Elviras Movie Macabre Maneater of HydraThe House That Screamed DVD with Lilli Palmer, Cristina Galbï¿½, John Moulder-Brown (NR) +Movie Reviews

Half-disappointing, half-great

Chris D. | 11/26/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Very disappointing, not in choice of movies but in the presentation. Both of these films are very entertaining. But the transfer of MANEATER OF HYDRA is appallingly bad. Not only is it pan-and-scan (which is bad enough and something I half expected), but it looks as if it was mastered from a VHS that had tracking problems (notice all the visual static on bottom of the frame throughout -- I actually have a DVD-R dubbed from a VHS that looks better than this!). The film is no masterpiece, but it is much better than one would expect, and it has a great cast headed by Cameron Mitchell, a great location in an old island villa and a great monster. It was also directed by Mel Welles (primarily an actor, known best for his role of Gravis Mushnick in the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, which coincidentally also featured a carnivorous plant that likes blood). Luckily THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (aka LA RESIDENCIA), an atmospheric Spanish film set in the 19th century, is taken from a wide-screen master and has excellent production values (this master is probably from a DVD of the European transfer as it is came out recently overseas -- and all these Elvira DVD releases are apparently titles that are now public domain in the USA). Anyway, be forewarned about MANEATER OF HYDRA. I've seen better transfers of public domain titles from Alpha Video and some of the other public domain DVD labels - which is scary, since Shout Factory (who released this)is a reputable company who have high quality standards. I think their quality-control guy must have been asleep at the wheel when this got through."

Elvira at her best!!!

Todd L. | Orange County, CA | 10/03/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Nothing is as fun as watching Elvira watching these bad horror movies. Growing up in the Los Angeles area Elvira and her Movie Macabre was a weekend staple in the eighties on KHJ Channel 9.

These movies are both campy and fun. Perfect for Elvira to take a whack at. The MST3K kids, as fun as they are, should thank Cassandra Peterson everyday for making this genre hip and fun again. Maneater of Hydra is a knock off of The Day of the Triffids with a monster instead of a bunch of trees eating the cast. The House that Screamed is a pretty good little movie in the spooky drive-in movie category. It was loosely remade in the eighties as Pieces. It has been unavailable in the US years except in bad VHS copies from Europe.

All-in-all the entire package is just silly fun and thanks to Elvira and her sometimes priceless one liners, well worth the price. We love you Cassie, Happy Halloween!

"

Why does "La Residencia" deserve the Elvira treatment?

S. Boone | Louisville, KY | 10/14/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"OK, Man Eater of Hydra is a pretty cheesy Euro-horror flick from the 60's with a blood-sucking tree, plus it has Cameron Mitchell, so while it's still pretty entertaining (and scared the crap out of me when I was little), this probably is a good candidate for the Elvira treatment. But, "La Residencia" (The House That Screamed) is a much more classy film, and I hardly see why anyone thought the world could benefit from a version of it with Elvira's patter inserted. Of course, on the DVD you can watch both features without Elvira, and on both that's what I did, but the films are still edited for her comments, apparently, so both the sound & the picture make ocassional fades to allow for her inserts. Which is kind of irritating, but then again, is there any other way to get these films in the US? (legally, that is?) No. Well, there is one available from Movies Unlimited but that's probably their usual DVD-R. The print of "Man Eater.." is watchable but somewhat faded, and "House That Screamed" is quite good, and even in widescreen. Don't get me wrong, I like(d) Elvira just fine, back in the day, but that was a long time ago. "House That Screamed" is just not a movie that is best butchered by her commentary. 3 out of 5."

So bad and that is why I love them!

Jason Roberts | Albany, Or. | 08/25/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Plot for both movies:

Maneater of Hydra (1967)

This is a Spanish-West German co-production released in the former country as La Isla de la muerte ("The Island of Death"), in Germany as Das Geheimnis der Todesinsel ("Secret of the Island of Death"), and first released theatrically in the United States as Island of the Doomed. The picture is a more-entertaining-than-it-ought-to-be throwback about a mad scientist and an island of poisonous and carnivorous plants.

Six tourists - erudite James Robinson (Rolf von Nauckhoff) and his lonely wife Cora (Kai Fischer); handsome architect David Moss (George Martin) and stock ingénue Beth (Elisa Montes); frumpy shutterbug Myrtle Callihan (Matilde Munoz Sampedro); and an inquisitive scientist, Professor Jules Demerest (Hermann Nehlsen) - embark upon an unusual vacation, spending their holiday at the castle of Baron von Weser (Cameron Mitchell), a botanist so desperate for cash that he's willing to turn his picturesque estate over to the tourist trade.

There's plenty of room, certainly: the Baron's big island has been uninhabited since legends of a vampire-type creature sent the island's other residents packing. After a short digression with Mrs. Robinson living up to her name by trying to seduce an unresponsive Baron, people start disappearing or dying under mysterious circumstances, including the twin brother of mute manservant Baldi (Mike Brendel) and driver Alfredo (Ricardo Valle). Though the Baron is acting strange and overly-protective of his prized petunias and such, everyone begins to suspect Baldi of the various murders, though it's clear early on that the real culprit is a blood-sucking monster tree.

Directed and co-written by New York born actor Mel Welles, best-known for his performance as flower shop owner Gravis Muschnick in Roger Corman's The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Maneater of Hydra is actually quite atmospheric if predictable, ultimately silly but effectively played with straight faces, and even the big vampire tree looks pretty good, far better than the American one-sheet poster above would suggest.

The English dubbing, perhaps supervised by Welles, is nothing if not amusing. Mr. Robinson is given a voice that's like a parody of George Sanders, while the Madrid-born Sampedro, despite her character's Irish-sounding name, is looped with a broad, Brooklynese Jewish mother voice, like Molly Picon or Louise Lasser.

The House that Screamed (1969)

A lavish Spanish production much more in the style of Henri-Georges Clouzot than, say, Jess Franco, this is a real find, an underrated, virtually forgotten thriller undeserving of the pithy treatment given the picture by Elvira & Co. Though its denouement is a disappointment, it's a class production all the way though the poor if letterboxed transfer hardly does the film justice.

The picture, released in Spain as La Residencia ("The Residence"), may have been an influence on Dario Argento's Suspira (1977); both are set at an all-girl academy and Lilli Palmer's icy headmistress, Mme. Fourneau, is very much like Alida Valli's similarly austere character in Argento's picture. Set in late-19th century France, the story mainly follows new girl Theresa (giallo star Cristina Galbo), the daughter of a single-mother cabaret dancer (and/or prostitute), shipped off to the boarding school Fourneau runs with an iron fist.

Theresa adjusts to her new life fairly well all things considered, though sadistic head girl - and coded lesbian - Irene (Mary Maude, whose looks suggest Barbara Steele) plots to humiliate her. Meanwhile, Isabelle (Maribel Martin), in love with Fourneau's teenage son, Luis (John Moulder-Brown) is brutally murdered, her throat cut, but as her body never turns up it's assumed that the girl has merely run away. Later, Theresa likewise befriends Peeping Tom Luis after he's trapped in a boiler room vent trying to get a looksee at the girls taking showers, but soon thereafter plans to run away herself to escape Irene's brutality.

Directed by Narciso Ibanez Serrador (Who Can Kill a Child?), The House That Screamed surprisingly was condemned in Phil Hardy's Encyclopedia of Horror Movies as "cynically sexploitative" and "offensively misogynist." Beyond the irony that Hardy's book heaps mounds of praise on many of Jess Franco's inept and far more crassly-made horror-sex films, the reality is The House That Screamed is almost too restrained and tasteful for its own good. It's certainly nothing like Hardy's book suggests: though ultimately downbeat the picture is nearly as Victorian as its setting - the girls even take showers demurely clothed in undergarments.

After a slow start, the film builds to some enormously atmospheric set pieces that are genuinely creepy, approaching in the style of Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961) and Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963). Key to this are the film's stunning Franscope cinematography and Waldo de los Rios's moodily effective score. Manuel Berenguer's (King of Kings, 1964's The Thin Red Line) camera backwardly tracks through the school from room-to-room a la Stanley Kubrick, and the superb lighting exemplify the obvious care that went into the production.

Maneater of Hydra looks awful. Filmed in Techniscope, it's bad enough that the film is panned-and-scanned and that the transfer probably dates back to the early-1980s. Worse, it's derived from a battered 16mm television print complete with splices, a few jumps, and distracting reel change cues. The image is soft and murky with terrible contrast. In one daytime scene, several of the characters are wearing white shirts, which are so "hot" that they shimmer like the Planet Krypton wardrobe in Superman (1978). Particularly bad is a videotape "tracking" issue throughout the picture at the bottom of the frame. At least the nearly 88-minute film seems complete or nearly so; it even includes the original European exit music, running about a minute-and-a-half.

The House That Screams seems to have originally aired on Movie Macabre in a panned-and-scanned version, but what's presented here is fully letterboxed, albeit not 16:9 enhanced. Where this transfer was located is anyone's guess: the titles are in Spanish (and bear the title La Residencia, not The House That Screamed) and in one scene a letter, likewise in Spanish, is translated via subtitles. The English-only audio is very poor, muddy and frequently distorted, and the letterboxed image is well below par as well, soft and fairly murky, though at least the original Franscope (2.35:1) screen shape is retained.

Running times for the film vary between 76 minutes (possibly the original U.S. theatrical version) and as long as 104 minutes. This cut runs 97 minutes but clearly is missing at least one full (and probably key) scene that presumably covers Theresa's first meeting with Luis. As it is, she finds him trapped in the vent then the next thing we learn they've been seeing one another for several weeks.

As with previous Movie Macabre releases, viewers have the option to watch the film all by itself, without Elvira's segments. Even so, the film still abruptly and artificially fades in and out where these segments would be. The mono audio on both films is below average. There are no subtitle or alternate audio options, and no Extra Features."

House That Screamed is a seminal horror gem!

Thomas M. Sipos | Santa Monica, CA | 05/22/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED is a seminal work that's inspired surprisingly little critical analysis, or even fanish coverage, at least in the US. Yet its prescient conceit (an unseen slasher in an all-girl's boarding school) adumbrates both SUSPIRIA (likewise set in an all-girl's boarding school) and a decade of slasher-in-a-sorority films. Its influence is evident in PIECES (Italian 1983) and MAY (2002). And one may appreciate THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED as political metaphor.

Yet in his Psychotronic Encyclopedia, Michael Weldon dismisses THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED as "a sick made-in-Spain movie."

At least Tohill & Tombs recognize the film's historic importance. In Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984, they write: "the [Spanish] horror 'boom' really began with the success of THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (LA RESIDENCIA) in 1969." But remarkably, they say no more about it, only alluding to it later when discussing Serrador's ISLAND OF DEATH: "Like Serrador's earlier THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED, the pacing of [ISLAND OF DEATHD] is excellent. ... Again, as in his earlier film, Serrador's story deals with the effects of repression and the notion that the worlds of adults and children are separated by an unbridgeable gulf."

You'd think a book about European sex & horror cinema would say more about the film it credits with popularizing horror in Spain. No matter. I'll say more: The film opens with the arrival of "eighteen and a half years-old" Theresa (Cristina Galbo) at an all-girl's boarding school, in 19th century France (not Spain). She appears privileged, the school an elite academy (as in SUSPIRIA). But the school is really an exalted dumping ground for girls who are troubled, troublesome, or just trouble. Insolent, thievish, wanton, or simply unwanted.

Theresa is the latter. Diffident, even demure, but unwanted by her prostitute mother. Fortunately, someone is willing to pay her tuition to keep her out of her mother's way.

Mme. Fourneau (Lilli Palmer) runs the school, with the aid of a student, Irene (Mary Maude). Irene leads a gang of lesbian bullies, who act as enforcers for Fourneau. One may infer fascist symbolism from Irene's brown blouse and black tie, and her gang's role in enforcing Fourneau's will. Being a 1969 Spanish film, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED can easily be interpreted as metaphor for Franco's rule.

The "school as metaphor for repressive politics" is an old conceit. The simpler filmic versions pit staid administrations against free-spirited students. But THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED and THE CHOCOLATE WAR (1988) are more complex, and darker, in that they feature school administrations and student gangs forming mutually satisfying alliances against a weak student majority.

As best I know, I'm the only one to identify a political metaphor in THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED. Everyone else seems to focus on the sex. John Stanley (Creature Features) praises the film because it "excellently captures the oppressive sexual needs of the girls with erotic artsy intercutting."

Well, there's that. Actually, the film captures just about every manner of sexual need, for every character.

Forneau's adolescent son, Luis (John Moulder-Brown), feels like a kid in a candy store. He skulks about and spies on the libidinal girls, crawling through walls, peering through vents as they shower.

Complicating matters, Fourneau dotes on Luis, pampering him, projecting her hypochondria onto him, fretting lest he catch cold on a warm summer day. Mother warns son that "none of these girls are any good," and counsels him to wait for the right woman, who will protect him, and "live for him," and love him, just like ... mother. Then mother kiss her son on the lip.

Further complicating matters, Fourneau appears to desire one of her students. After Fourneau has Irene whip the student, Fourneau apologizes and kisses the student's freshly scarred back.

Irene relishes wielding the whip, face aglow with sadistic glee. But she also uses sex to control the girls. Irene controls access to a workman, deciding which horny girl has earned the privilege to slip out for a sexual rendezvous. (For herself, Irene prefers the company of her lesbian gang.)

But there are still more complications. Irene flirts with Theresa, explaining that she can make things pleasant or difficult. For things to be pleasant, all Theresa need do is "obey" Irene's every wish.

This is the sexual tinderbox Theresa slowly finds herself in. (Tohill & Tombs are right to praise the pacing.) But even before Theresa's arrival, a serpent had entered Fourneau's well-ordered garden. Suspiciously too many girls are "escaping" -- and never heard from again. What began as a "exploitation boarding school film" morphs into slasher territory.

The "escapes" distress Fourneau, who stands to lose her position. As control over her society disintegrates, she increases her repression, ordering all windows and doors nailed shut.

"If the girls want to escape, they will," laments a maid. "This is a boarding house, not a prison."

"Then I will make it a prison," Fourneau responds.

When Fourneau withdraws privileges from Irene, Irene withdraws the services of her enforcers. Without Irene, the girls grow more difficult to handle. As the body count mounts, everyone wants to escape.

As political metaphor, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED suggests that authoritarianism carries the seeds of its own destruction, in the end destroying even those who serve it.

As horror film, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED benefits from having a strong charismatic villain. No, not Fourneau, but Irene. Or rather, Irene as portrayed by Mary Maude.

Mary Maude has a talent for playing charismatic meanies. As Irene, Maude is strong, alluring, aloof, regal. Maude also shone as the witch-hunter's callous wife in TERROR (British 1978). But when she played a docile woman-in-distress in CRUCIBLE OF TERROR (British 1971) she lost her charisma, and was less interesting. Maude also appeared in LA MUERTE INCIERTA (Spanish 1972), but remains an obscure British actress.

Will somebody please release LA MUERTE INCIERTA on DVD? Or even VHS?

Like many European films, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED is an international mishmash. Produced in Spain, set in France, starring the English Maude and the German Palmer. The English prints are dubbed, although the actresses' lips seem to be already speaking English. In an interview for Filmfax # 75-76, Maude states: "Unfortunately, I did not dub my own voice, as I was working on something else at the time. I regret this, as I feel that only half the performance is mine. It is my understanding that the English dub was not very good. But, then again, the Spanish one wasn't much either."

To date, this Elivra DVD is the best NTSC DVD version of THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED available in the U.S. Ebay used to have VHS copies of dubious quality, mostly from Europe. Later, a poor quality DVD was released in Australia in the PAL format.

Happily, this Elvira DVD NTSC version is in widescreen. However, it's less that stellar in terms of sound and visual reproduction.

Still, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED is worth seeing at whatever quality is available.

Maneater of Hydra, also on this DVD. It's a slow-moving, boring film about a man-eating plant. The plant can't leave the soil, and there's only one of it, so ... just stay away from it."

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