Leofwine_draca This little-seen film blends together a myriad of classic horror themes, such as ghosts, crawling hands, wrong doings and curses. It's a classic example of British horror, set in a standard haunted house (there's even a graveyard nearby). Early '70s fashions are sadly non-existent here, as it's a period piece and all the costumes are of the historical variety, although there's nothing wrong with that. While the plot for the film is a typical (and dare I say clichéd) one, it has plenty of incident to keep it moving and loads of different ingredients to make it enjoyable. However, the winning formula for this film is the cast.Ian Ogilvy (WITCHFINDER GENERAL), Stephanie Beacham (INSEMINOID), Patrick Magee (DEMENTIA 13), and Herbert Lom (ASYLUM) all act convincingly and enjoyably in their roles. Ogilvy doesn't get to do much but look haunted as the husband, but Beacham is on top form here, giving it her all as the screaming victim. Magee is fine as usual, while the fantastic Lom adds yet another cruel character to his resumé. As soon as Peter Cushing arrives, playing a doctor with a dodgy toupee, the fun really begins and things get even better. Cushing's performance is as usual, excellent, but all performances from a cast well familiar to the horror fan are varied and good.The sheer diversity of different ingredients in this film make it work, and I advise you to sit it through in order to witness a most amusing moment at the end, when Ian Ogilvy dashes Herbert Lom's skeleton apart against his tomb - serve him right, the nasty old man. You also get the classic "crawling hand" prop, which was reused by various studios throughout the 60's and 70's - spotting it is half the fun! AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS may not break any new boundaries in the horror genre but it's a good, solid, old-fashioned ghost story and it's very entertaining, with exactly the same quaint and brooding atmosphere as a quality Hammer horror piece.

Liam and Pearl O'Hanlon (goodbadmovieblog) Hallelujah for 1970's horror movies! Otherwise we would have very little to laugh about in life. The acting was over done and the effects were terrible, but then again, would we have 70s horror movies any other way?Nope!There were a few unbelievable elements to the film. Like the fact that although Dr Pope is in the Room while the family doctor is killed, he doesn't seem to see how or by whom the doctor is killed. There was also a fair amount of Damsel-in-Distress style fainting and some of the most ridiculous hats I have ever witnessed in a period film. And of course there was that horror movie classic of having it rain/thunder during the climax of the film. Seriously, have you guys ever noticed how many horror films do that? But seriously now, other then the slightly overacting, and the terrible rubber hand which you can all witness in the trailer, this was a fairly enjoyable film. A little predictable maybe but most horror movies follow the same sort of basic menu; Beautiful girl, evil curse, add a few ghosts, some stage screams and some eerie wind effects and stir well, and POOF! You have a scary movie. But despite this we still quite enjoyed it as we are huge scary movie fans, regardless of what decade they come from.

fedor8 The title delivers on its promise - unfortunately. Women screaming their butts off is not why I watch horror films, it's IN SPITE OF IT that I watch them.The beautiful Stephanie Beacham (Catherine) doesn't have to wait long until she gets to starts screaming. She screams, gets attacked by a "crawling hand", then screams again, then gets attacked by a mutt, screams some more, then falls down a flight of stairs, screams again, then her scream becomes laughter (gets hysterical), and then she loses her mind (sort of). What astoundingly resilient fetuses those demonic unborns make! You simply can't prevent a red-marked Gorbachev from being born, you simply can't. If there is any message in ANTSS, it's that one.One question: why does Gorbachev Sr put a curse on Lom's descendants instead of on Lom himself? Lom rapes his virgin wife on their honeymoon, so I'd sort of expect that Lom gets the brunt of the curse, not some distant-in-the-future relatives. That's like someone hitting you in the face and you taking revenge by hitting the chair on which the guy who smacked you used to sit. (OK, perhaps not an ideal analogy.) Lom was presented as a debaucherous, immoral, hedonistic rapist, so why would he care if his descendants got cursed? Gorbachev: "Your children and your children's children will be cursed!" Lom: "Oh, yeah? Big deal. Better them than me. Cheerio!" I must admit that this whole curse business confounds me somewhat, because more often than not the curses (in these movies) fail to punish the perpetrator. To the movie's defense, the 5th Commandment wraps up the movie in the final scene. "Thou shalt have thine 3rd and 4th generation offspring cursed" or something like that. Not that the Great Book makes much more sense than ANTSS's script. Why the all-Just all-Forgiving all-Merciful God would punish those innocent of a crime is beyond me. Not to mention the strange decision/rule to make the curse run its course after the 4th generation. The 5th generations can relax, no more need for panic.Additionally, by cursing the future generations of a man, you are also cursing the spouses of the cursed, i.e. men and women who are NOT part of that genetic line. So what really happens is that for every additional generation that you curse, each curse gets "watered down", for want of a better term. In the 2nd generation it is 50% effective, 50% targets the innocent. In the 3rd generation it is 25% effective etc. Hence perhaps why God decided to limit all curses to the 4th generation. "Alright, alright, the curse loses its percentage value drastically with every passing generation, so I'll let you off the hook after the 4th generation." Hallelujah!

Michael_Elliott And Now the Screaming Stars! (1973) *** (out of 4) A new bride moves into her husband's castle where she soon finds herself being haunted by a severed hand and other ghoulish images. Soon when she's near madness her husband calls in a professional (Peter Cushing) to solve the mystery. This is a rather interesting Amicus Production that manages to serve a few creepy moments as well as a wonderful ending. Although Cushing gets top billing he's only got a small supporting role and doesn't even show up until nearly the fifty-minute mark.