SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

gorf "And now, the screaming starts" is the worst movie produced by Amicus. It's worse than "Hour of the Wolf". What's the point in having disturbing rape scenes in movies? It's just a sleazy and meaningless exploitation movie...watch something good instead, like The Phantom Carriage or How Green Was My Valley.

Leofwine_draca This little-seen film blends together a myriad of classic horror themes, such as ghosts, crawling hands, wrong doings and curses. It's a classic example of British horror, set in a standard haunted house (there's even a graveyard nearby). Early '70s fashions are sadly non-existent here, as it's a period piece and all the costumes are of the historical variety, although there's nothing wrong with that. While the plot for the film is a typical (and dare I say clichéd) one, it has plenty of incident to keep it moving and loads of different ingredients to make it enjoyable. However, the winning formula for this film is the cast.Ian Ogilvy (WITCHFINDER GENERAL), Stephanie Beacham (INSEMINOID), Patrick Magee (DEMENTIA 13), and Herbert Lom (ASYLUM) all act convincingly and enjoyably in their roles. Ogilvy doesn't get to do much but look haunted as the husband, but Beacham is on top form here, giving it her all as the screaming victim. Magee is fine as usual, while the fantastic Lom adds yet another cruel character to his resumé. As soon as Peter Cushing arrives, playing a doctor with a dodgy toupee, the fun really begins and things get even better. Cushing's performance is as usual, excellent, but all performances from a cast well familiar to the horror fan are varied and good.The sheer diversity of different ingredients in this film make it work, and I advise you to sit it through in order to witness a most amusing moment at the end, when Ian Ogilvy dashes Herbert Lom's skeleton apart against his tomb - serve him right, the nasty old man. You also get the classic "crawling hand" prop, which was reused by various studios throughout the 60's and 70's - spotting it is half the fun! AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS may not break any new boundaries in the horror genre but it's a good, solid, old-fashioned ghost story and it's very entertaining, with exactly the same quaint and brooding atmosphere as a quality Hammer horror piece.

Lee Eisenberg If you saw individual random scenes from this movie and didn't know the title or plot, you might end up assuming that it comes from a Jane Austen novel or something. But "-- And Now the Screaming Starts!" is nothing like that. Oh sure, it's set in England over 200 years ago and deals with a rich guy getting married, but Jane Austen's stories didn't center on curses affecting families.The plot has aristocrat Charles Fengriffen (Ian Ogilvy of "Witchfinder General") marrying young Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) and bringing her to his estate in rural England. Once she arrives, strange and horrific things begin occurring. Yeah, it always does seem to happen like that. Still, one has to admire how they set the story up so that you can never be too sure about who's doing what to whom. But for me at least, what's really neat here is when the main idea gets revealed: you think that you now understand everything, but there's still a surprise waiting for you! Does the movie have any problems? Well, I thought that Peter Cushing wasn't used as much as he could have been. For that sort of supporting role, they probably should have cast someone else (then again, Cushing brought a really neat dimension to the movie). But overall, I thought that this wasn't a bad movie. I would trust Hammer and/or Amicus to turn out something worth seeing, and the latter doesn't disappoint here. And if I may say so, Catherine was really hot! Also starring Herbert Lom (that's right: Commissioner Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movies!), Patrick Magee (the wheelchair man in "A Clockwork Orange") and Geoffrey Whitehead (Malcolm McDowell's brother in "The Raging Moon").

Scarecrow-88 A curse on the House of Fengriffen, due to an evil deed caused by Henry Fengriffen(a devilish Herbert Lom), a descendant of Charles'(Ian Ogilvy), to woodsman Silas(Geoffrey Whitehead, playing both men of the past and present). This dangerous scary deed, and the curse deriving from it, is discussed by no one as virginal Catherine(Stephanie Beacham, whose ample bosoms wish so desperately to fling themselves on us)experiences horrifying images of a man whose eyeballs are missing, who has a stump where his hand should be. About the Fengriffen house is a severed hand which crawls to and fro..anyone who dares explain the curse gets strangulated by it! On their honeymoon night, a terrifying occurrence may've happened to poor Catherine who is being held down by the very evil man she sees ghostly apparitions from..she's also possibly impregnated by it! As Catherine begs for answers regarding a mysterious woodsman who has a home on the land of the Fengriffen estate nearby, no one will provide them..and who is this ghost, who may've raped her, that is terrorizing her? Enter Dr. Pope(Peter Cushing), a "scientist of the mind" called in by the confused Dr. Whittle(Patrick Magee)who can not help Catherine in her present state of hysteria(..she had sliced the portrait of Henry's to pieces while also falling down the stairwell). Pope begins finding the answers Catherine sought so diligently for and they produce an ugly history the Fengriffen family would soon forget.Despite it's ludicrous premise, the flick still remains watchable thanks to a strong cast. I felt the film really starts humming once Cushing's Sherlock Holmesian Pope enters the film because he can get to the truth with little the resistance Catherine faced time and time again. The "severed hand killings" is a bit much, but when you have such a strong cast backing you, bringing a sophistication and seriousness to the rather odd material, it can still make it out somewhat with a professionalism and class most films with this hokey story couldn't. I did feel Beacham overdoes it a bit with the whole "hysteria" act especially when she encounters ghostly haunts. Guy Rolfe appears briefly as Maitland, the family solicitor, and first victim who is killed before he can assist Catherine in her goal to find out what the mystery regarding the woodsman is all about.