From a Whisper to a Scream

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From a Whisper to a Scream is kind of a bittersweet little horror anthology for me because it was an obvious indication of how Vincent Price was entering the twilight years by 1987. Still I can only imagine that landing VP was quite a privilege for a young director like Jeff Burr. I always felt Burr was a decent, competent director who got a raw deal with the third Chainsaw film, Leatherface, ripped apart by censorship and sort of did him the injustice of not exactly getting hired on projects much thereafter. If anything, he has always been plagued by others grubby hands taking his product and altering each film to suit their own fancy.

Before he was besieged by the “sequel bug”, Burr had a chance here to lay down roots for a cult following, his anthology having the luxury of featuring Price as age was declining him into fewer film appearances. Films that could have Price’s name in their credits certainly were anxious to make sure we knew about it…why wouldn’t they?

In Oldfield, Tennessee, a reporter played by Susan Tyrell (in one of her, supposed, less eccentric roles) records on audio and is present at the lethal injection of guest-starring Martine Bestwicke. What does this have to do with the rest of the film? Well, we will find out eventually. So Tyrell goes to the residence of Price (he operates a library and was the uncle of the executed Bestwicke), informing of the fact she was there to see the death in person. I’m always amazed at what the legends of film have even at an elderly age like Price. The man has this presence, like Cushing did, and John Hurt currently does (even as the “War Doctor” of Doctor Who and other films like Hellboy, he exudes icon on the screen) where he just appears and this part of me wants to cheer. My heart certainly got excited when I finally had a chance to watch From a Whisper to a Scream on dvd back in 2008, knowing that Price was a part in it. I have Dead Heat, a little zom-com back in the late 80s starring Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo which also had Price in a small but fun part so again his late appearances (which included Bloodbath at the House of Death in ’84 where he had a chance to lampoon his persona) were a treat for us horror fans.

The story of how Burr was able to secure Price is now basic Hollywood legend and quite a wonderful bit of history. With Burr able to walk up to Price’s home’s door and be invited in (along with a producer for their proposed film), with a bottle of wine as a present, a script to be read if possible, and be able to get such a horror icon to be in his little rural anthology film (about locals in Oldfield responsible for notorious violence) is such a great read. It’s a dream, really. Burr was able to do that and this is quite a feather in his pocket. Kudos.

I think the first "documented story", found in a file by Price, and told to Tyrell, is especially unsettling. Clu Gulagher was not long after Return of the Living Dead when he appeared as a creepy, ancient grocery clerk fixated with his superior, equipped with those bottle cap sized eye glasses that makes his eyes larger. Megan McFarland is the object of his obsession and when she agrees to actually go out with him, couldn't anticipate Clu's true evil nature. The glasses and bow tie really give Clu this creep factor that will make many a person's skin crawl.

 He attends to his sister who is a hypochondriac (and there's this level of incestuous vibe that emerges in their scenes making their time together ever more yucky). So his advances are defied and he returns the favor by strangling her, afterward singing as her dead eyes stare off. This doesn't end here. His trip to her body in a casket of a funeral home, and what he does to it lead to something right out of Basket Case or It's Alive.

No one plays a slithering scumbag quite like Terry Kizer. He played a memorable one on Night Court, and you might remember him as the psychologist hoping to cash in on his patient's Carrie-like abilities in Friday the 13th: The New Blood. But most will know him as the famous dead guy in A Weekend at Bernies. However, he's quite memorable here as well in what was an entertaining little swamp tale where his lecherous no-good scoundrel has been shot by a pair of crooks he bilked, turned in by his tired girlfriend who was fed up with his sorry ass. He escapes into the swamp of Oldfield mortally wounded.

This second one is perhaps my second favorite tale of the anthology. A good trip to the swamp with an awesome (if short-lived) nightmare sequence where hands rise from the water to grab Kiser as his little boat breaks apart and he awakens alive thanks to "a little magic". The man who saved Kiser from the brink of death is Harry Caesar, living all alone all Hermit-like deep in the forests of the swamp. Caesar is happy to have some company, but unfortunate for him it is not the right company...Kiser isn't exactly the kind of cat you wish to carry on conversations with. He isn't a pleasant personality. Does he appreciate being held from dying thanks to a little swamp magic or show his gratitude in a graceful fashion? Of course not. Always looking for a meal ticket or a leg up somehow, Kiser will use anyone who shows an opportunity for him to capitalize on.

I love the sweaty, dark, swampy, dirt-poverty atmosphere of this second tale. It has that Boggy Creek look that is ideal for a tale of voodoo and avarice. Kiser is perfectly suited for the greedy, shifty character that poor Caesar's "old man" (Kiser says this with such a snide disdain) shouldn't have ever rescued from a most deserved demise. Instead of thanking the man for saving him he tries to "bargain" (by dumping him in the swamp if he doesn't inform of where the "magic water" is) with Caesar, and this is the ruination of him. He didn't realize he had the potion in him to survive another 70 years! What he gets in return when Caesar in retaliation is a fit sentence for the bastard.

The third tale--a tragic love affair between glass-and-metal-eating freak and "normal" woman (a paying customer who becomes smitten with him)--didn't do a lot for me although it does give Burr a chance to work with a carnival story. This will probably be most memorable for three key scenes.

The "eyeball in the chest" freak who is the carnival owner's "eyes", the glass/metal eater's undoing in a hotel room where what he swallowed tears him apart inside out, and Rosalind Cash anytime she's on screen because she's such a nasty piece of work (her mirror gag as she giggles in her victory and her "calling out" of her criminal freaks at the poker table, but particularly her torture of the glass/metal eater with the voodoo doll all three announce her vile, controlling nature). It is a sad downer, with a human pin cushion finale certainly telling us that if you screw with Cash, only bad awaits.

The forth tale is my favorite of the four just because I personally found it to be a fascinating "origin story" and comment on the victims of war: the children who lose their parents during all the blood shed. Cameron Mitchell is just a stone-cold murderer in this one. He has a small band of soldiers who kill the opposition just for the hell of it even after realizing the Civil War had been declared over. Hell, he even kills one of his own when the guy decides he wants no other part of them; in the back, no less, does Cameron do this. Walking into a mine field, the three remaining are carted by horse to the plantation house home to a group of kids who operate under the "guidance of the magistrate". Mitchell realizes that if he doesn't get away he will be "of service" to the kids in whatever means they see fit (one of his soldiers, for instance, "produces an eye" for a little girl!).

So Mitchell manipulates a crippled sweet girl, telling her he'd get a military surgeon to operate on her leg, eventually freed by her. So he murders her and tries to get away only to be stopped before he could break free from the front yard. He would be an example of the magistrate's justice, and these kids would be his executioner. The irony is that these kids are who founded Oldfield!

The wraparound has Price soon learning of Tyrell's real reason for meeting him, and this has to do with Bestwicke, her raising at his tutelage. His ravings about the evil that pervasively thrives--lives and breathes--in Oldfield had left its mark on Bestwicke and Tyrell was there to inform him that she was a pupil and wanted to become part of what gave the town its notoriety.

Again, while low-scale considering Price's overall output (this isn't Corman Poe or perhaps even Castle Columbia Price), and quite indie compared to what the iconic actor has been associated with prior to the 80s, From a Whisper to a Scream still allows him to work that on screen magic. If anything, the film gets a boost by his charisma. It is that star power a film of this kind needs to maintain an allure decades later (as it has as evident by the upcoming Scream Factory blu release). Burr certainly benefited from it. He doesn't have to do a lot except be Price, horror star. He actually remains in that one room and shares dialogue only with Tyrell (wearing a Flock of Seagulls coif, haha) about Oldfield and its history of violence. Still, it's enough of an involvement to matter, and that is what Burr was successful most of all in attaining.

"Lovecraft or Poe. I will drink to those old two masters of horror."--Julian White (Vincent Price).