The Screaming Skull

This is two film reviews in one review so sorry for the length. This Screaming Skull review was written a long time ago. I just hadn’t got round to watching The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman yet. So they’re quite different types of review.

The Screaming Skull is a 1958 black and white horror film directed by Alex Nicol

I knew I was going to like The Screaming Skull from the beginning. A voiceover plays whilst we view a coffin in an empty room.

“The Screaming Skull is a motion picture that reaches its climax in shocking horror. Its impact is so terrifying it may have an unforeseen affect: it may kill you. Therefore its producers feel they must assure free burial services to anyone who dies of fright while seeing The Screaming Skull”

The film itself then starts and a newly wed couple are moving into the husband’s - Eric’s - house. He had lived there a few years before but left it when his last wife died, and is now returning. His new wife, Jenny, has never been here before surprisingly. Eric also has this amazing car (has anyone seen this and know what car that is?). Mickey the gardener it turns out has been looking after the house and garden. Mickey is a weird character who seems to be mentally impaired and unable to walk properly. Apparently he grew up with Eric’s ex-wife and has never got over her death. The couple are visited by the reverent and his wife and they welcome Jenny to the area. Here it is revealed that Jenny is very rich and that Eric’s last wife died by falling and smashing her skull. We also hear a lot of frog ribbeting and it dawned on me whilst watching it that I don’t think I’ve ever heard a frog ribbet in my life, do they really ribbet?

That night Jenny wakes in the middle of the night and hears banging. Eric isn’t in bed so she goes exploring. She sees the door banging in the wind and completely over reacts and runs into Eric’s arms when she sees him. They believe it is only Mickey wondering about after they find a lily pad and Eric scolds him. Jenny isn’t so harsh she tries to bond with Mickey and helps him in the garden. Mickey then takes her to Eric’s ex-wife’s grave and what a horrible grave it is. It’s a big tall pyramid thing with a horrible bust of a woman emerging from it. Mickey claims that he still hears her crying from the grave and he talks to a painting her (a very bad painting of her). Jenny is terrified and it is revealed that Jenny has recently been released from a sanatorium and she is now becoming unsure of her sanity again. Is it all in her mind? Is it Mickey? Why is Eric always away when it happens? Is there really a ghost?

After the opening I was quite optimistic about what was

to come. Then we had Jenny getting really scared at nothing and my hopes fell but it did then become really good again. The scenes were Jenny was walking around the house at night were really atmospheric and creepy and I imagine would have been great in the cinema. The music was always spot on and bolstered the spookiness. The house itself inside was quite dark and old in effect. It was a very well told story and well put together. You were never quite sure what exactly is going on. Who is the culprit? And even when certain questions are answered further mystery takes hold. It did have quite a horrifying ending and even though it used very basic special effects I think the simplicity only added to the overall effect. I think Alex Nicol done a superb job directing this piece and he also played Mickey in the film and I think he put up a great performance. The woman who played Jenny wasn’t the greatest actress but she was alright and the other performances were generally acceptable.

Overall a pretty good horror film. It only lasts 63 minutes and I’d recommend it to anyone and would love to watch it gain on a cinema screen.

The Werewolve vs. The Vampire Woman

What’s it all about then?

The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman starts with two gentleman from the 70s in the 70s about to do a post mortem on a body. Somewhere in the background in this scene a cat is making an awful lot of pained noises but no-one seems to care. The doctor is all a science-y and full of logic. He refuses to believe in werewolves or suchlike whilst his accomplice (who doesn’t seem to have a reason for being there) is all a superstitious and spouts on about this body being that of a vampire. Seeing a pentagonal shape on the mans chest he is sure of it. To doctor will have none of it and so removes the silver bullet from the man. Uh oh spaghettio - werewolf time.

Then we have our nice opening credits complete with a female vampire in black veil and cloak running around ruins in slow motion with some eerie music.

Somewhere in Spain a guy who looks like Jude Law is browsing through some postcards in what appears to be a club as there are loads of people dancing and drinking with music in the background but maybe that’s where you go for postcards in Spain. Anyway he’s talking to the funny skinned woman called Elvira about her thesis. She’s chosen a very practical subject for her degree - blackmagic. She’s going out somewhere in La France to find the last resting place of Countess Wandesa Darvula de Nadasdy (you can bet I had to look that up on IMDb). This woman is infamous performing Black Sabbaths and drinking the blood of virgins to stay young forever. So off she goes with her more attractive friend Genevieve.

They get lost and come upon Waldemar Daninsky, a gentleman who walks around throughout the entire film like a bored grumpy teenager. He asks them to stay with them and they agree. They tell them of their quest and he says nothing which for some reason freaks them out so they leave the table and go to bed.

They find the vampire woman’s grave (which didn’t really seem all that hidden. It even said what it was on it in big letters.) and so rather expectantly she comes back to life and so we have a vampire on the loose and werewolf. Interesting eh?

What I thought

Despite being a rather bad film I liked it.

So the good points first:

This film is a “versus” film and I love the very idea of a versus film. Where the film makers just grab two (or more. The more the better) fictional characters or whatever and throw them against each other. Of course the idea is not exactly the product of some massive wave of inspiration and is definitely a profit driven, hey ho, sorta idea but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna be all bad and this film wasn’t all bad.

The vampire woman for one really impressed me. The opening credits were incredibly eerie with her running about like one of the Ring Wraiths in slow motion, and throughout she’s in slow motion with her capes fluttering behind her; always accompanied by the same ghostly music. A really nice touch.

Secondly the film was shot around this ruined castle that was very unique for this sort of film but really fitted. It wasn’t so much your dark gothic wintry looking castle but the ruins of a Mediterranean castle and they seemed quite extensive. It looked great during all the vampire scenes.

The acting was not terrible. The only actor who seems to have any sort of fame is Paul Naschy who play Waldemar Daninsky. This film is apparently one of a series of films starring this character who was always portrayed by Naschy. The women weren’t terribly great actors but obviously hired to just look the part. The vampire woman especially I think looked especially apposite. The director was Leon Klimovsky and this low budget scene was his whole area and to be fair to the man I think he done a good enough job of directing. I think some of the scenes really did look good.

It’s quite horror-y. There are bloody murders and mystery. There’s beheadings and bloody stakings. A very creepy vampire woman who’s accompanied by the warbly ghostly singing of some woman. Not especially scary I don’t think but it’s a nice horror flick.

Whether to categorise this as an advantage or disadvantage I’m unsure but there was a lot of “almost lesbianism” in this film. It was just about to …and then, no, nothing happened. Daninsky’s mad sister before trying to strangle Elvira strokes her breasts a lot first for no apparent reason and the female vampires can get a little touchy but it never materialises much to my dismay.

Now for the bad stuff. What didn’t I like?

Well for one, who let Jackie Stallone do the make up? The make up looked disgusting and caked on. So much so I’m commenting on something I wouldn’t normally notice. One barmaid looked liked she’d had a bag of flour just poured over her face and there were far too many close ups of Elvira’s canvas of a face.

There were some strange plot moments. Seriously at the dinner table (the pretty glamorous over the top burnished dinner table) the girls mention that they’re looking for the grave of yer woman and yer man Daninsky says nothing and they just look scared and get up and leave rather rudely. There didn’t seem to be a reason for it. Then Elvira starts whinging on about how she’s all suspicious of him. For what!? Well she gives the justification that “Did you see the way the table was laid? That was a woman’s touch” What the hell is she on about? Maybe he’s just especially neat or especially gay. Anyway she later changes her mind. The very next day in the film she tells him she loves him and can’t bare to be without him! Before this she didn’t really seem to talk to him all that often and even then it’s been a day for God’s sake. Get out more woman.

There was also this random scene where Elvira is in the car with Daninsky’s man-servant and this dude (who is almost definitely my old chemistry teacher) just rambles on and on about absolutely nothing. He’s gone in the head. He just says weird things like “Many women I do like. Not at all” What on earth was that scene about? The dude was a rapist that’s for sure. He makes a rapist-esque reappearance as well.

The special effects that there was weren’t anything special. The werewolf’s transformation was just done by him falling off camera and then reappearing a little hairier and so on. He didn’t really transform into a wolf man either just a really hairy man like those real people who are just really hairy in real life. Sorta like the hairy priests in that episode of Father Ted (referencing Father Ted seems to be popular on Ciao) There’s also a bit where a very fake spider is clearly lowered by a string onto Elvira’s hand.

The film quality was pretty poor as well. It was really dark and in some of the night scenes it was impossible to tell what was going on. There was one scene were there was a lot of screaming and grunting and then I saw the dead body of some dude who I hadn’t seen in the film already.

Of Importance

Vampires cannot drink blood without spilling some of it down the side of their mouth.
Vampire women are usually hot and will do lesbian things if the camera man would give them the time.
Setting the table effeminately does not go down well with students studying black magic history.
Vampires move very slowly.
Jude Law was about and acting in the 70s.
When the vampire was hunting Elvira down cause she needed the blood of a virgin why didn’t Daninsky do the honourable thing? (You know what I mean)
Leather jackets stop knives. Checkered shirts don’t.

Who I’d Punch

Daninsky’s mad sister. I didn’t like her cheek bones one bit.

Overall

I wouldn’t recommend it. You the average person (even if you are on Ciao) won’t like it. If you’re the type of person who would like this film then you just know. It wasn’t anything special to me and if I got saw the other Daninsky films going cheap I might give them a go. It’s a cheap DVD set with The Screaming Skull added on. Not to be sniffed at. Also bear in mind The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman is dubbed. Quite well to be fair but it is noticeable. The Screaming Skull is probably the superior of the two by the way.

Written by Phelim McC. Don’t steal it, it’s from Lurgan