Spain’s first major horror film production, The House that Screamed is a stylish gothic tale of tortured passions and bloody murder that bridges the bloody gap between Psycho and Suspiria.
Thérèse (Cristina Galbó) is the latest arrival at the boarding school for wayward girls run under the stern, authoritarian eye of Mme Fourneau (Lilli Palmer). As the newcomer becomes accustomed to the strict routines, the whip-hand hierarchies among the girls and their furtive extra-curricular methods of release from within the forbidding walls of institutional life, she learns that several of her fellow students have recently vanished mysteriously. Meanwhile, tensions grow within this isolated hothouse environment as Mme Fourneau’s callow but curious 15-year-old son Louis (John Moulder-Brown) ignores his mother’s strict orders not to get close to the “tainted” ladies under her ward.
Directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (Who Can Kill a Child?), this landmark title in Spanish genre cinema has been restored by Arrow Video to its director’s original full-length vision for the first time; a 105-minute uncut version! Presented on Blu-ray with original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch, and an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by writer Shelagh Rowan-Legg, the 94-minute US theatrical version is also included via seamless branching, with original lossless English mono audio on both versions, and lossless Spanish audio on the uncut version. Order direct from arrowfilms.com
