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The Screaming Skull / Terror from the Year 5000; January 1958
Topic Started: May 10 2017, 11:44 AM (257 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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The Screaming Skull (1958) Dir. Alex Nicol
Madera Production released by American-International Pictures
68 min. / B&W / 1.85:1
Available on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory
ITB Shock Theatre #198

Terror from the Year 5000 (1958) Dir. Robert J. Gurney, Jr.
La Jolla Production released by American-International Pictures
66 min. / B&W / 1.85:1
ITB Strange Science Cinema #122

Yes, my friends, it's time to once again stuff ourselves into the fabled In The Balcony "Way-Back" machine for another trip to the '50s to experience an actual double-feature in a shoddy theatre, surrounded by restless kids and necking teens and let me just say this upfront: AIP did nothing to enhance their brand by acquiring and distributing THESE particular cinematic cookies.

First up is Terror from the Year 5000, as a pair of scientists working "in a remote area in Central Florida" build a time machine that can grab statues and medals and things from the far, far future, but they also snatch a pretty lady in a spangly cat suit who is looking for guys to mate with because in the far, far future most women are mutants and hideously ugly and historical records indicate that if you get 4 or 5 beers in 20th century men they don't really care (I added that last part but it's generally accurate).

Now, I'm certain you'd think that a film with this much goin' for it (spangles, times machines, sex talk, etc.) couldn't possibly be dull, but you'd be wrong, wouldn't you? Some good ideas in the script are wrecked by uber-cheapness and dull direction. I've seen some shabby mad scientist laboratories in my time, but the opening sequence of the film shows the cheapest-looking lab of all - and that's the most handsome set in the movie.

Million-dollar Dialog:
"We've GOT to reach them, professor! See that they get the hereditary genes they need!"

The ending's the best part but who's still awake? Anyway, our scientific task force realizes that the best way to help the people of 3000 years in the future is to make certain that we work to save the earth from war and famine NOW, a nice thought. Hope that works out okay.

Next up was the usual snack bar ads (I still don't eat pickles and popcorn together, at the movies or at home), a Baby Huey cartoon called Pest Pupil (1956), in which Huey's parents get him a tutor to help him be somewhat less than an idiot (the tutor looks and talks like Ludwig Von Drake, hmmmm) and then coming attractions for an upcoming dynamite double feature: The Colossus of New York and The Space Children. WOW-DE-WOWZERS!

Which brings us to the night cap, The Screaming Skull, as a newlywed couple move into their dream estate only to discover that it's haunted by the ghost of the guy's late wife (and even more haunted by an idiot gardener) who seems to be after the new bride but the whole thing is part of an ugly plot to drive somebody crazy - or IS it?

Reportedly, the thing was sold as a Rebecca-like romantic melodrama but when funding fell through they had to up the horror quotient, which basically means tossing a skull down the stairs, through a window, or across the front door threshold every once in a while.

Million-dollar Dialog:
Wife: "What's that?"
Husband: "That's where Mickey keeps his gardening tools."
Wife: "Who's Mickey?"
Husband: "The gardener."

Alex Nicol not only directed this thing but plays the idiot gardener and frankly, a big problem with this whole double-feature tonight is the cast is filled with the most nondescript genre actors you've never heard of, including Ward Costello, Joyce Holden, Salome Jens, and Fred Downs in the first one and Peggy Webber, John Hudson, and Russ Conway in this one. Not even a William Schallert or Morris Ankrum to make their typical guest appearances.

In any case, both films have their moments (a face-stealing in the first one, a ghost chase in the second) but taken as a whole, one of the lesser of the AIP double-features and possibly the very worst (so far, anyway). The Screaming Skull has just been released on BD by Shout! Factory, though, and it's a gorgeous print and includes a 12 min. documentary, the worst-looking trailers I've ever seen, and the entire MST3K show that lampooned the film. So there IS that.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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The Batman
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I found THE SCREAMING SKULL to be dull, dull, dull. Hearing now that it was originally supposed to be a romantic melodrama helps explain it's bloodless "horror".

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Fantomas
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My memory of the Screaming Skull is pretty hazy, but is this the one where the wife has a speech where she analyzes Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle? Not the sort of thing you expect to find in an AIP horror movie. Must have impressed the hell out of all the ten-year-olds waiting for the screaming skull to take a bite out of someone.
Edited by Fantomas, May 10 2017, 02:48 PM.
"For life is short, but death is long."
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