Product Details

• Actors: Guy Buccola (II), George Cisar, Ken Clark, Michael Emmet, Joseph Hamilton
• Format: Black & White, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Elite Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 2, 2001
• Run Time: 136 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630580396X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,670 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "The Screaming Skull/Attack of the Giant Leeches - Drive-In Discs Vol.1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In an effort to re-create a genuine drive-in experience in the comfort of your own living room, Elite Entertainment has paired up two horror films with nothing in common, tossed in a couple of cartoons, and dredged up a night's worth of intermission fillers. Alex Nicol's The Screaming Skull is an eerily effective little psycho-thriller about a newlywed (Peggy Webber) who moves into her husband's secluded mansion and becomes haunted by the ghost of his first wife. Borrowing liberally from Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (in particular the titular skull that follows our traumatized heroine around ), Nicol gives it a Southern Gothic twist with a decaying old mansion, a "slow," childlike handyman, and a strangling, overgrown setting. The Giant Leeches is another story, a swamp trash take on Creature from the Black Lagoon with floppy rubber creatures trawling the everglades for victims. They're as scary as a garbage bag and about as distinct too, but the real fun is the film's hothouse melodrama of hick poachers and hot-to-trot hillbilly adulterers. The giant bloodsuckers are explained away in classic fashion: "Maybe our proximity to Cape Canaveral has something to do with it."

Elite's transfers are better than one would expect, a little soft perhaps but clear, clean, and intact, and they've both been effectively letterboxed. They've also gone the extra mile to complete the drive-in experience with the alternate "Distort-O" audio option. Select the track and listen to the glorious low-fi reproduction of the tinny, buzzy drive-in speaker sound. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is DVD? "The Screaming Skull" deserves better., January 23, 2001

By	Hans Kellner "sophiesoph" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

Look, I know that "The Screaming Skull" is no "Citizen Kane." It's an atmospheric cheapie that has endeared itself to me primarily through my vivid memories of Saturday afternoon TV. But that's no excuse for the cruddy treatment it receives on this well-packaged but technically and--yes--artistically abysmal DVD. I compared the disc with an old VHS copy and noted the following: missing shots, entire chunks of missing dialogue, bad splices, letterboxing (!) that crops and cramps the image, a generally dark and muddy transfer, and a phony digital end title card. This is DVD? Some of the cuts actually make hash of the plot. For example, a character screams in terror when she sees a macabre painting. But since the DVD omits the shots of the painting, her screaming makes no sense. Subsequent dialogue about the painting is jettisoned as well. So when the painting suddenly appears in a later scene, a crucial plot twist can register only as a confusing "huh?" Other omissions completely undermine the relationship between two of the movie's characters. On the basis of this disc, it's no wonder that people think so little of this movie. If Elite Entertainment couldn't be bothered to find an adequate print of the movie, why bother with all the "drive-in" extras? "The Screaming Skull" is a frequently creepy (and, okay, occasionally funny) movie that deserves more than its role here as the peg on which to hang a marketing concept. Look for it on VHS. Avoid this disc.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The poor picture-quality can be improved, February 27, 2007

By	David33496 (boca raton, florida United States) - See all my reviews

The movies are good, but the picture-quality is poor on Leeches and average on Skull. When i changed the setting on my dvd-player from 4:3ps to 4:3lb, it got better.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A whole new experienc, March 28, 2001

By	Cherryl Weaver "Realtor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was very surprised to pop this disc into my DVD player and actually feel like I was transported back to the experience of going to a drive in theater. Who would have guessed you could add sounds like banging on the car trunk and people walking in gravel or someone next to you yelling to turn out your lights. This is a remarkable use of the technology available on DVD and I have never before seen or heard this used in such a unique fashion. OK so Screaming Skull and Attack of the Giant Leeches are goofy "B" film movies, this disc was worth every penny.