Sound of Horror

 

 

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So what have we learned here? Well, if you're going to go spelunking for treasure, you might want to bring along several huge bags of flour, destroy anything that even looks like a calcified dinosaur egg, and - for heaven's sake - come packing some guns and ammo. And, while bringing along a gorgeous young woman is of course optional, I would highly recommend it.

It's true that Sound of Horror is a really cheesy horror film, riddled with many little things it is easy to ridicule (I guarantee you'll laugh at one point during the climactic moments), yet it's well worth watching. This is a Spanish film from 1965, but the English dubbing is really quite good. It seems there's a treasure of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts buried in a cave in Greece, and only our little group of treasure hunters have the map detailing its location. The first guys on the scene find an egg-shaped rock and an ancient mummy, and that only goes to fuel the local housekeeper's talk of the curse on that particular cave. Eventually, after the rest of the fellows arrive, they think they've found the spot of the treasure - and that's when the deaths begin. There is a deadly monster lurking within the caves - an invisible monster with a heavy limp and a high-pitched ululating voice that sends shivers down these brave men's spines. It's hard to get too excited about an invisible monster, but it's certainly more effective than trotting out some guy in a rubber suit. (I should note that, for reasons I can't explain, the filmmakers do superimpose - for just a quick second - a monster image onto the screen on a couple of occasions, but this hardly counts and actually does more harm than good.) As characters start getting picked off one by one, things get more intense until the remaining survivors finally figure out a way to go on the offense against something they can't see. Their plan leads to one unforgettably campy scene you won't want to miss.

Perhaps the biggest reason to see this film, though, is the presence of the legendary Soledad Miranda in one of her earlier roles. Her Greek dancing is not exactly a must-see, but she's a beautiful actress who died much too young (at the age of 27), right when she was on the verge of becoming an international star. Miranda is best known for her starring roles in a number of Jess Franco classics (including Count Dracula and Vampyros Lesbos) - I think she can justifiably be looked upon as the queen of Spanish horror during the 1960s.

This is the second time I have sat through "Sound of Horror" and it does not improve with age. This was made in Spain and is dubbed into English. It was originally released as "El Sonido Prehistorico" and also as "El Sonido de la Muerte", "The Prehistoric Sound", "Sound from a Million Years Ago", and ultimately as you see it now as "Sound of Horror". A more descriptive title would have actually been "Ninety Minutes of Pure Pain".

The plot concerns a group of "cave explorers" in Greece looking for buried treasure. The cave contains two dinosaur eggs which are activated by dynamite. One of them becomes an omelet on their fireplace, but the other goes on a rampage. I should stop here to explain the title. It is the SOUND of horror because the dinosaur is invisible! (It saved on special effects.) You can only hear his hideous scream, which sounds like an extremely agitated Charo yelling at the top of her lungs. Only once do we get a glimmer of him before he ends up on top of a blazing jeep and reveals himself to be "Grumpy" from "Land of the Lost". I would have given the film one star, but had to give it a bonus for the incredibly cheesy "axe throwing" special effect. This is the most hilarious effect I can recall in a horror film.

The one thing that really works against this film is the attempt to be all things to all people (still a problem in Hollywood today.) It has long, introspective talky scenes and cold as ice romance for the women. It has adventure, explosions, and monsters for the men. It has an improbably named old woman, Calliope (Lola Gaos), making coffee at all hours of the day and night for Juan Valdez. In other words, it tries too hard. The film is seemingly endless at 90 minutes, but would have been much more palatable with a little less coffee drinking and talking. I never grow tired of watching four guys shoveling dirt in a cave, either. Some people thought that Ingrid Pitt's dancing scene helped the picture. I disagree. It was yet another tortuous time waster that had nothing at all to do with being eaten by dinosaurs. On a positive note, the manner in which they expose the dinosaur is most clever and amusing. I will not spoil it for you but it involves bags of flour. Another problem the film suffers from is very loud, inappropriate string music playing in the background at wholly improbable times.

This film would have been a great MST3K if it had been about ten times better. The axe and flour scenes generate a couple of hearty laughs, but beyond that I would avoid this like the plague.

The image and sound quality are terrible. The images are grey and murky. The sound is full of hiss. I was confused when I read the review by phasedin he states "it's still better than my early 90's video copy from one of those companies who specialize in public-domain titles." This is an Alpha/Gotham release and thier forte is public domain. When I zoomed out, I saw video tracking on the image. I did some searches and for some reason you can only get this from Alpha Video. The plot and acting are better than O.K.

The price is right, but this is by no means a feast for the eyes.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Obscure little gem
I first caught "Sound Of Horror" way back on TV in the 70's (the only time I saw it aired). Read more

Published on April 10 2004 by Phasedin

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