Death Screams Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.0

Death Screams Blu-ray Movie Review

Ten little idiots.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 21, 2021

The legendary mysteries by the venerable Dame Agatha Christie have delighted fans of both her original novel and/or short story versions, as well as the innumerable adaptations that have been done for either the small or large screen over the course of several decades. It may come as something of a surprise to see "only" 174 writing credits for Christie on the IMDb, considering her protean output. That initial surprise may give way to a more impressed understanding once a cursory scroll through those credits reveals that any number of multi- episode outings like Poirot: The Complete Cases Collection or Miss Marple offer literally scores of adaptations based on various Christie tales which are aggregated under one listing. Among the most frequently adapted of Christie's many intriguing works is her now iconic 1939 novel which initially appeared in the UK under an unfortunate title which won't be repeated here but which made it to the movies in René Clair's well remembered 1945 classic And Then There Were None. This kind of ultimate "closed door mystery" then experienced a veritable glut of subsequent adaptations, including a 1949 UK television piece which evidently decided to retain the original questionable Christie title. A 1959 American television version was next, which the IMDb lists as having starred Nina Foch, and which kind of oddly boasts four directors on its credits page. Two 1965 opuses came next, a really fun Indian film called Gumnaam, and the US production Ten Little Indians, which transported the tale to an isolated ski chalet.

Mario Bava's 1970 Five Dolls for an August Moon owes an obvious tip of the hat (and/or black gloves) to Christie's novel, albeit perhaps subversively, though the 1974 Ten Little Indians made no bones about its Christie roots and in fact seemed to be trying to market itself in much the same way as another, probably better remembered, 1974 adaptation of a Christie piece, Murder on the Orient Express. A 1981 Filipino (!) adaptation was evidently next, and it's perhaps best for any number of reasons to gloss over what was seemingly a porn version with the inimitable Harry Reems that came out in 1985. Two years later in 1987 a Russian adaptation appeared, and two years after that 1989 offered up Ten Little Indians, which kind of hilariously transported things to an African safari. That was it (ostensibly) for close to three decades until the rather dour (i.e., true to its source) And Then There Were None was produced by the BBC in 2015. As of the writing of this review, the only subsequent adaptation appears to be a 2020 French miniseries which is listed variously as They Were Ten and/or Ils étaient dix. All of this is to say that when producer Charles "Chuck" Ison discloses in one of the supplements included on this disc that Christie's celebrated murder(s) mystery sparked his idea behind Death Screams, even those who have seen all of the foregoing adaptations may respond with a hearty, Are you friggin' kidding me?

Christie's original source novel had a built in conceit whereby character introductions and/or histories were almost "announced", and in that regard, it may be understandable why screenwriter Paul C. Elliott (who reveals in a supplement that he pounded out the screenplay over the course of a weekend) takes a good deal of time to introduce a rather large cast. Elliott discusses wanting to have an "adequate supply" of suspects in his piece, since a series of murders was going to winnow down the red herrings one way or the other, but what that ends up meaning for Death Screams is two acts of exposition followed by a brief burst of mayhem at the end. It's unabashedly lopsided, and it may really frustrate those wanting a more traditional slash 'n' dash outing.

The film actually gets off to an effective start with the gruesome garroting of a young couple kind of painfully (it would seem) attempting to make love on top of a motorcycle. Those two victims turn out to be friends of the bulk of the rest of the cast, other kids who are passingly concerned about their missing compatriots, but not enough to not have a little fun in the woods during a local fair. Suffice it to say the killer who offed the first two is still out there wreaking havoc. There are some kind of fun (and, yes, funny) kill scenes, but the one "real" throwback to And There There Were None is surprisingly anti-climactic in this version.

Death Screams Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Death Screams is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:

Death Screams is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono sound.

Despite our best efforts, no pre-print materials for Death Screams could be found. The sole available feature element, a badly faded 35mm release print, was scanned in 2K resolution on an Arriscan by OCN Digital Labs. All color grading was performed on DaVinci Resolve 17 and all digital restoration was performed using PFClean. The soundtrack was sourced from the 35mm optical track and was ingested via a Magnatech Dubber and restored in Pro Tools. Audio remastering (was) completed by Mattew Jarman.

Although every effort has been made to present Death Screams in the best condition possible, some obviously signs of picture wear remain, due to the poor state of the materials available.

The fact that the 35mm release print is attributed to collector Brian Darwas (who, if it's the same person, has some interesting IMDb credits may indicate this is one more or less truly "lost" film that Arrow is resurrecting from near death. I'm scoring this at 3.0 to temper expectations, as there are some obvious deficits at play, especially in some of the darkest scenes, where blacks are milky and detail levels are often negligible. But in better lit moments, the palette pops reasonably well, and detail levels improve measurably. Grain is just a tad chunky at times, especially against some of the bluer daytime skies (which ultimately give way to true horror staple dead of night settings), but resolves naturally for the most part. My score is 3.25.

Death Screams Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Death Screams features an LPCM Mono track that has perhaps weathered the vagaries of time and tide a bit better than the video side of things. While not especially robust, there are no major fidelity issues, and both dialogue and effects are rendered without any problems. The film's score by Dee Barton is wildly variable, with some more traditional horror cues arguably working better than some kind of strange choices during the film's climax. Optional English subtitles are available.

Death Screams Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentaries

  Audio Commentary with Charles Ison and Worth Keeter is moderated by Phil Smoot.

  
  

  Audio Commentary with The Hysteria Continues

• All the Fun of the Score: The Making Death Screams (HD; 32:53) is a fun newly produced piece with some good interviews, including Charles Ison, Worth Keeter and Paul Elliot.


• House of Death Alternate VHS Opening Titles (HD; 5:55)


• TV and Radio Spots

  TV Spot 1 (HD; 00:32)

  
  

  TV Spot 2 (HD; 00:32)

  
  

  TV Spot 3 (HD; 00:32)

  
  

  TV Spot 4 (HD; 00:32)

  
  

  Radio Spot Reel (HD; 3:47) plays to key art and stills of promotional material from the film.

• Image Galleries

  Production Stills (HD)

  
  

  Behind the Scenes (HD)

  
  

  Promotional (HD)

  
  

  TV Spot Behind the Scenes (HD)

Additionally, this release comes with Arrow's typically well appointed insert booklet, and there's an especially fun die cut slipcover as well.

Death Screams Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's probably a good reason that Death Screams doesn't show up on Agatha Christie's IMDb page as a supposed adaptation of And Then There Were None, even though it's easy to see at least one major "steal" from Dame Agatha's vaunted masterpiece. This is another cult item that Arrow has rescued from obscurity, and as with many similar niche items offered by the label, some of the allure of this release may be in terms of its fun supplemental package as much as for the film itself.