells the nurse
if there was any mercy, the man will die soon as he is in hell with all this
pain. They leave as we see a bandaged up Jesse and the only thing he can do is
shed tears since he knows that for 70 years, he will be living in this hell for
70 more years.
Back
at the library, Susan is tired of hearing this fiction while Julian keeps
telling her it is not fiction. Julian then reveals that his niece actually
believed she was on a mission of mercy every time she cut someone’s throat and
continues to believe that it is Oldfield that does this to people. He then goes
back further and talks about a story of the traveling carnival that comes to
town with one person named Amarrillis Caulfield who loved the carnival more
than others. We go to that carnival that is called.
Interesting
Name
We
then see Amarrillis.
We
also see the barker by the name of Tinker.
You
All Wanna Be One Of Us??!!
He
is talking about freak exhibits and there is one exhibit that Amarrillis is
definitely interested in and it is the man that eats broken glass and razor
blades named Steve Arden.
At
the show, he eats broken glass and razor blades as onlookers look on in
amazement that this shit doesn’t kill him. After the show, we see that
Amarrillis and Steve are in love.
Steve
has a poker game to get to and needs Amarrillis to go, but she only does so
after he promises to meet her in the graveyard tomorrow. Oh, and of course,
this asshole is watching all of this.
At
the poker game with several of the freaks, we find out that asshole (whose name
is Leonard) is a spy for the owner of the carnival known as the Snakewoman.
She
owns more than the carnival as she basically owns each of the carnies’ lives as
she has some dirt on them and some magic threats that she can use on them if
they ever decide to leave. Steve leaves the game after this altercation and the
next night, he meets Amarrillis at the graveyard. Steve tries to dissuade her
from loving him, but she can’t and she wants to marry him. They of course have
sex in the graveyard, which is no exactly the smartest place to do that in a
movie with monsters
Decoys
Ring A Bell
Unfortunately
for them, some of the sharp stuff Steve has been eating comes out of his
fingers, which stops the sex.
Steve
tells her to never come near him again if she loves him. Steve comes back to
the carnival as the Snakewoman laughs at his pain and reveals she has a statue
of him that she can do this awful magic with.
Amarrillis
comes back after the Snakewoman leaves again, she tells Steve that she wants
him to leave with her. They are then stopped by Leonard, who has a gun.
Bad
news for Leonard is Tinker comes up from behind him and stabs him in the side
with a sword.
Before
he dies, Leonard reveals that he has an eye on his chest so the Snakewoman say
everything.
The
couple leave as the Snakewoman vows vengeance for the death of Leonard.
At
a motel, Amarrillis and Steve make love when all the sharp stuff that Steve has
eaten over the years comes back to bite him in the ass. She can only scream in
pain as the man she loves is ripped into pieces on the inside by the very stuff
he used for his act.
The
Snakewoman comes by later to laugh at Amarrillis, who is in bed with the
completely torn apart body of Steve.
The
next time we go to a carnival. They have a new attraction in the Human Pin
Cushion.
Yep…..Amarrillis
Is Now One Of Them….One Of Them
We
basically cut back to Julian and Beth who reveal that Amarrillis never escaped
the carnival. Julian then shows Beth the original town records that go back to
the Civil War. Beth says that every town has its weird stories, but Julien says
Oldfield’s history is written in blood on pages of human skin. Of course, we
won’t show you that human skin pages because they couldn’t afford that. We then
go to a story where a group of Union soldiers are still finding random Confederate
soldiers to kill and they are led by Sgt. Gallen.
He’s
The Guy In Front
They
find some Confederate soldiers and kill them, despite the fact they tried to
surrender. They find a pamphlet that the war is over, but Gallen doesn’t care
and still wants to kill Confederates and bed their widows. One of the soldiers
Pike is completely against this idea and tries to head home, but Gallen shoots
him under the guise of desertion.
The
remaining three continue on, trying to find the next town so they can do their
horrible acts to it. But unfortunately, they are ambushed by booby traps left
around and knocked out.
And
The People Who Set Those Booby Traps Are All Children
They
are tied up and taken to Oldfield, which yes….is entirely run by children
(Little Rascals basically as in the credits, the kids are called Our Gang, what
the Little Rascals were originally called).
Our
Confederate Gang
One
of the Union soldiers tells the kids that the war is over and not seeing any
threat, goes towards one of the kids. That is of course a huge mistake as he is
stabbed right then and there.
A
Good Ole Dick Stabbing
He
is left to die while the other two are brought inside and separated into
separate places to be imprisoned. The lead kid tells Gallen of a magistrate who
they follow and he will decide the Union soldiers’ punishment. Gallen is not
happy with this predicament as he is given food and water from a little girl
with an eye patch named Amanda.
She
Also Is On A Crutch.
The
stabbed soldier will not last the night so they just leave him. The other
soldier is an asshole towards the kids so the children knock him out. Back with
Gallen and Amanda, Amanda talks to Gallen (even though she is told not to)
because Gallen looks a lot like her father, who was killed in the war and
everyone else here also lost their parents due to the war because General
Sherman burned down the town.
Yeah,
That’s What General Sherman Was Basically Known For….Burning Down Towns
Gallen
shows a bit of humanity in admitting that Sherman is a mean man. The bell rings
which signals a meeting with the magistrate so Amanda leaves. The lead kid
named Andrew warns Gallen not to try anything with Amanda as she is his friend.
The meeting is to determine who will die and it is that blonde haired asshole
who got knocked out earlier. They chloroform him as we see Amanda picking
flowers when Andrew tells her to come with him as he has a surprise for her.
That surprise is a new eyeball as they took it from the asshole.
Gallen
hears the screams and realizes he needs to escape. He tells Amanda that if he
is allowed to escape, he will take her with him and adopt her as his own
daughter. He even lies and says that he had a daughter named Amanda once, but
she died during the war. He even says that the doctors where he is from will
fix her up so they will never know she is missing an eye or know the scars she
has. She unties Gallen and that is a huge mistake as Gallen was lying this whole
time about everything. He kills Amanda.
Gallen
tries his escape and sees that they have chopped that asshole guy to pieces and
play stick the body part on a hook to his torso.
Andrew
comes down and sees that his friend has been murdered. Gallen makes his escape,
but is stopped by Pike, who is still alive. Pike then stabs Gallen in the leg
and leaves him for the kids to re-capture him. Gallen awakens to the meeting
room where Andrew decides that he needs to meet the magistrate before dying.
Yeah,
The Magistrate Is Body Parts Of Their Parents Sewn Together With Two Heads
Andrew
says this is all that is left of their parents, after Union soldiers like
Gallen destroyed the town and killed all the adults. The kids put together this
magistrate and made it their leader. Gallen tries to plead that the war is over,
but Andrew says the killing continues though. Gallen says there is no reason
for any of this anymore and Andrew says that as long as there are people like
Gallen, there is always a need. Andrew tells Gallen that he will be his sermon
tonight.
They
take Gallen (still tied and gagged to a chair) outside and burn him alive for
the murder of Amanda.
The
next day, Andrew’s voice says that it is now time to rebuild Oldfield back to
her former glory. What we see is an American flag raised as for the kids now,
the war is over.
Unfortunately,
That Looks Like A 50 Star Flag And The Flag In The 1800s Did Not Have 50 States
To Be Stars Until 1959.
We
go back to Julian and Beth as Beth says that is quite an origin to this town.
She likens it to something from Lovecraft or Poe and Julian drinks to those two
masters of horror. He says their monsters were only in their head before they
put them to page while the monsters here are on the parks and streets. Beth
then says that now Catherine is caught up in this history, which Julian says
the minute she got caught up in the fabric of this town, she was lost.
Julian
reveals he was lucky enough to just watch the murderous parade pass by. It is
at this point that Beth reveals she was more than a journalist, but a close
friend to Catherine. Apparently, Catherine told Beth that her uncle Julian
poisoned her mind with the horrible tales of this town to the point that she
turned into a killer. Beth then reveals a switchblade and kills Julian with it.
The
last words Julian says to Beth before he dies is “Welcome To Oldfield.” And that
ends the movie.
Despite
the movie being called From A Whisper To A Scream in most places, the
distributers in the good ole US of A decided they needed to pack this film with
another film The Outing as part of a double feature and to pair it, they called
it to The Offspring (even though as we showed only one story had an offspring
of any kind in it). It barely made its budget back with it making $1.3 million
out of a $1.1 million budget so it was a disappointment. At the time of its
release, the critical reception was mixed at best and several actors in the
film, namely Vincent Price, hated the film. Despite being in a zombie themed
action comedy called Dead Heat and his last film being in a dark fantasy
romance film called Edward Scissorhands, this was his last straight up horror
movie he ever did and expressed huge regret for being in this film, saying his
agent misrepresented what the movie was until he had basically signed the
contract and was stuck with doing the film. But ever since it came on home media,
it has gotten a bit of a following. Also this helped several people including
Jeff Burr get better work. Jeff Burr would become more of a horror director and
pretty much, many of the big names associated to this movie still went on to
have decent careers.
Unfortunately,
as with this being mostly an older cast, plenty of names have since passed
away. This was the last film Angelo Rossotti (who played Tinker) was ever in
and in 1991, he died at the age of 83 due to complications from surgery. Vincent
Price (who played Julian White) passed away in 1993 at the age of 82 from lung
cancer and emphysema. Harry Caesar (who played Felder Evans) left this mortal
coil in 1994 at the age of 66 due to complications from diabetes. Cameron
Mitchell (who played Sgt. Gallen) also died in 1994 at the age of 75 from lung
cancer. Rosalind Cash (who played the Snakewoman) passed away in 1995 at the
age of 56 from cancer. Bob Hannah (who played Harry Essex) suffered a heart
attack and passed away at the age of 57. Lawrence Tiernay (who played the
Warden during the execution scene) left this mortal coil in 2002 at the age of
82 from pneumonia. Miriam Byrd-Nethery passed away in 2003 at the age of 73
from cancer. Susan Tyrrell (who played Beth Chandler) left this mortal coil in
2012 at the age of 67 from Essential Thrombocytosis (a rare disease where your
body produces more blood platelets that will eventually stick together and form
blood clots). Gene Witham (who played Jack McCoy) had congestive heart failure
and died of it at the age of 68 in 2014. Clu Gulager (who played Stanley Burnside) died
this year at the age of 93 from natural causes.
My
personal thoughts on this film is that it is okay, but it really should have
been better than it was considering the cast. My biggest critique is that it
was all a completely depressing film and while most of the stories did deserve
the character to die, we did not need the ending of the carnival story as
Amarrillis deserved a better ending than to be stuck at the carnival for the
rest of her natural life. But the acting was pretty good and the effects were
really good. Also, there really are so many better horror anthologies out there
so while not bad, it isn’t really one I am going to go back to if I want to see
a horror anthology.
Now
there was a NCAA Tournament pick’em back in March that had the reward being
this next induction and GreyFMDan won it. The film he chose is a film that is
an older film, but one that definitely deserves an induction and one that will
be easy to watch.
