JasparLamarCrabb Recent young marrieds Ian Ogilvy & Stephanie Beacham move into Ogilvy's family estate and are soon haunted by a severed hand. Thinking Beacham is having a breakdown, Peter Cushing (who studies the "science of the mind") is brought in. Soon a family curse is revealed and all hell breaks loose. An entertaining Gothic horror film from Amicus. Director Roy Ward Baker moves this along briskly and the script (by Roger Marshall & David Case) is tightly wound. Beacham is terrific and any film that features not only Cushing but Patrick Magee & Herbert Lom has to be recommended. There's a great performance by Geoffrey Whitehead as Silas.

preppy-3 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.

slayrrr666 "And Now the Screaming Starts" is one of the better Gothic horror films of the time period.**SPOILERS**Arriving at their ancestral castle, newlyweds Charles, (Ian Oglivy) and Catherine Fengriffen, (Stephanie Beacham) move in and make it their home. Almost immediately, she feels that there's a strange presence in the house, which he writes off as her wild imagination. Thinking it's more, she decides to start looking into the family's past but more strange events plague her search. When news comes that she's pregnant, the staff realizes that a dark family secret is coming out. As she continues to slip away due to the strange family curse, they eventually decide to call for Dr. Pope, (Peter Cushing) to help her condition and solve the mystery. When the legend about his Grandfather, Henry Fengriffen, (Herbert Lom) and his sordid past is finally revealed and is found to be the cause of the strange events due to a lingering curse, they take drastic steps to ensure that the legend is thwarted.The Good News: This is a highly impressive Gothic effort. The house where it takes place is incredibly creepy, and gives off a great vibe that sells most of the scares. The twisting stairs in the house are perfect for such it's collection of scenes, the large windows in practically every room are perfect for giving their scares off and the house in general is just creepy. The overall design in the house gives it the best thrills. It also has a series of really creepy scenes that are quite scary. There's a repeated image of a bloody eyeless figure wandering around, and that it's constant appearances in windows or from portraits makes it seem that much more chilling. The portrait appearances are far better, though, as there's a ghostly aura surrounding them and the times when it appears from them make quite thrilling. The window shocks are also quite chilling, as the site of the bloody, black eyes are a wonderful vision, and it stays on them just enough to make it seem disturbing without losing their impact. This also features a wide variety of wonderful suspense scenes that actually manage to chill. The constant opening of windows through invisible forces are outright creepy, and the attack on the maid is simply thrilling. The pounding pictures, the shaking furniture, the swinging chandelier and the aura of a ghostly presence makes them all the more frightening. The sudden appearance of a hand bursting out of a painting also manages to work, and the whole thing in general is quite creepy. The pacing for the film is also quite great, as this begins it's freak-outs within the first minutes they arrive, and they only escalate but at an incredibly rapid pace that is fun to watch. That this also manages a slight exploitation angle amidst the classiness. Most of the film is brought on by the results of a rape, there's a large section of the film devoted to showing all sorts of debauchery and sleaze, and the entire curse is spread because of a second rape. That it would feel so comfortable with such sleaze inside such a classy film is a nice touch. All of these features make this a watchable film.The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot here that doesn't work. One of the few things wrong is that the idea of the mystery taking so long to come out gets a little tired and repetitious after a while. They're going to, they're not, it almost came out but now it's not, it's a little aggravating to know that it's such a struggle to get it out. That drags some of the film out in some areas with the whole repetition of everything, including the visions. While it is a creepy concept and does have some great moments, far too much of it is simply a repeat of what's been done before. Either the image is from the portrait or from a window and after a while it just becomes another one just like before. The other really big problem with the film is that there's no real conclusion to what happened. They touch upon all the story lines in some way but it's still a little hazy about what happened and that brings it down a touch as well. All in all, this one didn't have all that many problems with it.The Final Verdict: With only a few small problems and some really great moments, it's one of the better Gothic exercises out there and an overall great time. Fans of Hammer or the style in general will find a lot to like here, while those who are more into the fast-paced films might seek caution with it.Today's Rating-R: Violence, Brief Nudity and several Rapes

caprice1221 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?