Customer Reviews

Scream for Help [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Recently I watched this movie. The last time I seen it I believe I was fourteen years old. It was good then, and I still think it's good now. The movie is about a girl named Christy whom feels that her stepfather is trying to murder her mother, but nobody will believe her, especially her mother. This movie becomes very suspenseful with a scary ending.

This is easily one of the worst films ever made. When the sole rave review on the box is from the director of the movie ("SCREAM FOR HELP is one of the most terrifying scripts I've ever read."), you know what you're getting into. The best acting on display is one-dimensional (though most actors within are just coasting through, saying lines). As mentioned in other reviews, John Paul Jones' score is incredibly bombastic and over-the-top (though the closing theme, with cotton candy vocals by Yes' Jon Anderson, truly does inflict the killing blow). This movie has more laughs than many comedies. So many weird little details pop up on screen (our bosomy heroine wearing a t-shirt that proudly declares MUFFS, the way the school principal swings back and forth on his office chair, etc.) that you wonder if ANYONE directed this thing. You wonder what the set must have been like making this film and your mind reels.

I've returned to this film a number of times, thinking it can't be as weird as I remember it. And it never fails to show me something new every time. This is a very special motion picture.

I have to agree with Tony Lewis about the Dr's. blase way of saying "I'm sorry your daughter died". The other scene that stuck with me was When lacy informed christy cromwell that Paul fox got beaten up by the burgular", and that he will be back to kill her and her mother in about two hours. I have been watching this movie since i was fourteen, and am now thirty. My husband thinks i'm odd for watching this for 16 years! What a great movie!

Chelsea Johnson
Fairbanks, Alaska

The one scene from this movie that sticks out for me, is when Christie's friend gets hit by the car. The doctor comes out from surgery and curtly says..."I'm sorry, your daughter is dead."

Damn, no compassion. No tact. No sympathy.

Hilarious!!!

Do yourself a favor and check this one out. It is the most hilariously bad movie ever created. "Death Wish" 1/2/3 auteur Michael Winner outdoes himself with the terrible actors and way overblown musical score by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. (if you thought Jimmy Pages DW2 score was distracting, you ain't heard nothin' yet, folks). This is one so-bad-it's-good film that begs for a remake.

I can't begin to tell you how much I love this cheesy movie. From the weird pedophile of a Police Commissioner swinging back and forth in his chair while talking to the main character, Christy, you just expect him to ask her to jump aboard and take a swing herself...."Wanna ride little muff?" Then you have the main protagonist use the word "foible" which is a highly unused word if you ask me. The music is just the best I've ever encountered, even better than Blackenstein. Wow! The suspense! Where do I go from here? The death scenes are unbelievable. When Christy's best friend is hit by the mad driver, I don't know how they got the dummy to slide that fast...she went light years faster than the Millennium Falcon, but I also expected more blood during this event. I guess they couldn't do that though, being that the movie was so low budget, they used all of the blood when Christy's cherry got popped! I did love the way they abused the mother very much! The "Look Christy! No Hands" had me on the floor as well as the tangle of arms and legs every time she got pushed down the stairs. I never knew that this was going to be the comedy that it was. Then you have the doctor full of all of the sympathy of Charles Manson telling the family that their daughter is dead! That other review couldn't have said it better...."No compassion! No Tact! No Sympathy!" But they also left out...."No Academy Award" either! Damn! And we were all rooting for him! Well, if you have nothing better to do then waste an hour and a half that you'll never get back each and every time that you watch this movie, it's worth it! I'm up to 15 hours I'll never get back and I loved every minute of it! Enjoy!


Revision! Revision! Revision!



Yup! It's true! Once again I've been suckering into watching this movie again because I really needed the laugh. And like before, now I'm at 16 and a half hours lost to this awesome classic!

Sure, the acting's fair to middling, and the cinematography doesn't invoke oohs or aahs, but I enjoyed this movie. The presentation is a little weird, in that the film is basically a bunch of flashbacks, but we never actually get back to where we started from. You probably won't even notice, though, thanks to the film's energetic last half hour. Scream for Help doesn't have it all, but it does have a lot: a mysterious death, amateur sleuthing, raunchy sex, plenty of violence, explosions, romance, and - last but not least - a pretty hot young actress (Rachael Kelly). It also has several unintentionally humorous moments (such as the good doctor who obviously failed his bedside manner class), but I think all those little things actually make the film more endearing. Director Michael Winner wasn't exactly working with a big budget, you know.

Christie (Rachael Kelly) has had trouble adjusting to her parents' divorce and her mother's new marriage to Paul Fox (David Brooks), a smarmy fellow who used to work for his rich new wife. She even spent some time in therapy when it all went down. That's why no one believes her when she accuses Paul of trying to kill her mother. Even she would admit her evidence is all circumstantial at first, but that just makes her more determined to find out what the guy is up to. Not surprisingly, good old Paul is having an affair. Here is where Christie makes her big mistake: after her mother refuses to believe her story, she calls Paul out in front of her. A word to the wise - when you suspect someone of being a murderer, especially if that person lives in your own house, don't go telling him everything you've discovered. If you do that, you're basically just inviting the guy to go ahead and kill you off, too. As things quickly go from bad to worse, Christie has only one person taking her seriously. That would be Josh (Corey Parker), who starts out as her best friend's boyfriend.

The story gets a little more complicated as it moves along, setting the stage for a memorable last half hour in which Christie is forced to fight to keep both her mother and herself alive. Christie has no skills whatsoever in the art of running away when the bad guys are distracted, but she is a pretty resourceful young lady who refuses to take her own murder lying down. I love seeing girls stick it to the man.

I can't say the film ever takes on an atmosphere of deep suspense, but there's just something that makes Scream for Help much more entertaining than it has any right to be. Don't worry about the fact that the movie starts slowly and doesn't seem to be going anywhere interesting - it finds its groove about halfway through, developing into a pretty darn entertaining film. There is still a slight "you'll love it or you'll hate it" aura about it, but don't let the negative reviews convince you that Scream for Help is an object of universal scorn. I quite enjoyed this film.

The only thing I did not like about this film was the musical score. It truly grates on my nerves, so it's best to turn the sound down real low, as you view it. The acting is great, especially Sisto's performance, as the psycho dude. Now, if someone will take out the musical score and release this on DVD...... I would happily buy it!

When I first sat down to watch "Scream for Help" I was not particularly looking forward to it; I was simply bored one evening and didn't have anything else to do. But as this little known movie's story progressed and the tension built I admit to the film being-despite the mostly hammy performances, which only serves to add a sense of charm to the whole ordeal-a fairly captivating experience.

The story concerns young Christie Cromwell, whose wealthy mother has married the dashing Paul Fox, who stole Christie's mother away from her father, who strangely isn't in the film at all. Christie is convinced that Paul only married her mother so he can bump her off and inherit her fortune. Christie's suspicions only heighten when an electrical repairman is killed the day after Christie is awakened one night from hearing some strange noises that are coming from the lower levels of her house. While investigating, she discovers her step father emerging from the basement, and giving a half-a**ed lie about being in his study, despite being nowhere near his study.

From there Christie further plays the part of detective, enlisting the help of her friend Janie (I think that was her name) as well as Janie's boyfriend Josh Dealy, who also conveniently happens to be the son of the town's police chief.

Without giving too much away, this movie includes many memorable moments, such as a sequence where Christie is riding her bicycle around town spying on Paul while the overwrought soundtrack provided by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones is playing in the background, the death scene of one characters who gets very violently run over (As if there is any other way), Josh Dealy's aging dad sitting creepily in a chair with his legs splayed while swinging back and forth, Christie wearing a t-shirt that proudly displays the word "MUFFS," a man named Lacey, and the rather suspenseful ending, which is more satisfying then say, the entirety of the film "Panic Room." (Yes, I think this little B picture is better than Panic Room.)

That said, if you're looking for a film that isn't the least bit challenging, and provides some decent suspense as well as a few laughs, "Scream for Help" is the film for you.

I been watching this movie since i was little. It's still a good movie. It's has alot of suspense and also a mind blowing ending. A Must See.