Terror at the Haunted House, a.k.a. My World Dies Screaming, is a film which had a good premise but suffers from three things: A distracting, inappropriate title, excessive verbosity, and “Psycho-Rama.”
Either title, Terror at the Haunted House or My World Dies Screaming, either literally or thematically, tells nothing of the film’s contents. For the former, there is no haunted house, and for the latter, it implies perhaps an apocalyptic premise, which is not the case.
Shelia Tierney (Cathy O’Donnell), pronounced “tyranny,” suffers from night terrors from, what she deduces, a childhood trauma deeply rooted in her psyche. After having a “whirlwind romance” with Philip Tierney (Gerald Mohr), the couple moves to a house in Florida, the same house which haunts her dreams. The remainder of the storyline is as dramatic as a gothic Henry James novel and, like James, is excessively verbose. For the writer, the long-windedness of his characters is a metaphor, as his characters’ words replace and represent stagnation, yet for director Harold Daniels, he uses the characters as mouthpieces for the plot which would have been more entertaining and better executed had he went through the hassle of having the characters enact it. For instance, when the couple disclose the history of the Tierneys, he could have used a flashback instead of having the two discuss at length (most of the second half of the film) what occurred. Unlike James, the method of narration becomes sterile because it is merely explication and does not add (actually it detracts) from the tension.
The film is famous for one thing: Psycho-Rama, which is the term the producers created to describe the technique of incorporating subliminal messages and images throughout the film. However, a second of screen time is six frames during the time this film was produced and I found it odd that I could catch brief glimpses of faces, rats, skulls, and various messages (such as “Scream Blood Murder”). Hence, I think that the editor, Tholen Gladden, extended the inserts in order to make the technique obvious with hopes of arousing interest and notoriety in the film. Consequently, the Psycho-Rama is distracting as I frequently found myself thinking back to what had flashed across the screen instead of paying attention to what the characters were doing and saying.
This said, I’d say the first half, sans the Psycho-Rama, is intriguing and thoroughly sets a mood. However, the second half depletes what the first half had achieved through its excessive dialogue and continual bombardment of “subliminal” messages. The marketing executives were smart to play up the trick pony of Psycho-Rama, otherwise no one would bother with this film.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
