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The Screaming Skull [DVD]

Screenplay : Leo Gordon

MPAA Rating : NR

Year of Release : 1960

Stars : Ken Clark (Steve Benton), Yvette Vickers (Liz Walker), Jan Shepard (Nan Greyson), Michael Emmet (Cal Moulton), Tyler McVey (Doc Greyson), Bruno VeSota (Dave Walker), Gene Roth (Sheriff Kovis)

In the argument of quality versus quantity, producers Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff happily opted for the latter. Both Corman and Arkoff are hallowed names in the annals of exploitation and cheapie horror movies of the 1950s and '60s. The amount of cinema these two men are responsible for is staggering: Combined, they have production credits on at least 430 movies spanning more than five decades.

While Arkoff's last production credit was 1985's Hellhole, Corman continues to produce films well into the new century. And, while both men have had been connected with the best in Hollywood (Corman's school of filmmaking gave a leg up to such directors as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jonathan Demme, while Arkoff has worked with Brian De Palma and animation maverick Ralph Bakshi), they will always be remembered for their voracious cinematic output during the days of the drive-in movie theater. Most of the movies they made were never very good, but considering the time and monetary restraints under which the majority of them were made, they are testament to the independent spirit that continues to challenge traditional Hollywood output today.

One of Corman's earliest production efforts was The Giant Leeches (aka Attack of the Giant Leeches), a joint project with his brother, Gene Corman. Set in a steamy bayou swamp town, it gleefully mixes sordid Southern-fried melodrama with monster mayhem--it's as if Tennessee Williams were asked to pen a schlocky horror movie.

Something is killing the small town's residents and also making off with all the crocodiles, but no one believes Doc Greyson (Tyler McVey) that it may be some form of life the townspeople have never seen before. How to explain the giant bloody sucker marks on the deceased? As in most horror movies, characters are always more than willing to ignore the obvious. The local game warden (Steve Benton) is sure that there is a logical explanation, but he will, obviously, be proved wrong.

Director Bernard L. Kowalski, who had directed the Corman-produced Night of the Blood Beast two years earlier, handily splits the movie's brief 68-minute running time between the two staples of exploitation filmmaking: sex and violence. Sex comes in the form of then-Playboy Playmate Yvette Vickers, who plays Liz, the sultry wife of Dave Walker (Bruno VeSota), the overweight grocery-store owner. Liz spends the first 10 minutes of the movie slinking around Dave's grocery store in a tiny bathrobe, teasing the local men and casually tormenting her husband. This soon develops into a nasty love triangle, as Liz begins an affair with a local named Cal (Michael Emmet). And, wouldn't you know that Dave catches the two of them together in the swamp, the home of the giant leeches?

The violence comes in the form of an admittedly gruesome scene depicting the titular bloodsuckers going to work on their prey in an underwater cave. Apparently, the giant leeches don't kill people right away. Rather, they drag them back to their lair and keep them in a semi-conscious state at the edge of death, feeding on them from time to time by sucking their blood. Despite the cheap special effects, this feeding scene is justifiably infamous for its squirm-inducing grossness.

The giant leeches are, like so many monsters during the 1950s, the mutant spawn of atomic testing. Brought to life by stunt men wearing modified wetsuits that look like giant garbage sacks that barely (and sometimes don't) cover their scuba tanks, the giant leeches are generally silly in execution, although the concept is dead-on. After all, in all of the animal kingdom, there are few creatures more immediately off-putting and repulsive as a leech, especially one that's six feet tall.

The horror in the Samuel Z. Arkoff-produced The Screaming Skull is of a different sort, and unlike the Corman-produced Giant Leeches, there are no giant rubbery monsters. Instead, actor-turned-director Alex Nicol appears to be going for honest-to-God legitimate suspense in the mode of Alfred Hitchcock. That he generally fails does not deter enjoyment of the film, although said enjoyment is more in laughing at the attempt than vicariously thrilling at its execution.

The Screaming Skull begins with one of those ridiculous disclaimers that were all the rage in the late 1950s. It assured viewers that, if they were to die of fright while viewing the film, the producers would pay for their burial. I doubt anyone ever died of fright while watching this film, but they may have bruised a rib or two laughing at it.

The story begins with a recently married couple, Eric (John Hudson) and Jenni Whitlock (Peggy Webber), moving into the large estate Eric has inherited from his first wife who died under mysterious circumstances (apparently, she fell down a flight of stairs, smashed the back of her skull, and then drowned in a pond). As the story progresses, we begin to learn more and more about Jenni's fragile state, as she has been previously committed to a sanatorium after witnessing the gruesome deaths of both her parents.

So, when Jenni begins to see a haunted skull appearing in the house, is it real, is it a product of her deranged imagination, or is someone playing a cruel trick on her? All fingers seem to point at Mickey, the gardener, who is played by the director. Mickey is a slow-witted man who apparently loved Eric's first wife like family. Thus, it would make sense that he would try to scare away the woman who is trying to take her place, right?

The Screaming Skull climaxes in a prolonged sequence that features not one, not two, not even three screaming skulls, but a whole hoard of them that come from every conceivable direction. The sound effects and music are quite effective (the creepy, screeching musical score is by Ernest Gold, who would win an Oscar two years later for Exodus), even if the overall sequence is hokey and more laughable than frightening.

While John Hudson generally underplays Eric, Peggy Webber's overacting turns Jenni into a shrieking hysteric who some viewers will find quite irritating. Of course, one can't blame their acting too much, as they are forced to deliver inane dialogue. To wit: Jenni (looking up at a shed): "What's that?" Eric: "That's where Mickey keeps his gardening tools." Jenni: "Who's Mickey?" Eric: "The gardener."

If John Kneubuhl's script had been better, The Screaming Skull might have been a half-decent suspense thriller (budget isn't much of an issue, considering that the only horror prop is a skull). Director Alex Nicol proves to have a craftsman-like skill at directing--not too showy, but efficient. Many exploitation fans were no doubt bored during the first half of the movie, which deliberately establishes all the characters and background information in the hopes of creating a mystery surrounding the ghostly screaming skull. Unfortunately, despite all of Nicol's efforts, the answer is so painfully obvious from the start that the movie is never able to generate any real tension.

©2001 James Kendrick