Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski, Michael Austin
Starring: Alan Bates, John Hurt, Susanna York
Country: United Kingdom
Running Time: 86 minutes
Year: 1978
BBFC Certificate: 15
The film producer Jeremy Thomas, who recently died at the age of 77, enjoyed a long and highly distinguished career. It is somehow very fitting, albeit coincidental that a film that helped make his reputation as a producer of rare quality should be reissued in the wake of his sad passing. The Shout from 1978 was Thomas’ second film as a producer, which was preceded by the Dennis Hopper project Mad Dog Morgan. Adapted from a short story by Robert Graves, The Shout is one of those marvellously hybrid films that emerged in the late 1970s; part horror, part psychological battlefield, part satire on the rites and rituals of the English middle classes.
John Hurt and Susanna York play Anthony and Rachel Fielding, a young couple living in a remote Devonshire village where Anthony conducts sound experiments, and Rachel keeps house. Although outwardly happy, there seems to be an unspoken emptiness to their lives. Into this marital and physical void arrives our protagonist Charles Crosley, portrayed with a chilling sense of poise by Alan Bates. With his dark hair and voluminous black coat, Crosley is a seductive, malicious force, who boasts that he is in possession of a supernatural power; that of the ‘terror shout’, which he learned from his time spent with Aborigines in Australia. Anthony’s natural scepticism leads him into an elemental life-or-death confrontation with Crosley, in which the cold-eyed interloper attempts to obliterate the husband and possess his wife.
Having initially considered Nicolas Roeg as director for the film, Thomas’ decision to hire the Polish writer and director Jerzy Skolimowski was an absolute masterstroke. Skolimowski established himself in Polish cinema with screenwriting credits for Andrzej Wajda’s Innocent Sorcerers and Roman Polanski’s Knife in The Water, and then directing a series of startling films which were subjected to various levels of censorship (Identification Marks: None, Barrier, The Departure). Skolimowski’s first film outside of Poland was the astonishing Deep End, and it is that film’s acerbic and surrealistic sensibility which would then be imbued into The Shout. Only Skolimowski could depict a rural cricket match as something akin to a satanic mass, or turn Saunton Sands into a psychic battleground.
John Hurt and Susanna York are superb as the targeted couple. Hurt plays Anthony as a pretentious and self-centred individual who completely falls apart in the face of Crosley’s onslaught. York brilliantly conveys the hidden layers within Rachel, especially during the latter half of the film where she really shows her power. In the form of the implacable Crosley, The Shout gives the late great Alan Bates one of his greatest ever roles. He completely commands the screen with every ounce of his charisma. The near-silent threats he utters to each of his quarry as he chews on the merest morsels of food are deeply frightening. The set piece showdown where Crosley demonstrates the ‘shout’ is a stunning piece of cinematic verve, abetted by an ominous ambient score by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford from the band Genesis. The overall sound design of The Shout is hugely impressive, and reminded me in places of Peter Strickland’s fantastic film Berberian Sound Studio. There is a particular sound made by a shoe buckle whenever Crosley’s touches it that is especially haunting. Skolimowski’s elliptical way with the narrative is equally impressive, ensuring a level of unease about everything you can see and hear. The Shout’s fusion of mystery and reality make for immensely rewarding viewing. This outstanding blu ray reissue from Criterion is a fitting tribute to a man whose contributions to the film industry have left a significant lasting legacy.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 2K digital restoration, approved by director Jerzy Skolimowski and director of photography Mike Molloy, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New interviews with Skolimowski and producer Jeremy Thomas
- Excerpts from Skolimowski’s appearance at the 1997 Midnight Sun Festival
- On the Set of “The Shout,” a short UK television program from 1977
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Leo Goldsmith
- New cover by Rafa Orrico Díez
The interviews with Skolimowski and a clearly unwell Jeremy Thomas are excellent as each of them takes the viewer on a basically chronological journey of The Shout from inception to completion. Despite his ill health, Thomas is razor sharp with his recollections, and Skolimowski explains the various contribution made to the film, above and beyond merely directing it. The location report is one of those dolorous period pieces of regional TV archive that are a delight to watch, and feature genial interactions with Bates, Skolimowski and York – though not John Hurt. The reporter’s incredible kipper tie should have won him a BAFTA on its own.
The excerpt from the 1997 Midnight Sun Festival has Skolimowski in conversation with Finnish film historian Peter Von Bagh about his life and career. Although he does not talk about The Shout, he tells witty stories about his childhood in a Czech boarding school alongside future luminaries such as Ivan Passer, Milos Forman and Václav Havel, his emergence into the Polish cinema of the early 60s and his subsequent battles with the communist authorities, and his later career in the West. The booklet essay sadly wasn’t available to me for this review.