Scream of the Banshee (2011)
Distributor: G2 Pictures/After Dark Originals
Blu-Ray/DVD Release Date (UK): 25th July 2011
DVD Release Date (US): July 26, 2011
Directed by: Steven C. Miller
Starring: Lauren Holly, Lance Henriksen, Todd Haberkorn
Review by: Stephanie Scaife
The words “SyFy original movie” may fill you with dread, and quite rightly so in the majority of cases, but here we have Scream of the Banshee, a collaboration between SyFy and After Dark Originals and surprisingly it wasn’t entirely the suckfest that I was anticipating. Although SyFy doesn’t exactly have a stellar track records when it comes to its original made-for-television movies, After Dark has occasionally come out with something of interest (I particularly liked Seconds Apart and Dread), so perhaps this partnership has forced SyFy to up its game, if only ever so slightly.
So, Scream of the Banshee starts off in ancient Ireland where we see our banshee being killed and decapitated. Fast forward to the present day and archaeology professor Isla Whelan (Lauren Holly) receives a mysterious box that contains an ancient gauntlet and a map, conveniently the map leads to a secret room within the university where she works and inside the room is an ancient box that rumbles and wheezes as if alive. Again, rather conveniently the aforementioned gauntlet is the key to opening the box and even though there is clearly something weird going on Isla and two of her students decide to open it straight away without any further investigation. What they discover is the decapitated head of the banshee, which quickly awakens and emits a deafening scream before exploding.
In a rather odd decision by the writers; once potential victims hear the scream of the banshee they become cursed and suffer hallucinations, however they cannot actually be physically killed by the monster until they themselves physically scream aloud, so we get a lot of somewhat confusing is-it-a-dream-or-is-it-reality scenes where the banshee tries to scare her victims into screaming with fear. This is neither an effective or convincing plot device and it comes across as hackneyed and lazy, not to mention the fact that it is more than a little ridiculous.
Anyhow, in amongst the banshee dream sequences we also have a rather melodramatic story arc surrounding Isla and her troubled relationship with her daughter Shayla. The scenes of mother and daughter arguing, crying and just generally complaining are incredibly tedious and make the already rather laboured plot and 90 minute running time feel infinitely stretched. These scenes along with a lot of this film does indeed feel like filler; there are only a few characters so by having them die in dream sequences then die again for real it is essentially a way to get more death for your dollar. I guess that shows a little ingenuity from our filmmakers at least.
Having said all that, there are some redeeming qualities to this film, believe it or not. First off, the acting isn’t all that bad. Sure, the dialogue is clunky at times but the actors do their best with what they are given and the presence, albeit brief, of Lance Henriksen is a welcome addition. Although, he is almost unrecognisable as the bloated, toupee wearing mad banshee specialist Professor Broderick Duncan, who also appears for some unknown reason to have a penchant for wearing different coloured nail polish on each finger, seemingly as a further indication of his wackiness.
Another plus has got to be the creature effects. Whilst the film still suffers from some decidedly dodgy CGI squirty blood the banshee herself looks pretty good, all haggard and toothsome. I should mention that one of the posters doing the rounds makes this look like some kind of Red Riding Hood porn parody; this is incredibly misleading as we only see the banshee as a monstrous hag throughout the film.
Although this is far from the worst horror film I’ve seen this year it’s also pretty far from being the best too, which is hardly a glowing recommendation, but in an industry where a lot of horror films are churned out purely on the assumption that the fans will literally watch anything, it’s nice to see something that tries to be a little different. I think the idea of a banshee horror films is actually fairly promising, but there is no real exploration here of the myths and folklore surrounding the origins of the creature and no explanation whatsoever of, well, really anything that happens.