Screams of a Winter Night

1979 "In the shadow of evil, in the echo of sins. In the icy stare of moonlight, our ghostly tale begins."
4.8| 1h31m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 26 January 1979 Released
Producted By: Full Moon Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Ten college friends take a winter weekend camping trip to Lake Durand. The group holes up in an old cabin where the original owners were once found dead, with local Native Americans suspecting they were the victims of a spirit called Shataba. As the group nestles in for the night, they start telling each other scary stories.

Genre

Horror, Mystery

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Screams of a Winter Night (1979) is now streaming with subscription on AMC+

Director

James L. Wilson

Production Companies

Full Moon Pictures

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Screams of a Winter Night Audience Reviews

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
BA_Harrison Shot on 16mm and featuring a cast of students from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, horror anthology Screams of a Winter Night can be excused for having a grainy drive-in aesthetic and mediocre performances. It doesn't, however, excuse the lack of imagination regarding the stories themselves, which range from the extremely predictable to the downright dull.After two and a half minutes of credits over a black screen, while terrified voices can be heard in the background, the film starts proper as ten friends (who don't seem to like each other all that much) travel to a remote cabin by a lake where they spend the weekend telling each other spooky stories.The first is a variation of a well known urban legend wherein a couple run out of gas on a lonely road only to meet with a vicious killer (in this instance, a weird, diminutive sasquatch type creature). Tale number two has a group of fraternity pledges spending the night in a deserted, run down, supposedly haunted hotel. And the last story to be told sees a repressed college student becoming a deranged murderess. The film closes with the friends in the cabin being menaced by a malevolent Indian wind spirit (serving as inspiration for The Evil Dead, perhaps).As a cost-cutting exercise, the characters in the stories are played by the same actors that are telling them, something that adds a little novelty factor to proceedings, but with such unlikeable protagonists, forgettable stories, uninspired direction, and an ending that looks like the makers simply ran out of money or ideas (freeze framing on four of the group as they run for their lives), this obscurity is destined to remain so.
Anthony D I decided to watch this movie because I've heard a lot about it. I figured it must be a pretty good movie, even though I knew it would be a little cheesy (also, I always love getting my hands on rare stuff). I wasn't expecting anything close to a masterpiece, but at the same time I feel like it fell a little short of my expectations.To start off, give this movie the award for scariest title of all time. If the title alone doesn't make you curious about this movie, then I don't know what planet you're on. The opening scene is also pretty great. The movie is basically about a small group of young adults who go up to an isolated cabin for some time while they take turns telling pretty lame scary stories to each other. At the same time, the very area that they're staying at has quite a frightening legend of its own.There isn't anything scary in the slightest about the stories they tell. It's really quite boring actually. The bit that I found to be pretty chilling is the atmosphere when they're telling them. You can just tell that something isn't right, so kudos to the director for being able to create that vibe. Unfortunately, that's the only scary part of the entire movie. The rest of it is interesting (I guess), but fails to accomplish the task of scaring you.The end is pretty bizarre, which makes me wonder if there's more than meets the eye with this movie. Is there some kind of point, or message that they're trying to get across here? Is this supposed to be some kind of representation of how people can turn stories or ideas into a bigger deal than they need to be (especially since that's kind of a recurring theme throughout the film), or is it really as pointless as it seems? I honestly don't know. Either way I'd give it 4/10 because its scary moments did legitimately spook me, but the majority of the movie falls a bit short in my view.Also to be fair, it truly appears they had NO budget to work with on this film. I think they did okay with what they had.
lilbuny this is a movie i saw with the 5th floor back in the day when it came out at the drive in .... some of the scenes in the movie stuck in my head some 30 years later until i tracked down a 15.00 copy off ebay... re-watched it and now I'm not taunted to find it anymore but do not regret getting this nostalgic scary cult classic... worth the watch BUT you must keep in mind that you have to put yourself in the year it came out to watch it not the year were in... that way you can fully appreciate the special effects that were 'from' the day not today.. because they obviously don't compare... well its definitely worth finding... pay for the copy not original that can run you 200+ dollars from places that actually still have a few... thats all... enjoy...
wakeeladee When I was 10 years old, I saw the previews for this movie on television. Seeing spooky shows/movies on t.v. and in the safety of my home, I was intrigued as a little girl to see this movie. I begged my family to take us to it when it would come to our local drive-in. It happened to show the week of July 4th in our town. My family and my dad's brother's family all loaded up two full size vans to go see this movie I begged for all of us to go see! My dad and uncle tried to make light of the spookiness for the rest of us by laughing and joking at crucial parts in the movie, but I was already spooked. I got half way through the movie and climbed over the back seat of the van to try and avoid seeing or hearing anymore! It didn't work. I was too curious and would peek over the seat at what seemed to be the worst parts of the film. I was thoroughly scared and regretted that I got what I asked for. This movie gave me more nightmares than any other movie or story I had ever seen, read or heard. Not even the Exorcist or The Shining scared me as much as this movie and I don't know why. The story telling was creepy and the visuals were just enough to frighten!

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