"Screaming Skull "

Review by Giggles (2/11/03)

OVERALL SCORE:6.5/10

As pointed out by Mike, this movie is all about mood and not about story. Borrowing for “Rebecca,” the shadow of a dead wife hangs over a mansion where a husband and new wife reside. I can summarize here only that the husband wants to convince his new wife she is insane by playing around with a skull and making it look as though his dead wife is haunting the grounds. His new wife has been to the cuckoo’s nest before, so it’s not a stretch for her to believe that she’s losing it. There is a Torgo-like character named Mickey (who is the director) who is made to look like the shady bad guy, when, in actuality, he’s really just an honest gardener with a icky obsession over the dead wife (reminds me of the infatuated maid in Rebecca). Everything else in the story is minor and uneventful. This is one of those episodes that if you catch it late at night, you may chuckle as you’re drifting into unconsciousness, but you won’t have the ambition to make it through the entire story.

PLOT GRADE: 2/6

Note: the movie can receive a 6 and still have a lackluster plot. This is a rating system designed for bad movies in relation to other bad movies.

For a movie that makes a stake in its horrifying effect, the cheesiness is almost to be expected. A disclaimer is shown at the beginning of the movie that says that anyone who dies watching the movie will be given a free of charge burial. Well, as far as special effects go, this movie utilizes one skull, one house, and one unshaven gardener to bring its audience to a screaming yawn. I think this lack of bells and whistles actually does the film a credit however, because the era’s special effects were limited and using them more often than not usually ended in catastrophe.

One of the thoughts from the Satellite of Love: Crow & Observer, Bill Corbett says, "The Screaming Skull." Making someone watch this even once is specifically outlawed by the Geneva Convention. But many, many times, as is our practice? That is the custom-fitted hell that we've brought upon ourselves, worthy of a wry introduction by Rod Serling . I found this movie to be the Deepest of Hurting: like watching bacteria grow in extra-slow motion.”

CHEESINESS:

(2 outta 4)

What made this episode worth while was the interludes. Such an observation is by no means something that is frequently said, but in this case, it is so. The movie humor has its moments, but the GUMBI short at the beginning of the movie leads to a funny interchange between Mike and the ‘Bots, when they reenact some of the claymation antics. The ‘Bots are severely disturbed by the violent, anti-robot subtext of the Gumbi short and humorously show their deepest feelings over the subject. Another interlude of humor is when Crow puts on a screaming skull mask and Mike continues to pulverize him with various bludgeon weapons.