The House That Screamed
a.k.a. La residencia
1969 · Directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador · Spain
The House That Screamed, aka La residencia (1969), is a Spanish gothic slasher. Directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, it features Lilli Palmer as Señora Fourneau and John Moulder-Brown as the Oedipal Luis.
Señora Fourneau is the strict headmistress of a secluded boarding school for wayward girls in 19th-century France. She literally cracks the whip when one of the students steps out of line, and discipline is enforced by her protégée, Mademoiselle Tupan. Three students have already gone missing by the time Teresa arrives at the school. She develops a relationship with the repressed Luis, and the two are soon meeting for secret liaisons in the boiler room. The numbers are bumped up to five, in brutal fashion.
The macabre reveal is effective, and the relationship between Luis and his domineering mother literally comes to a head. Described as “a thoroughly convincing, even elegant exercise in evil — all this depravity has been served up with considerable skill,” The House That Screamed has been hailed as an early progenitor of the slasher, and influential on the European giallo films that followed.
Gallery
Trailer
From the score
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Waldo de los Ríos – La Residencia (Original Film Soundtrack, 1969)
