Scream And Scream Again (Radiance)

Directed by: Gordon Hessler
Written by: Christopher Wicking, Peter Saxon
Starring: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alfred Marks, Michael Gothard, Christopher Matthews, Judy Huxtable
Year: 1970
Country:  United Kingdom
Running time:  95 mins
BBFC Classification: 15

When you think of Amicus Productions, the Shepperton based studio active in the 1960’s and 70’s, you’re likely to gravitate towards one of their horror anthology films; the likes of Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Asylum or the rather fun The House That Dripped Blood. Scream And Scream Again, however, is a feature length tale of death and intrigue, featuring three horror greats in top billing. You’d be forgiven for being a bit excited about it.

The film starts with three seemingly unrelated stories; a runner suffers a heart attack in the middle of London and wakes up in a mysterious clinic with his legs amputated; a serial killer is roaming the streets of London, murdering women in a strange, vampiric way; and in a country under fascistic military rule, a general with strange powers begins a bizarre campaign of fear. You’d be forgiven for thinking those three storylines feel more like they belong as parts of a horror anthology – the disconnect at the start of Scream And Scream Again is jarring and the three narrative strands create a large feeling of disjoint for the first third of the run time.

Eventually the film settles on the serial killer plot as its main thread and follows this through almost to the conclusion, with the main characters being the detective in charge of the case and a mortician intrigued at the strange blood draining that’s being found in the victims. It’s a reasonably solid story which feels more like a mystery than a straight up horror film and features a genuinely impressive, extended police chase after the main suspect, played menacingly by Michael Gothard who’d be seen ten years later equally menacingly going up against Roger Moore’s Bond in For Your Eyes Only.

Of course, you’ll note that I’ve not really mentioned the big three names attached to this film yet – and that’s largely because their inclusion in the cast and prominence in promotional materials feels somewhat cheap. Christopher Lee appears in basically a glorified cameo in several scenes as the British Minister for Defence, Peter Cushing is in a “blink and you’ll miss it” single scene and it’s only really Vincent Price who gets a chance to do anything as a mysterious scientist who may have something to do with the vampiric serial killer.

Scream And Scream Again is a strange film; its multiple plots do eventually come together but as a whole it feels remarkably messy and disjointed and absolutely wastes the three largest names attached to the cast. The story as a whole has a genuinely interesting appeal and throws some fun curve-balls towards the end, but they never entirely feel earned. The tone of the film also feels very much like a bait-and-switch for the audience, pitching itself as a horror movie but ultimately delivering more of a thriller with genre undertones. Fortunately it looks great, with some excellent cinematography and good use of handheld cameras for long shots, something that director Gordon Hessler put to good use in his other films. 

Unfortunately, ultimately, the messy nature of the film makes it a very unessential watch in the oeuvre of 60’s and 70’s British horror cinema, which is a real shame.

Bonus Features

There’s a selection of deleted scenes, however they are unfortunately just the material that’s longer in the UK cut of the film vs the US cut. Of particular interest, though, is the Super 8 cut of the film, a highly condensed version of the story which removes a lot of the more ambiguous material from the three plot strands, presenting the key story as more of a short film.