The Suspense is Sheer Torture in ... "The House That Screamed"
The House That Screamed
The House That Screamed or La Residencia is a gothic-y Spanish horror film by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, the same guy who directed Who Can Kill a Child?. It's frequently compared to Italian supernatural horror/giallo master Dario Argento's Suspiria and I guess the two films have similarities in that they both take place at all-girls schools and have abusive headmistresses, but never once was I reminded of the Italian classic while watching this film. The House That Screamed does have a Hammer horror feel to it though because of the dark, gothic atmosphere.
It's certainly not a bad film but it drags at times and doesn't really stand out as anything special among the many other dark, gothic, evil governess/headmistress films out there. It has a few things going for it that make it worth watching, however. The acting is great, and the sets and gloomy, claustrophobic atmosphere are really the heart and soul of this film, but it's the ending that I liked the best and I'm sure it shocked the hell out of audiences back in 1969. It's similar to Lucky McKee's May which came out 33 years later and if you've seen that movie I guess I've just ruined the ending of The House That Screamed for you. My bad. "So many pretty parts and no pretty wholes."
"Nice bloomers, bitch."
Teresa, a young woman with a sordid past, is brought to a finishing school where she is to be taught the skills crucial to landing and keeping a husband. The girls are all pretty much bitches and the headmistress is the bitchiest of them all. Girls who do not adhere to the strict rules imposed at this school are sent to the "discipline chamber" where their attitudes are adjusted to the conformity desired by the bitchy headmistress. There's also a lot of sexual tension and sometimes encounters amongst the girls and any man who is lucky enough to penetrate the walls of the school. This includes the deliveryman and the headmistress's handsome but mentally slow son. The creepy, overprotective mother won't let her precious son have anything to do with the girls at the school because they aren't good enough for him like mommy is. She and her mentally incompetent boy also have some sort of incestuous thing going on which is never explicitly shown, but is obvious... and gross. He has flings with the girls at the boarding school anyway including Teresa, and these girls start to get murdered one by one. And just like the tagline of this film says, "only the killer knows why and how and who is next!"
It's a decent film, kinda slow but it has a good ending.
Violence Rating/Index: 2.5 out of 5 Booby Rating/Index: 1.5 out of 5
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