Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1969
The House That Screamed (1969 film)
Buy The House That Screamed (1969 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The House That Screamed' , also released as 'The Boarding School', is a 1969 Spanish horror film written and directed by Narciso Ibez Serrador. The film stars Lilli Palmer as Seora Fourneau, the headmistress of a nineteenth-century French boarding school for girls where the students begin to disappear under unusual circumstances.
Plot
In a 19th-century French boarding school for troubled girls, Headmistress Seora Fourneau (Lilli Palmer) forbids her teenage son Luis (John Moulder-Brown) from going near any of the girls, finding none of them good enough for him. Eighteen-year-old Teresa Garan (Cristina Galb) arrives at the school to be enrolled, and notices odd occurrences at the boarding school from the moment of her arrival, specifically the sense of being watched or followed.
Seora Forneau, a strict disciplinarian, abuses the unruly students by means of beatings and flagellation, with the help of Irene Tupan (Mary Maude), a senior student whom she has taken as a protg. When one of the girls goes missing one night, Irene is blamed by Seora Forneau for not keeping close account of the keys that allow entry in and out of the school. Meanwhile, Teresa begins a romance with Luis, but grows increasingly unnerved by the atmosphere of the school and the multiple disappearances of students. She is also bullied by her peers, who torment her because of her mother's past as a prostitute.
In the middle of the night, Teresa plans an escape. Irene awakens to her leaving, and rushes outside to the gate, hoping to stop her. Teresa first goes to say goodbye to Luis, who gives her money from his savings to help her with travel expenses. As Teresa attempts to break out of a window downstairs, she is attacked and has her throat slashed. Irene returns to the school later and finds the windowsill in the parlor soaked with rainwater from the storm. Irene confronts Seora Fourneau, insisting that Teresa could not have escaped; she also tells her she plans to leave the school, and will blackmail Fourneau over her abuses if necessary. Fourneau forces Irene to hand over her keys.
Later that evening, Seora Fourneau catches Irene attempting to escape, and follows her as she flees upstairs, eventually hiding in the attic. Seora Fourneau ascends to the attic, where she finds Irene stabbed to death, and her hands severed from her body. In a secret chamber of the attic, Seora Fourneau finds her son with a corpse made up of various female body parts. Seora Fournea realizes Luis' frustrated desires have forced psychotic urges to the surface, compelling him to stalk the hapless girls to acquire body parts in order to create his own "ideal woman". Luis then locks up his mother in the room with his new creation so that she can get acquainted with her future "daughter-in-law".
Cast
* Lilli Palmer as Seora Fourneau
* Cristina Galb as Teresa Garan
* John Moulder-Brown as Luis Fourneau
* Mary Maude as Irene Tupan
* Maribel Martn as Isabel
* Cndida Losada as Seorita Despez
* Pauline Challoner as Catalina
* Toms Blanco as Pedro Baldie
* Vctor Israel as Brechard
* Teresa Hurtado as Andrea
* Mara Jos Valero as Elena
* Conchita Paredes as Susana
* Ana Mara Pol as Claudia
* Mari Carmen Duque as Julia
* Paloma Pags as Cecelia
Production
'La residencia' was director Narciso Ibez Serrador's first horror film. The screenplay is based on a story by Juan Tbar. Serrador wrote the screenplay under the name "Luis Penafiel."
The film was created as a commercial film with the express purpose of breaking into the international market, and was in part funded by the Spanish government. Filming took place in Comillas, Cantabria, Spain. Because the film was made up of both English and Spanish actors, the film was shot with the actors performing in both English and Spanish languages. The film was dubbed entirely in English in post-production, making it the first Spanish film presented in English.
Release
The film was released in Spain in December 1969.
It later received a theatrical release in the United States as 'The House That Screamed' on July 21, 1971 through American International Pictures. In the United States, the film was given a GP rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. In an issue of 'Filmfacts' published in 1971, it was noted: "That 'The House That Screamed' should receive a mild 'GP' rating is ironic proof that there lingers in some minds a crazy kind of puritanical logic, the evils of which are so morbidly epitomized in this grisly horror film." The film was a financial success in Spain, becoming the highest-grossing movie in Spain up that time, grossing 45 million Spanish pesetas (roughly $640,000 U.S. dollars at the time) in its first six months and more than one million dollars by the end of the year
Director Narciso Ibez Serrador did not appreciate how the film had been promoted, stating that it was "terribly promoted, promoted with clichs". The film was released by American International Pictures in the United States and did not do well with contemporary American audiences.
Critical opinion
The film was released in Spain to very mixed reviews. Antonio Pelayo of 'Cinestudio' wrote a review questioning the budget of the film, stating that other Spanish directors could have produced "at least two films of the same technical standard". Prez Gmez of 'Resea' wrote a positive review, stating that the film was "respectable commercial cinema." Miguel Maras of 'Nuestro Cine' found the film disrespectful to cinema and audiences, stating that financial support for such films that "insult her/him, and consider her/him a retard whose subnormality needs to be fed". Maras also critiqued film critics who supported the film.
Film scholars have compared the film's narrative to that of 'Psycho' (1960), and have noted its "Oedipal and Sadean overtones."
Home media
The film was released on DVD as part of the Shout! Factory Double Feature series, where it was paired with 'Maneater of Hydra'. As with other releases in the series, the movie is viewable both with and without the Elvira commentary.
On December 27, 2016, the film was released on Blu-ray by Shout! Factory in North America. The release features the U.S. theatrical cut of the film, as well as an extended cut.
Notes
Sources
*
*
*
*
Buy The House That Screamed (1969 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1969