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Scream of the Banshee Review

For some reason, I always pictured a Banshee looking a lot different than it did in Scream of The Banshee. Their version looked more like a troll, but in my head I always saw some sort of flying woman. To each their own, I guess. Scream of the Banshee is one of the new branch of After Dark Films that were actually screened just last month. SyFy, as always, is showing these features on their Friday night block. I think the last one they showed was Husk. With Scream of the Banshee, I wouldn’t consider it a horror film. Don’t get me wrong, it is creepy at some points. But the bizarre looking banshee and lack of substantial plot made this more of a supernatural comedy.

In Scream of the Banshee, researches at a local college discover a metallic box hidden behind a false wall. Of course they have to open the box, right? Inside the box is the head of “a severely deformed human or animal of some sort,” according to the head professor. The disgusting head turns to ash and disappears before their very eyes. It is after this event that strange things, apparitions, noises, feelings etc start happening to those present when the box was open. And just a little warning to anyone who hears the video of the banshee – once you hear the scream of a banshee, it will haunt you until you accept death.

So, like I said above – this didn’t really strike me as a horror film. It’s definitely something you’d see on Supernatural on the CW. Yeah, it has a lot of creepy elements and a little bit of blood, but nothing that would make me say this is grade A horror film, or grade B in this case. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything wrong with the film. It is shot really well. Special affects look awesome, even though the Banshee looks a little silly. Audio levels are great. They used an interesting “bright” filter during some scenes. The acting was good, except some actors didn’t look shocked or frightened as much as they did confused at some points. Looking at the film all together, Scream of the Banshee is pretty good, just a little mis-marketed in my opinion.

But, I definitely think you should watch it. I don’t think SyFy will be rerunning it again for a while, but I would recommend watching it when the opportunity arises. I actually think these will be out on DVD during the summer, if I’m correct. So, in closing, while Scream of the Banshee isn’t real horror, supernatural-thriller fans will really enjoy it. And deep down I enjoyed it too.

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

One Comment

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  1. i also thought banshee is the sma version of ghost known as Pontianak in Malaysia and Kuntilanak in Indonesia. You can search in youtube for pontianak or kuntilanak.

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