January 30: Indie Horror Slasher 'Silent Scream' Hits Theaters

TV commercial director Denny Harris's wish was finally fulfilled 32 years ago today. All he wanted was to helm a horror film. Thanks to the success of "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th," his little independent film, "Silent Scream," he started production on in 1977 finally saw the light of day in 1980. It was a long hard road but ended up paying off by becoming a cult classic still celebrated by genre fans today.

It revolved around female college student Scotty who takes up residence at Mrs. Engels' mansion by the sea. She is roommates there with three other college students. Mrs. Engels' son Mason takes care of the students since his mother prefers to be alone in her attic room. When one of the students is murdered, it becomes evident the other three are in grave danger. Policemen assigned to the case quickly begin to realize there is a dark and deadly secret the Engels family has kept hidden away.

There are all kinds of interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the making of "Silent Scream." The film was shot in 1977 but thought to be unreleasable. Director Harris brought in screenwriters Jim and Ken Wheat ("Pitch Black," "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master") to revamp the screenplay. They talked Harris into reshooting the bulk of the movie. Only 12 minutes of the first version were kept.

In 1978, all the actors who played the college students were brought back into to start production on the movie again. This time around the supporting roles in the film were given to actors with recognizable names. Yvonne De Carlo ("The Munsters"), Barbara Steele ("Black Sunday"), Cameron Mitchell ("The High Chaparral"), and Avery Schreiber ("My Mother the Car") were all brought in to give the movie more of a chance to attract moviegoers. De Carlo, Mitchell, and Schreiber all shot their parts in two days. If additional scenes called for the characters to appear, writers Ken and Jim Wheat would stand in for them. If they needed someone to substitute for Yvonne De Carlo, Jim's future wife would do it.

Barbara Steele's scenes took four days to shoot. Steele was excited to take the role because she was playing a mute character, which she hadn't done before. This was her only bigscreen appearance in the 1980s.

Director Harris originally spent $450,000 of his own money and used his own staff and facilities to make the movie. It was ultimately picked up by American Cinema Releasing for distribution. For an independent film that had so much trouble getting made it went on to be a big success at the box office, grossing around $15.8 million.

"Silent Scream" was finally released as a special edition DVD in 2009 that included 5.1 Surround Sound; audio commentary with Writer/Producers Ken and Jim Wheat, and star Rebecca Balding; three all-new featurettes; director Denny Harris' final audio interview; theatrical trailer; and TV spot. The movie continues to be regarded as a valuable piece of horror cinema history.

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Eric Shirey is the founder and former editor of Rondo Award nominated movie news websites MovieGeekFeed.com and TheSpectralRealm.com. His work has been featured on Yahoo!, DC Comics, StarWars.com, and other entertainment websites. Eric has interviewed and worked with actors like Harrison Ford, Brooke Shields, Gerard Butler, Brendan Fraser, Selena Gomez, and many more.