The Screaming Skull (1958)

Description

The movie begins with a scene of an opening coffin and the narrator warning the audience that the movie is so scary that they may actually die. It is cheesy and laughable as hell, which sets the tone for the rest of this super low-budget chiller. Newlyweds Eric and Jenni Whitlock retire to his desolate mansion, where Eric’s first wife Marianne died from a mysterious freak accident. Jenni, who has a history of mental illness, begins to see strange things including a mysterious skull, which may or may not be a product of her imagination. Suspicion falls on Mickey, the estate’s mentally challenged gardener, who was seemingly devoted to his former mistress. The film is based on Francis Marion Crawford’s classic horror story of the same title, first published around 1906. Interestingly, Crawford’s inspiration for the tale, in turn, came from the folklore surrounding the so-called “screaming skull” that was kept on display at Bettiscomb Manor in Dorset, England. The actual skull that inspired both the story and the movie is said to be that of a black slave whose request for burial in his native country was denied following his death and was subsequently followed by strange occurrences and unexplainable shrieking noises that emanated from the wooden box in which the skull was kept.