Review Too Scared to Scream (1985)

genre: thriller,slasher

My hunger for watching entertaining thrillers was increasing so it was time to go back into time and look for ones I have skipped on or never heard about. Browsing through still too many titles I have not seen yet Too Scared Too Scream, caught my eye. If you look at the poster you got too admit that there is a heavy giallo vibe going on here. And as a huge lover of that genre naturally I could not pass this up. 

Too Scared to Scream has everything I love in a slasher. Starting with thrills and scares. While overall the title seems more like a glorified TV movie it is far from tame and knows how to effectively scare the viewer. Some of the killings are quite brutal (granted most of it happens off screen or is implied by describing the aftermath). Still that is enough to know that the killer means business. Like in most slashers the victims are beautiful women who somehow always get killed while they are undressing or are fully naked. Depending on your preference people might appreciate this. More important is that the director has put in  red herrings to mislead us many times and providing some decent twist and turns accompanied by more than competent acting. Some characters act very strangely and add to the fun of finding out who the killer is. Experienced thriller watchers maybe will catch on pretty quickly but I am happy to report that the film does make you doubt about the identity of the killer several times which is excellent of course. (The way this was handled was very gialloesque and that to me is always a good thing). That being said though here and there you will notice that some of the actors (especially the older ones) don't really take the material that seriously which oddly enough gives it that lightness that is needed to prevent it from things getting too dark or bizarre. (Mind you if the director would have made it dark it would have been a much better movie that could easily could have gone against the better slashers made that year). 

If you get across this title then give it a shot if only to see a younger Ian Mcshane being super creepy and Anne Archer being young and super attractive before she had fallen victim to this horrible disease called plastic surgery.  

Anne Archer working out in Too Scared to Scream

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