By Geno McGahee
OK, this tale began with zero promise as some old guy stumbles across Ray Bradbury sitting on some rocks. Bradbury is a great storyteller and writer, but he cannot act and his bumbling performance here was wretched. I began to wonder if he would be in this tale throughout, but thankfully, it was just a second intro. He walks with the old guy and finds some hole in some rocks where there’s this fog and he moans out “yes” as if he creamed his jeans. He may have.
The official tale begins and the great Drew Barrymore stars as Heather Leary, a young girl that enjoys horror. She has some horror comics and becomes quite obsessed with them. As she goes to the store to get some ice cream for her dad, she goes through the woods and hears a woman screaming from underground. When she runs home to tell her dad, Mr. Leary (Roger Dunn), he laughs it off. Mr. Leary also had no fashion sense. I know it’s the eighties here, but he was bad by even those standards.
Unable to get adult support, Heather recruits her friend, Dippy (Ian Heath). Ever met a guy named “Dippy”? Me either. If I knew a guy with the name “Dippy” existed, it would turn my stomach. They take a walk to the area with shovels to dig up the screaming woman but Mr. Kelly (Ken James) angrily comes over and kicks them off his property. Theorizing that he killed his wife, Heather calls the police on him, but his wife shows up and that theory is dead. But who’s buried?
Mr. Nesbitt (Alan Scarfe) gets a visit from young Heather and he invites her in. Only in the 80s would a 12 year old girl visiting a strange man in his forties at night not seem odd. That would never happen nowadays. That TO CATCH A PREDATOR has opened a lot of eyes. I wish they never took it off the air.
So, Nesbitt listens to her theory and he is rattled immediately. Right when he’s going to pry a little more, she quickly exits and goes home. When she later returns to the scene, the truth is revealed and her father finally comes around.
THE SCREAMING WOMAN is one of those take or leave sort of tales. It’s a shame because Drew Barrymore is great and the overall cast is good. I especially enjoyed Ken James as Mr. Kelly. His anger mixed with the tight shots they were using was quite amusing. The problem is that this tale, as much potential as it had, was tame. It didn’t have the creepy feel or the shock value that it needed.
I still recommend this one, but not by much. Drew Barrymore, around the same time she did CAT’S EYE, is in this and shines bright. I think she really carried the lackluster episode but it had its fair share of problems.
Rating: 5/10 – so/so
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