The Screaming — The Screaming( Blu Ray & CD)

From the early 2000’s, The Screaming is a mix of cult-focused horror, new-age satire, and demonic creature feature. It’s an SOV film, though it’s at the mid-range of the quality/ skill side of the genre. So, while yes, it does look cheap, the acting is passable, as are the effects & the film's general execution, all with a keen sense of both creativity and entertainment. Here from the swell folks at Visual Vengeance is a recent Blu-ray reissue, featuring commentary tracks, two versions of the picture, and a CD soundtrack.

The Screaming is from the year 2000- it was both written and directed by Butler, Pennsylvania-born Jeff Leroy. Since the late 90’s, he’s helmed twenty-two features- including the likes of action film Crack Up ( 1997), on-the-road-based supernatural slasher Hell’s Highway (2002), giant rat sci-fi horror Rat Scratch Fever (2011), and horror-comedy Frankenstein in a Women's Prison (2017).

The film centres around dark scruffy-haired, soul-patched, and glasses-wearing twenty-something Anthropologie student Bob Martin (Vinnie Bilancio). He starts renting an apartment from a blond cougar, Crystal (Wendi Winburn).

Bob is a cigarette smoker, doesn’t eat well, and doesn’t get great grades. But he is rather fascinated by Crystal- as she warms up outside his back window every day before her run. It turns out she’s heavily involved with a New Age religion called Crystalnetics- via it, she thinks she’ll be able to get Bob to quit smoking/ become a better, more focused person.

The thing is that there is something not quite right about Crystalnetics & the city set pyramid building they call their temple. People who go in don’t seem to come out again, and inside are black, grown figures, and the tenacled / winged demon creature they worship.

The film blends well-realised satirising of new age region, moments of fiery & grim trippy-ness, with chasing/ bloody stabbing cult followers, and neat low-budget creature feature effects which blend practical and stop motion effects. The picture has a good/ even pace throughout- mixing satire & horror well, so each stands on its own. All in all, I was most impressed/ taken by The Screaming- and it’s a great example of creative low-budget horror.

The Blu-ray takes in two versions of the film- the original 2000 version with the original effects/ graphics/ etc. Then there is The Screaming: Reborn- which was done in the last few years, with CGI instead of practical monsters, and general polishing up on the effects in general. I had a quick scan through the new version- it has a similar runtime, and yes, the effects look sleeker/ more polished- but personally I prefer the original version.

On the extras side, we get two commentary tracks- one for the original film from Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine, and one for the Reborn version from director Jeff Leroy. I played the first of these- and it’s a fact-packed and entertaining track. Mr Strauss opens by talking about how the director impressively did all the effects & graphics for the picture- we find out it cost just $3,000 to make. He points out bit-part actors, giving interesting bios for each. We find out the interior of the cult's HQ, was an office space rented by Sterling Entertainment- who original produced/ put out the film- they shot it at nighttime, later getting told off for doing so without permission. We find out Vinnie Bilancio became friends with the film directors after working on his early production; at the time, the actors' day job was building sets for TV Sci-fi series Babylon 5. We get a bio of our female lead, and how/ why she replaced the original actress who literally walked off set. We find out that the apartment & a few other sets were shot in Bilancio's house. We get a bio of the film's director. Later on, we find out the film was originally going to be entitled Scream Again- to ride on the coattails of Wes Craven's postmodern blockbuster- and that the chosen title doesn’t really have anything to do with the film. How/ what new age religions were sent up, and much more. All in all, an excellent must-play track.

Otherwise, on the new extras side we have: Screaming and Screaming Again: The Making of The Screaming ( 8.43). This features interviews with director Jeff Leroy, lead actor Vinnie Bilancio, executive producer David Sterling, and bit part actor Joe Haggerty. Composing a Cult Classic (6:43) interview with Composer Jay Woelfel- where he discusses a few of the film's cues, shows his set-up, etc. Both of these are well worth a watch featurettes.

There’s also: an image gallery, an original trailer, The Screaming: Reborn Trailer, Visual Vengeance Trailer, and Visual Vengeance Trailers

We then, of course, have a CD featuring Jay Woelfel’s score for the film. It takes in thirty-one tracks- though rather frustrating, we get no track listings…so I’ll just have to use the track numbers instead of titles. We move from the ringing synth tones/ piping synth orchestration bombast of Track Two. Onto the chiming synth crystal tones and simmering brood of Track Nine. Then to stabbing & darting Bernard Herman-goes synth orchestration of Track Fifteen. Onto oriental melody-led Track Twenty with its blend of synth string swoon, chime hits, and moody ethnic percussion. All in all, it’s not a bad score- sure, a few musical themes are maybe a little overused, but it’s listable enough if you enjoy largely orchestrated synthesiser scores. Though, quite why the track listing wasn’t included on an inlay card/ simlar is a real mystery/ faux pas.

The first pressing of the release is finished off with a card slip, mini poster, and stickers.

In finishing, this is an excellent release of one of the more creative and inventive low-budget horror films of the early 2000’s- which wonderfully balances cult-focused horror, new-age satire, and demonic creature feature. We get not one but two commentary tracks, two versions of the film, interesting extras, and of course the CD soundtrack.