Watch The Screaming Woman For Free

Simply A Masterpiece

Don't Believe the Hype

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Olivia de Havilland is one of my all-time favorite actresses. She's been marvelous in many films and deservedly earned the Oscar twice. However, for a fan, it's not especially enjoyable watching her in "The Screaming Woman". I think most of it is that she overacts and the director should have done a better job in getting a slightly more restrained performance. It also didn't help that the story was very simple and had to be padded in order to get the film to full length. When the film begins, Laura (de Havilland) has just returned home from an extended stay in a mental institution. You can tell she is rich because it's describes as a 'sanitarium'...a nice way of referring to such a place! Soon after her arrival home, Laura is walking about her property and hears a woman's muffled scream coming from beneath the ground! However, because of her reputation, everyone just assumes it's her imagination. And, try as she might, she cannot get anyone to listen.Apart from the overacting (only in a couple scenes), the film suffers from logical problems. After all, when Laura gets a kid to help her dig and he ALSO hears the screaming, this should have solved the problem....but still no one (including the boy's father) believes her. Folks are TOO quick to laugh her off and ignore her when five minutes of digging would have ended the problem. As a 30 minute production this might have worked...as it is, it's difficult to recommend.By the way, I noticed one reviewer lamented that it was NOT available on DVD or video...but it IS available on YouTube....which is how I saw the film.

Nobody will listen to dotty old widow Olivia de Havilland when she tries to convince anyone and everyone--her son, the police, her neighbors, her doctor--that she hears a woman's voice calling for help from below the ground on the outskirts of her property. Although hysterical, de Havilland is able to relate her findings succinctly--but since she was just released from a sanitarium, her anxiety is determined to be the product of a faulty mental state. TV-made adaptation of a Ray Bradbury short story (initially a 1940s radio play) keeps its leading lady on the verge of a breakdown throughout. Too bad the scenarist, Merwin Gerard, needed to pad the proceedings with background detail on a cheating husband's love life and a wicked daughter-in-law eager to take control of Olivia's estate. Remade again for television as part of "The Ray Bradbury Theater" in 1986.

This was a good version of the story. I must say that it captured me from the start, but I was very annoyed with most of the characters. I hate when not only do they not believe you, but they treat you like a fool. Half the time they wouldn't even let the woman talk because they were so convinced that she was crazy. You don't have to believe a wild story, but talking over someone and refusing to even listen is just vile. What if they happen to be telling the truth? Even if you believe it's far-fetched, just what if they are, what about the person they are trying to save? Oh sure, they eventually play along, but they quite frankly didn't seem all that concerned if there really were a woman buried alive.

I saw this TV movie as a kid with a babysitter and ended up so freaked out that I spent the night in tears waiting for a hand to reach up from under the bed and grab me. I saw it again as a young adult and it still sent chills up my spine with the side profile shots of the buried woman. Very haunting images.