Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

1795: Sir Charles Fengriffin (Ian Oglivy) brings his young bride Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) home to his estate and she falls victim to a curse upon his family. Some 50 years ago, Sir Charles's grandfather Sir Henry (Herbert Lom) raped woodcutter Silas's wife in front of his very eyes on their wedding night. When he resisted Sir Henry cut off his hand with an axe. Silas vowed that the next virgin bride who came to the Fengriffin estate would be violated just as his wife was and if anybody tried to prevent it they would die. In consequence, Catherine suffers from a series of gruesome apparitions including a severed hand appearing and disappearing at will (on one occasion punching its way through the canvas of a painting of Sir Henry) and a mouldering corpse with a bloodied severed hand. After the family solicitor Maitland (Guy Rolfe) and the housekeeper Mrs Luke (Rosalie Crutchley) die in horrible circumstances, Catherine falls pregnant and the child is born with a hand missing and an identical birth mark to that of Silas and his son (Geoffrey Whitehead) who lives on the estate and taunts the family . Sir Charles calls in the psychiatrist Dr Pope (Peter Cushing) to investigate the affair...A pretty standard haunted house ghost yarn that sometimes borders on the absurd - do they really expect us to believe that a woman can give birth to a child who was fathered by a ghost? No, I don't think so. Nevertheless, apart from that and the odd moments of crudity and unpleasantness, there is still much to watch here. Director Roy Ward Baker's direction is imaginative featuring some spectacular camerawork and some impressive special effects, which deliver some jumpy and well timed shocks. The film's attention to period detail is superb thanks to the subdued and atmospheric lighting of Denys Coop and Tony Curtis' art direction. It also depicts the brutality and corruption of the aristocracy of the period in which the story is set. For instance, Sir Henry Fengriffin's (played with a convincingly sinister edge by Herbert Lom) country estate and the debauched crowd he fills it with has connotations of the Hellfire Club and his treatment of his servant, the woodcutter Silas (Geoffrey Whitehead who offers the best performance in the movie as the ill-fated Silas and his vengeful son giving the part a genuinely frightening authenticity) shows how the wealthier and powerful classes could exploit the poor and the powerless with impunity. The film's most powerful scene is when Catherine's baby is born and Dr Pope lifts it out of its cot and gives it to her to hold and we are moved and kept on the edge of our seat wondering if she will reject him or accept him as her son. Oglivy and Beacham give only serviceable performances while Cushing offers the right amount of authority as the London doctor brought in to solve the mystery, but he has very little to do here and it certainly does not rank among his greatest performances.Overall, And Now The Screaming Starts is a very worthy genre piece from Amicus (Hammer's main rival throughout the 60's and 70's and best known for their portmanteau horror pictures) that may be routine in terms of its storyline, but a combination of some good performances, rich period detail and clever direction ensure that it is unmissable for fans of classic British horror films.

This little-seen film blends together a myriad of classic horror themes, such as ghosts, crawling hands, wrong doings and curses. It's a classic example of British horror, set in a standard haunted house (there's even a graveyard nearby). Early '70s fashions are sadly non-existent here, as it's a period piece and all the costumes are of the historical variety, although there's nothing wrong with that. While the plot for the film is a typical (and dare I say clichéd) one, it has plenty of incident to keep it moving and loads of different ingredients to make it enjoyable. However, the winning formula for this film is the cast.Ian Ogilvy (WITCHFINDER GENERAL), Stephanie Beacham (INSEMINOID), Patrick Magee (DEMENTIA 13), and Herbert Lom (ASYLUM) all act convincingly and enjoyably in their roles. Ogilvy doesn't get to do much but look haunted as the husband, but Beacham is on top form here, giving it her all as the screaming victim. Magee is fine as usual, while the fantastic Lom adds yet another cruel character to his resumé. As soon as Peter Cushing arrives, playing a doctor with a dodgy toupee, the fun really begins and things get even better. Cushing's performance is as usual, excellent, but all performances from a cast well familiar to the horror fan are varied and good.The sheer diversity of different ingredients in this film make it work, and I advise you to sit it through in order to witness a most amusing moment at the end, when Ian Ogilvy dashes Herbert Lom's skeleton apart against his tomb - serve him right, the nasty old man. You also get the classic "crawling hand" prop, which was reused by various studios throughout the 60's and 70's - spotting it is half the fun! AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS may not break any new boundaries in the horror genre but it's a good, solid, old-fashioned ghost story and it's very entertaining, with exactly the same quaint and brooding atmosphere as a quality Hammer horror piece.

The film is based on the novel Fengriffen by David Case. I liked all of the film (I never read the novel). I just wish it was a pure ghost story and the the zombified crawling hand was left out of it - otherwise a good (zombie ghost hand) ghost story.I would say in a roundabout way, this film is sorta The Crawling Hand (1963), meets Rosemary's Baby (1968) meets any good ghost story lol. I would have left the idea of a creeping hand to the 1963 film The Crawling Hand. BUT towards the end of the film I can understand why it is in the film - it is sorta important to the film but really did not have to be a part of it.To me, the most horrifying thing that happens in this film is that two innocent women (both virgins) are raped and both bore a child by their rapist. This is creepier than any zombie hand or ghost.I LOVE the sets, costuming, casting, and overall look and general atmosphere of the film... very beautifully created.My only real beef is that zombified ghost hand... I can tolerate it because the rest of the film is pretty good.8/10

Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) the new blushing bride of Charles Fengriffen (Ian Ogilvy) comes to live at his old family estate. On their first night together a family curse rears it's ugly head when a ghost rapes and impregnates her. Dr. Pope (Peter Cushing) is brought into the mix to figure the mess and solve the riddle of the curse.'…And Now The Screaming Starts' is a solid tale from the Amicus Studios. The acting is on par with this type of film, slightly over the top and hammy but that's to be expected for this fare. While the production value is close to the grand productions of Hammer Studios (Amicus' chief competitor) the film lacks the lovely atmosphere of the Gothic Hammer films.