Customer Reviews

From a Whisper to a Scream

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

 

 

The 80s saw a mini-resurgence of the horror anthology film format popularized in the 60s and 70s, primarily by a studio out of England called Amicus (affectionately known as `The Studio That Dripped Blood'). This new crop included The Monster Club (1980), Creepshow (1982), and this little, late entry nugget titled From a Whisper to a Scream (1987) aka The Offspring, to name a few...co-written and directed by Jeff `Mr. Sequel' Burr (Stepfather II, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Puppet Master 4), the film includes some notable performers like Vincent Price (The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Monster Club), Clu Gulager (The Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge), Rosalind Cash (Tales from the Hood), and Susan Tyrrell (Big Top Pee-wee, Cry-Baby). Also appearing is Terry `Bernie' Kiser (Weekend at Bernie's, Mannequin: On the Move), Harry `Grandville' Caesar (The Longest Yard), Cameron Mitchell (The Toolbox Murders, The Swarm), Ron Brooks (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), Miriam Byrd-Nethery (Stepfather II), and Martine Beswick (Thunderball, One Million Years B.C., Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde) in a small, but memorable part.

The movie is comprised of four tales of grotesque ghoulishness, tied together with a fifth, or wraparound story, featuring Price as a librarian/historian of the little southern town of Oldfield, Tennessee (Tenneseeing is believing!). Seems the town, which has a dark and troubled past, draws upon people to do nasty things...the first tale proper features an almost unrecognizable Gulager as Stanley Burnside, a mild, mousy man with about the thickest pair of glasses I've ever seen. Anyway, Stanley's got the hots for a babe he works with, but she seems hardly interested (not surprising as Stanley's got an creepy `albino' vibe going on). Stanley finally manages to wrangle a date, but things go from bad to worse (worse being murder) as an obviously repressed Stan loses his cool (I'm thinking he probably should have tossed one off prior to the date). Things get particularly weird as Stan wants a second date, even if he has to break into the funeral home to do so...the second story, set about thirty years earlier than the first, features Kiser as Jesse Hardwicke, a two-bit hood who, after being betrayed by his girlfriend, is shot, left for dead, and found by a resident of the swamp played by Caesar. Turns out the old man practices some kind of voodoo, and has a valuable secret which Jesse, being the greedy, ungrateful, rat slimeball he is, will stop at nothing to acquire. The third story, set in the 30s, features Rosalind Cash as a cruel and sadistic owner of a traveling carnival show that stops in Oldfield. Seems most everyone who works for her has done something bad in their past, and now she provides them protection, asking only one thing in return...complete and utter devotion. Did I mention she's a witchy woman? The trouble begins as one of her `performers' tries to break free of her grasp. The fourth and final story is set near the end of the civil war, and features Cameron Mitchell as an a-hole leader of a small group of Union soldiers separated from their unit. Learning that the war has actually ended, the group decides to sack and pillage some towns, Oldfield being first on the list. They get waylaid though, by a band of local orphans who've got plans of their own.

I liked the overall structure of the film, in that the intent being to show how the town was build on a history of violence, starting from the present and working back in reverse, chronological order. As far as the individual stories, they were hit and miss. The first was okay (Gulager especially good), but lacked the strong twist I was hoping for...it could have delivered a more powerful punch had the director not telegraphed the ending with text displayed on the screen (if you've seen the film, you probably know what I mean). The second tale, however, did have a most excellent twist, and turned out to be the best of the bunch, in my opinion. It kept things simple, which is probably why it worked better than the others. This one actually reminded me a lot of the stories from the old EC comics like Tales of the Crypt, or The Vault of Horror. The third story, the one about the traveling carnival, was my least favorite, as it had no real twist, was an anemic tale, and contained a whole lot of really bad acting, especially by Ms. Cash, who proved she could chew up the scenery as well as anyone. The other thing it had a whole lot of was blood in a spectacularly pointless sequence. I liked the fourth story about as much as I liked the third, which is to say not a whole lot. It was interesting, and showed some promise, but eventually petered out, especially in terms of the expected twist ending. And then there's the wrap around story...Vincent Price, looking pretty aged here, adds a lot to anything he's in, as he was an actor with incredible screen presence, along with being a consummate professional...too bad he wasn't utilized better than he was here. I did like the notion of who his character was and how he presented the stories, but again, there was something lacking, and I grew tired of his character continually harping on the evil inherent in the town (yeah, we got the point by now). The wraparound pieces in these horror anthologies general tend to be weak, but this one is especially flaccid. Overall the direction throughout is solid, but the writing was lacking in general, producing one, really good tale, one so-so, and two not so hot. I do enjoy a good horror anthology, and while I felt the effort was here, I have seen better...

The picture is presented in both fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) on this DVD. The picture quality is decent, but I did notice some slight `graininess' resulting in a lack of overall sharpness. It's not terrible, but I think it could have been cleaned up a little. The Dolby Digital mono audio comes through well enough. The only extra feature is a poor looking theatrical trailer for the film, which really is much of a feature, but oh well...

Cookieman108

If you enjoy horror anthologies like this, I'd recommend checking out some other films like Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1967)*, The House That Dripped Blood (1970)*, Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972)*, From Beyond the Grave (1973), and The Vault of Horror (1973). Not all are available on DVD at this time, but should be...

*denotes film is available on DVD in the states, as I write this (Torture Garden was just recently released).

1987's FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM (a.k.a. THE OFFSPRING) is a horror anthology that offers four fear vignettes tied together by a weak, though well-acted, wraparound featuring genre great Vincent Price. Price portrays the town librarian of Oldfield, Tennessee, whose niece has been executed for a series of brutal killings. When a reporter (Susan Tyrell) comes snooping around for the "story behind the story," Price explains that it is the town and its history that drove his niece to become a serial killer, and he illustrates his point by telling four supposedly true stories from the town's historical archives.

Yarn #1 is about a sexually repressed milquetoast who kills and then rapes women to relieve his urges, but one of his victims returns from the grave seeking revenge...or at least child-support payments. This story is the lamest of the four. Segment #2 is about a small-time thug who stumbles across the secret to eternal life. Only problem is, the secret rests with an old hermit who practices voodoo, and the hermit isn't keen on giving up his knowledge. Story #3 also involves voodoo, only this time it's a voodoo priestess who uses her powers to create freaks and geeks for her travelling sideshow. When one performer decides he can no longer stomach a life in show biz, he suffers more than a mere case of indigestion. The final segment is about a troupe of Union Soldiers who stumble into the hands of a band of Confederate orphans. Their minds tainted by the horrors they've seen, the children have formed their own theist government and plan to dish out some justice to the hapless Yanks. It's not hard to see the influence of William Golding's novel LORD OF THE FLIES on this yarn, and though one might also compare it to the screen adaptation of Stephen King's CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984), this one is actually more chilling.

The wraparound ends the flick with a bit of a surprise ending, but it still just not as interesting as the individual segments. Though Price and Tyrell do an outstanding job with what they are given, each of the vignettes also feature stellar performers--performers such as Clu Gulager, Rosalind Cash, and Cameron Mitchell, to name but a few--and since they are working with better scripts, it makes the wraparound come off as a bit disappointing. Indeed, each of the individual segments, with the possible exception of #1, could certainly stand alone as a strong episode of TALES FROM THE CRYPT or NIGHT GALLERY.

Overall, then, most genre fans will really enjoy FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM, and the DVD from MGM will make a fine edition to any fan's collection. It's relatively no frills, offering only the theatrical trailer as bonus material, but the double-sided disc does offer the film in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) on one side and the full-screen butchery on the other. Well worth the very reasonable price of admission.

I really like "From a Whisper to a Scream", it caught me off guard. I was not expecting a truly depraved quartet of stories and was assuming it would be more in the vein of the Amicus Studios anthology films. Those were a little "cleaner" in their presentation and now seem dated. This film really captures the feel of the old "Tales from the Crypt" comic book and results in an excellent choice for horror fans. I especially liked seeing Vincent Price in the wrap around segments as he brings a nice air to the proceedings. The four stories themselves are truly "out there". They deal with things like zombie babies, glass eaters, voodoo and all the stuff that made the fifties comic book mentioned above worthwhile. The gore content is high and well executed, the acting is good and many fringe stars appear in this film. I think it is a great movie for Halloween. The only complaint is the last story is not as good as the other three. If you have a stomach for "unclean" horror, this will fit the bill.

With an unrecognizable Clu Gulager (but for his voice) . A terrific Vincent Price . Cameron Mitchell turning in good work and so on . Unfortunately , the various women (by and large) are often either underwritten or poorly written . That said , i'm going to get a copy of this fun and scary picture on dvd , after having streamed it . I love anthologies , and this is a pretty darn good one . It took me several weeks to see . Watching it , bit by bit and it still left me quite pleased and gratified . If you are a fan of this sort of film , i'll readily concede that the stories seem not much more than good comic book tales woven together . I like good comic books too . Must like moderate gore in order to enjoy . Here's bobbing at you .

I thought this horror anthology might be pretty good as it stars Vincent Price and the premise of four stories about a Tennessee town and the evil stuff that happened there from the Civil War to the late 20th century sounded intriguing. Vincent Price appears in the wraparound story that links the four tales and though still very recognizable he was definitely past his prime when he filmed this movie. As has become almost tradition in horror anthologies the wraparound ends with a "shock" that in this one seems totally unconvincing. Of the four feature stories the first THE OFFSPRING has a lot of chilling if very distasteful aspects but doesn't make much sense to anyone who gives it a second's thought even by the standards of the horror genre. The second story is probably the best though the plot and ending are nothing new to anyone who has watched THE TWILIGHT ZONE or anything similar on made for network TV though admittedly those TV offerings don't leave the viewer with such a gory image as the end of this. The third story is also "OK" especially if you like carnival freak shows and voodoo but the ending is very blood soaked plus the final "surprise" didn't really surprise me. And the last segment is set in the aftermath of the Civil War, stars some cannibal children and is nothing less than repulsive. So many better choices if you are in the mood for some short scary stories that sort of fit together into an anthology.

I have been a fan of Vincent Price and old school horror for years but I never heard of this modern day anthology until just recently. Perhaps I missed it when it was retitled THE OFFSPRING and only played what was left of the drive-in circuit in the mid to late 1980s before disappearing into the night. Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter because I have finally caught up with it and I'm glad I did. It's no secret, if you read my reviews, that I prefer older horror films to today's effects driven gorefests. It's not so much about the gore as it is about the lack of atmosphere and the lack of theatricality in the performances. FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM manages to have its cake and eat it too. It's an updated version of all those old Amicus anthology films giving us old style performances with new style gruesome effects. Think of TALES FROM THE CRYPT (the 1972 film) or NIGHT GALLERY as directed by Rob Zombie and produced by George Romero.

There are four different stories linked together by the 74 year old Vincent Price who expounds upon the evil inherent in his hometown of Oldfield Tennessee which causes people to do violent and murderous things. The first story has mild mannered Clu Gulager killing a co-worker and then receiving his comeuppance from her offspring who was conceived after she died. In the second a wounded man discovers the secret of an extremely long life but at an awful cost. Story number three is there to satisfy the gorehounds as it tells what happens to a carnival glasseater who crosses the woman who first gave him the power. The last tale involves renegade Yankee soldiers led by Cameron Mitchell and a devastated Southern town inhabited only by children. This town turns out to be Oldfield and what happens here is the origin of the town's evil nature. Well directed by Jeff Burr (PUPPET MASTER 4 & 5) on a really low budget, this film apparently sat on the shelf awhile which is too bad because it's very effective although some may find the stories a bit too cruel. The DVD transfer looks great. Recommended for fans of both the old and new schools of horror.

I remember watching this movie when I was a lot younger. It was called The offspring before being released on dvd. If you enjoy short horror stories like Tales from the Crypt,Nightmares,Bodybags etc. You'll definitely enjoy this one.

I like CreepShow 1 and 2 and Tales from the Darkside better than this. Vincent Price is a Legend and he is in here,the only reason worth watching but sadly you can tell he's not into it. The movie is boring and looks like one of those straight to video movies (the ones that are bad) or one you see on USA late night or with Billy Bob. Not much of a big deal.

I definitely remember this 80s classic! It was my introduction to both cinematic necrophelia and civil war-era gore! Vincent Price makes an excellent host, leading us into the thick of things. As far as horror anthologies go, FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is certainly one of the gooshiest!...

I was talking to a friend one day about horror movies, and my friend asked me if I had ever seen From a Whisper to a Scream. My friend basically looked at me as if I had eight heads and he responded with the comment and I quote "You have not seen this movie and you call yourself a horror fan?" so my friend in disgust refused to speak to me until I saw this movie. I found the movie for a decent price, and needless to say I was blown away by this movie, I went into viewing this movie not expecting much as I thought it was just going to be some cheesy horror movie, little did I know I would be proved wrong. There are a total of six stories in this movie and they are rather graphic and gory. The two that stuck out the most to me where the story about the necrophiliac, the love scenes between the guy and the dead girl was very disturbing, do not ask just see for yourself. My other favorite was the story of the glasseater, there is a seen in the movie where the glasseater meets his fate and I will say this in my years of watching horror movies this scene is probably the most gory and graphic scene I have ever seen, I challenge anyone to put anything up against it, nothing holds a candle to the madness that took place it that scene. This is a great movie and I ashamed that it took as long as it did for me to stumble upon this movie. Hope you enjoy this movie as much as I did.