Perfect cast and a good story

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Virginal newlywed Catherine Fengriffen (Stephanie Beacham) moves into her husband's ancestral home where she suffers from horrific visions of a man with a severed hand and bloody eye sockets. Catherine thinks she's losing the plot, but hubby Charles (Ian Ogilvy) knows better: his family is under a curse brought about decades earlier by his wicked, hedonistic grandfather Henry (Herbert Lom) who violated a woodsman's wife on her wedding night. Psychologist Dr. Pope (Peter Cushing), who has been brought in to treat Catherine, slowly begins to unravel the mystery...And Now The Screaming Starts sets out to do two things—jangle the nerves, and stir the loins of its male viewers—both of which it does well. Seasoned horror director Roy Ward Baker expertly handles his spooky material, carefully crafting a creepy atmosphere that keeps the viewer on edge throughout, and peppers proceedings with a few effective jump scares for good measure; meanwhile, gorgeous star Beacham sets the pulses pounding, her heaving bosom barely restrained by her long line of cleavage enhancing outfits.Admittedly Beacham's incessant histrionics can get a little irritating at times, and the pacing is perhaps a little too slow for some, but there's enough good stuff here to keep most fans of Gothic '70s British horror more than happy, including a cool crawling hand (a nifty 'clockwork' special effects creation), Cushing in a foppish wig, Lom being utterly despicable as horrid Henry (the actor delivering his debauched dialogue with relish), and Ogilvy desecrating a grave with an axe, pulling the mouldy corpse out and giving it a damn good kicking!

When a virginal bride (Stephanie Beacham) heads to her new home, she has no idea of the horrors ahead of her. Husband to be Ian Ogilvy is a wealthy landowner who is tortured by his family's past. It seems that Grandpa Herbert Lom (now deceased) committed some evil on the woodsman (Geoffrey Whitehead) and his wife, and a curse has moved onto the future generations. Unfortunately, it will be the sweetly innocent Beacham who suffers at the hands of this revenge, but the evil of the past must be avenged....This is a genuinely spooky horror film, a lot like some later mainstream horror films of the late 70's/early 80's ("The Sentinel", "The Changeling", "Ghost Story"), even if it looks like many of the horror films made by Hammer or American International from the late 50's on. Beacham, best known to American audiences for her multi-faceted role as Sable on "The Colbys" and later on "Dynasty", is ravishingly beautiful as well as a very good actress. Why she hasn't had a career in films beyond these string of horror films is as mysterious as the plot line here. (Fortunately, she's been better utilized on stage; She has a presence that takes her a step beyond the usual horror film heroine.) Lom, a veteran actor with a long career in a large variety of genres, is quite menacing as the film's villain, seen in a well-filmed flashback. Geoffrey Whitehead adds scariness and pathos to his pathetic character.Unfortunately, Peter Cushing is wasted as the doctor who comes on half way through the film to help unravel the mystery as any Van Helsing would. But there are enough chills thanks to the crawling hand (that apparently has ears to hear) and mysteriously opening windows to keep you hooked.

This takes places in 1795 England. Young Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) marries Charles Fengiffen (Ian Ogilvy) and moves to live with him at his remote ancestral estate. She's attacked by a spirit on her wedding night, starts seeing an eyeless grinning man and a disembodied hand crawling around. Is she going mad or is there some family curse? Sounds good but this turns out to be a dreary, slow-moving horror movie. The drama drags along and seems longer than it's 90 minutes. It's also horribly edited with scenes ending just when they're starting to get interesting. Ogilvy and Beacham are pretty bad but the script does them no favors. Even old pros like Herbert Lom, Peter Cushing and Patrick Magee seem bored in supporting roles. However this does have a few things going for it. There's some incredibly beautiful art direction and nice cinematography. Also the ending does work. Worth a look for horror fans. I give it a 5.

This movie screamed me to death when I was sixteen hiding under the covers, eating butter popcorn. I saw this not too long ago on AMC.It is about a recent married couple moving into a huge mansion-castle, in late 1700s in England. The Bride is haunted by a painting of her husband's grandfather's portrait. She is frighteningly drawn to it. She sees a floating severe hand coming out of the portrait. Her husband at first thinks it is nerves and brings a doctor to come to her side. The doctor wants him to tell her the truth of a dark family secret, her husband refuses insist that it is fairly tale. The doctor tells him, "If you don't I will." Then suddenly he is afraid and does not.What Dark Family Secret is her husband hiding? Why won't he tell her the truth? Why is portrait of his grandfather haunts her so?