The House That Screamed
Taken to La Reposete by “a friend of the family,” the welcome given to eighteen-year old Thérèse Garan by headmistress Señora Fourneau is proper and formal; there is tuition in literature, music, ballet and gardening, but there are also firm rules which are stiffly imposed; an imposing stone edifice of chambers, dormitories, stairwells and basements wrapped in ivy, the doors and windows are locked at night, and beyond the perfectly maintained lawn and the forest the tall gates are held by an iron padlock.
Punishment dictated by Señora Fourneau, it is administered by a trio of enforcers led by Irènée Tupan, the “seclusion room” offering the privacy for good old-fashioned floggings to proceed unobserved, but while she treats him differently Fourneau is just as strict with her own son Luis, fearful for his health and refusing to let him leave the premises, yet despite all these precautions within the last months three girls have managed to escape their internment at the boarding school for “students whose characters are difficult.”
Written and directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, La residencia is regarded as the first major Spanish horror film, released in December of 1969 but substantially edited when it was finally released in America in July 1971 as The House That Screamed, both versions represented on Arrow’s Blu-ray featuring a 2K restoration from the original negatives, with the international version featuring both English and Spanish audio tracks.
Possessed of a firm hand and impeccable posture which she expects to see reflected in her charges, The Boys from Brazil‘s Lilli Palmer is Señora Fourneau, What Have You Done to Solange?‘s Cristina Galbó the innocent Thérèse, trying to survive in these halls of cruelty, Vampire Circus‘ John Moulder-Brown is Luis and Crucible of Terror‘s Mary Maude is Irènée, pinnacle of the hierarchy of bullying but later questioning Señora Fourneau on her decisions, creating a dangerous rift where before there was complicity.
The exteriors shot at the Palacio de Sobrellano in Cantabria in northern Spain, the interiors of the school form a complex labyrinth of dark panelled wood lit by candlelight and draped in plush fabrics which conceal secrets and dysfunction, The House That Screamed an early slasher a class above much of that which would be produced in the following decades whose final twist reveals an extremity only hinted at by what has gone before despite the violence and bloody murder depicted.
The two versions running to 105 minutes (La residencia) and 94 minutes (The House That Screamed), the new edition also features a commentary by critic Anna Bogutskaya, interviews with Moulder-Brown, Maude, Juan Tébar, author of the original story, Alejandro Ibáñez, son of the director, and Doctor Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, a scholar of Hispanic film and culture, discussing the film and its place in Spanish horror.
The House That Screamed will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow from Monday 6th March
