Here is another "legendary" flick that I read about in Phil Hardys Encyclopedia of horror, that I've always wanted to see, even though it never got any particulary good reviews. Screams of a winter night is a low budget anthologymovie, telling the story of a bunch of friends telling scary stories to each other while on holiday in a cabin in the middle of the woods. There is a bigfoot creature in the first story, a haunted house in the second and a psychopatic woman in the third, not to mention the evil creature that roams the woods in the main "story". Atmosphere is the key here, something that the filmmakers manage to create in droves. The cabin in the main story and the haunted house in the second are expecially nice. One thing that is different about this movie than similar movies is the fact that these are the type of stories that you would assume are being told around campfires, there are no twist endings. This works just fine, although it feels pretty strange at first. Another interesting thing is that the stories use the same actors as in the main story. Unfortunately these actors arent particulary good, not that they embarass themselves but none of them will be remembered for their acting.
In short, this is a fairly typical late 70s movie that needs a decent dvdrelease. It's not perfect, the acting is below average and at least one of the stories are just pointless (the psycho woman...) but the atmosphere works wonders and the final wraparound is excellent. I'm a sucker for Wendigos. It would've helped if the movie had been a bit more exploitative (there is no nudity and not much violence) but all in all, a fun flick. And that poster is awesome...
Btw, look out for a very young William Ragsdale in the beginning of the movie...
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