Director: Steven C. Miller
Cast: Lauren Holly, Marcelle Baer, Todd Haberkorn, Lance Henriksen, Leanna Cochran, Garrett Hines
Certification: 18
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Synopsis: Archaeology professor Isla Whelan (Lauren Holly) and her colleagues Otto (Todd Haberkorn) and Janie (Leanne Cochran) discover a remarkable artefact – a box that contains a severed head. But the head emits a deadly scream that kills anything in its path, and terrorizes the archaeologists as they attempt to destroy it
There is so much wrong with this film, it’s difficult to know where to begin. But let’s start with the head. The ‘screaming banshee’ (as the archaeologists call it) is just a detached head and not a very scary or convincing one at that. In fact, director Steven C. Miller would have been better off using the talking head from Art Attack, because he would have been more apt in the role of the screaming banshee. I spent an entire youth being petrified by him and think this role would have suited him perfectly. I don’t suppose he is getting much work at the moment and his agent probably should have gotten him at least an audition.
Anyway, that’s enough of the head. The acting is abysmal, in particular the archaeologists daughter Shayla (Marcelle Baer). One of the biggest disappointments of the film was that she managed to survive the screaming banshee. Thankfully it got the majority of the cast because none of them were likeable.
Painful acting? Check. Dreadful story? Check. Atrocious graphics? Check. It is a horror film though, so it should be scary, right? Wrong. SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE is a horribly made movie all round.
This is a classic tale of a shield/box trapping contraption that has stored an ancient evil, and due to the stupidity of archaeologists has reared its ugly head. So if you’re an enthusiast of such complicated tales, then SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE is what you’ve been looking for all these years. For the rest of us, our time is better spent doing more meaningful things, like building entire towns out of Blu-Tac.
SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE is available on DVD now
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