The Shout (1979)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Really Surprised!

Nice effects though.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I really wanted to like this one but didn't.. I could even make a good argument as to why this film shouldn't be considered a horror movie. Basic Plot - Man enters a couple's life and claims he can kill with a shout then gives a pretty convincing demonstration.Heavy on allegory but missing a few things i like in my horror.. like an element of danger or creepiness, scares, and a little blood. This movie was just menacing, strange, and dull. *1 one star for the excellent cast and acting which was enough to hold my attention for 86 minutes but not enough to make me like it.

Robert Graves (a young Tim Curry) arrives at an asylum to score a cricket game along with one of the more eccentric residents, a man named Crossley. The man begins to tell Graves, in a story that may or may not be true, how he acquired the wife of one the cricket players in particular Anthony Fielding. Crossley imposes himself onto the musician that experiments with strange sounds and his wife Rachel. In a rather uncomfortable scene during the couple's first lunch with the stranger Crossley informs them that for the last eighteen years he has studied aboriginal magic which endowed him with various powers. One in particular intrigues Anthony simply called "the shout" which is a yell that kills anyone within hearing distance. Not quite a believer in Crossley's skill Anthony follows him out to a secluded area where he will observe the shout while impacting his ears with wax. Crossley let's out a blood curdling scream that knocks Anthony out and kills a sheep herder some distance away. As Crossley continues to intrude on the Fielding's lives he snatches a buckle from Rachel's sandal somehow making her infatuated with the stranger. This drives a wedge between the three which cause Anthony to flee his own home from fear of being shouted to death.This is truly a one-of-a-kind film that I wanted to see the moment I saw the short trailer about fifteen years ago. "The Shout" probably would fail miserably with today's jaded "Saw" and "Hostel" crowd and sadly I might add with American audiences (Yes, I'm still a proud jingoist!). It all boils down to if you believe Crossley is in fact telling the truth as Anthony arrives to the game with a different woman and Rachel is a nurse at the asylum. It really makes you think if any of Crossley's story is truthful as Graves listens intently yet never interjects any questions as to the veracity of his statements. There isn't a whole lot of action here thought Susannah York is frequently nude in this. However, if you're looking for a gore splatterfest with plenty of buxom blond victims you will not like "The Shout". If you are interested in an intelligent mix of clever storytelling and a unique plot then "The Shout" will be a real scream.

An utterly bewitching and fantastical film from the great Polish-born filmmaker Jerzy Skolimoski. An "abnormal" mental patient, Crossley (Alan Bates), tells a story of himself, which may or may not be true, to a young, confused looking Tim Curry during a mental institution run cricket match. He tells of how he self-imposed his way into the home of an experimental musique concrète composer, Anthony (John Hurt), who records all sorts of fascinating sounds and noises and then manipulates them with his mini-studio of electronic equipment, and his wife Rachel (Susannah York). Inside the flashback/flash forward/flash sideways, he tells them of a unique ability he has perfected, which he learned from an aboriginal medicine man while living in the Australian outback. It seems he can perform a shout that will kill anyone within a surrounding radius. He demonstrates "The Shout" to Anthony and unknowingly kills a local farmer. His presence in Anthony's home quickly becomes awkward and unwanted but he continues to force his stay with intimidation. He uses his mysterious mystical abilities to entrance Rachel into becoming almost rabid for him, and taunts Anthony with his conquest and powers. Anthony, humiliated and overpowered in his own home and life, searches desperately for a way to defeat Crossley; searches for the source of his "soul".Skolimowski uses the music and sounds that are recorded by John Hurt's character on screen (in real life made by Rupert Hine) as the metaphysical soul to this cinematic nightmare; similar in the ways David Lynch uses sound design as both an audio and visually integral mood stabilizing component in his nightmare-dream poems, or how Nicolas Roeg uses fractured time and images to a disorientating, hypnotic effect. In fact, it feels very analogous to a Roeg film. Highly recommended.

I saw this last night (19th Sept 2006) on DVD and would agree with the earlier comments. The cast is strong, the atmosphere of the film is tensely exciting and scenes are often like an animated painting - eg the cricket match. There was a scene I noticed early on, while I was in that phase, 'Shall I continue to watch this or go and play chess on the computer', of Alan Bates riding a motorbike and passing a car in which travelled Sarah Miles and the thought occurred to me after seeing it that it was technically very good and must have required some working out but I know little of these things. Any way I found that I had to watch the film all the way though and not to see how the plot worked out either but because it looked good and it looked different.