The Screaming Skull Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Screaming Skull is a 1958 horror movie directed by Alex Nicol and starring John Hudson and Peggy Webber.

Jenni(Webber) and Eric(Hudson) are newlyweds. They are moving into a new house which belongs to Eric. There is a gardener there called Mickey(Alex Nicol). Eric had a previous marriage. His wife died in an accident where she hit her head. Jenni and Eric meet Reverend Snow(Russ Conway) and his wife. Jenni talks to Mickey and discovers that he was close with the first wife. It is revealed that Jenni lost her parents in a drowning accident years ago. Jenni begins hearing noises in the house at night. Eric thinks that it was Mickey and he tells her that it's nothing. Jenni finds the gardener and she asks him to show her where the first wife is buried. He tells her that he heard the wife, Marion, crying in the night. Jenni begins to have bad dreams. She hears screams and goes to look. She finds a skull. She also hears knocking. 

Jenni was in an asylum after the death of her parents. She wonders if she is losing her mind and she asks Eric to call in the doctor. He tells her that it must be Mickey who is behind it. Reverend Snow comes to see her and she tells him that she was in a sanitarium and about her parents.She saw them die and it affected her. Snow tells Eric that he should take Jenni away to help her. Eric will not do it. He has an argument with Mickey and tells him to get out. Eric decides to burn a portrait of his first wife. He tells Jenni to set it alight. They hear screaming and a skull emerges from the ashes. Jenni faints. Eric puts the skull into the pond. Mickey sees him. Eric is going to take Jenni back to the sanitarium. Eric goes to the pond to get the skull out, but it isn't there. He chases after Mickey, thinking that he took it.

Eric hits Mickey and he threatens him. Mickey has the skull and he brings to Reverend Snow. He wonders what is going on. Jenni sees a figure in the garden and it follows her. She runs into the house screaming. Eric tries to kill her. Eric sees what he thinks is Marion's ghost ad he panics. The skull seems to be coming after him. He falls into the pond and drowns. Jenni wakes up and she finds the Snows have come. They help her. Reverend Snow finds Eric's body in the pond. It turns out that he was after her fortune and he wanted to kill her and make it look like suicide so he could inherit everything. The Snows take Jenni away as Mickey goes to the pond and talks to someone or something. It seems like there is a woman in there, suggesting that it is the ghost of Marion.

This is a fun film. It is pretty short and there isn't much in it that will shock or creep you out, but the story is good and the ending is decent. I liked it and I definitely recommend it for an old style horror treat. I will give it 5/10.

Blood Feast a.k.a. The Night of a Thousand Cats Movie Review

Trailer here.

Blood Feast is a 1972 horror movie directed by Rene Cordona Jr. and starring Hugo Stiglitz and Anjanette Comer.

The movie begins with a playboy called Hugo(Stiglitz) who flies into his castle with a woman. They are met by his servant, Dorgo. The place is strange and the woman starts to feel uncomfortable. There are loads of cats there. Hugo takes the woman on a tour of his weird castle. He has human heads in jars. He tells her that they are made of wax, but you just know that this woman is going to end up with her head in a jar! She wants to leave but Hugo murders her. He feeds bits of her to the cats. Dorgo shoves the rest of the body into an incinerator. He keeps her scarf as a memento. Hugo goes off looking for a new victim.

He has his eye on a woman called Cathy(Comer). He flies over her house in his helicopter,which isn't creepy at all! He keeps spying on her until he gets her to come with him and visit his cats. She has a husband, though so she can't stay. A doctor calls to the castle as his car has broken down. He ends up being fed to the horde of cats. Cathy's husband comes back from his trip. Hugo is outside staring. He gets himself a new lady. He doesnt want to kill her. He likes her but she ends up dead too. Hugo doesn't want to give up on Cathy. He flies over her house again. He kidnaps her daughter and he brings her to his castle of death. Cathy comes to the castle and he tries to feed her to this gang of kitties. She runs off and he pursues her. She makes a hole in the fence of the kitties pen and they break out. They run after Hugo and they kill him and eat him. How's that for karma? Cathy escapes and the kitties meow at their dead master.

This film isn't very good.The real horror here is the way the main actor handled those cats. I don't think that the poor cats were treated very well. It's a little dodgy and I felt a bit uncomfortable at the end of this. This isn't one that I would watch again. I'm giving it a 2/10.