DIE SCREAMING MARIANNE (REVIEW)

Dir. Peter Walker

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

A strange beast and one that is probably left in the vaults as one to he forgotten, DIE SCREAMING MARIANNE proves why you should never judge a book by its cover.

Echoes of Giallo and early European cinema, Peter Walker's (FRIGHTMARE, HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN) first foray into horror is tepid at best.

After their parents divorce, one daughter lives with her mother in England while the other lives with her father in Portugal. After the untimely death of her mother, the one daughter stands to inherit a large sum of money and also a number of documents containing information that will incriminate her father, who was a crooked judge. While her father wants the documents, her sister wants the money and they will each stop at nothing, even murder, to get what they want.

Without suspense, a relatively low and underplayed series of deaths and a straight piece of corruptive story telling, threats are real but more likened to British serials of the 60s and early 70s and despite some heavy advertising and word play is somehow sold as a thriller, one that falls short of being thrilling.

The film can be forgiven for not being horror but without luring in that target audience, the film even struggles to be anything more than mediocre with a few torso shots of a beautiful Susan George which I suspect the film was marketed heavily on.