The Screaming (2000) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Jeff Leroy
STARRING: Vinnie Bilancio, Wendi Winburn, Elizabeth Barris
RATED: UR/Region: O/1:33/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 2
AVAILABLE FROM Visual Vengeance
There’s something deeply admirable about a movie like The Screaming (2000) (IMDB says 2000 but the case says 2002), mainly because it feels like it was made by people who looked at Hollywood horror films and said, “Sure, we don’t have money, experience, lighting equipment, or possibly enough fake blood… but we do have a camcorder and dangerous levels of confidence.”
And honestly? That counts for a lot.
Released on Blu-ray by Visual Vengeance, The Screaming is exactly the kind of early-2000s shot-on-video regional horror oddity that physical media labels were seemingly born to rescue from oblivion. This is not a polished movie. This is not a “lost masterpiece.” This is the cinematic equivalent of finding a weird homemade haunted house in the middle of nowhere and deciding to walk in anyway because you’re curious if someone might accidentally chainsaw themselves on camera.
But despite all its flaws — awkward acting, rough audio, editing that occasionally feels held together by Mountain Dew and panic, and production values that scream “borrowed equipment” louder than the title itself — the movie is still weirdly fun.
There’s an undeniable charm to how sincere it all is. The Screaming doesn’t have the smug self-awareness modern low-budget horror movies lean on. It genuinely wants to scare you while simultaneously throwing every horror trope imaginable at the wall to see what sticks. The result is a messy but entertaining little slice of DIY horror filmmaking that feels like it was made by horror fans for horror fans. You can practically smell the Spirit Halloween fog machine residue coming off the screen.
And I mean that affectionately.
The movie moves with that wonderfully chaotic no-budget energy where anything feels possible because nobody involved had enough money to be told “no.” One scene feels like a slasher movie, another feels paranormal, then suddenly someone’s screaming in a dark hallway while the soundtrack assaults your speakers like an industrial band trapped inside a washing machine. It’s all over the place, but never boring.
Which is honestly more important.
Now, visually? Let’s be real here: this isn’t exactly demo material for your home theater setup. The Blu-ray presentation can only do so much when the source itself already looked like a cursed late-night public access broadcast from 2002. But that’s also part of the appeal. Visual Vengeance understands these movies aren’t supposed to look pristine and glossy. They preserve them as authentic artifacts of backyard horror filmmaking, tape hiss and all.
And as always, the packaging absolutely rules.
Seriously, Visual Vengeance may have the coolest packaging game in boutique horror right now. Their releases consistently look better than movies ten times the budget deserve. Slipcovers, artwork, reversible sleeves, stacked extras — they treat these forgotten microbudget oddities like sacred cult cinema treasures, and there’s something incredibly lovable about that level of dedication.
This release is loaded with bonus content too, including a re-edit of the movie, The Screaming: Reborn, because apparently one screaming simply wasn’t enough. Getting the recut included feels less like a bonus feature and more like discovering someone buried extra VHS tapes in your backyard. The extras add a ton of value and really help paint the picture of passionate indie filmmakers just trying to make their own horror universe with whatever resources they had available.
And honestly, that spirit carries the whole release.
The Screaming isn’t perfect. It’s rough around every imaginable edge. But it’s also fun, sincere, ambitious, and exactly the kind of movie boutique labels should be preserving. Without companies like Visual Vengeance, weird regional horror like this would probably disappear forever into decaying hard drives and forgotten convention tables.
Instead, it gets a lovingly over-the-top Blu-ray release packed with extras, gorgeous packaging, and enough enthusiasm to make you forgive the fact that half the movie looks like it was filmed in somebody’s cousin’s basement after midnight.
Which, to be fair, it probably was.
Extras
- Includes CD soundtrack of the original score by Jay Woelfel
- Director supervised master from existing tape masters
- Commentary with Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine
- Screaming and Screaming Again: The Making of The Screaming
- Composing a Cult Classic: Music Composer Jay Woelfel
- Bonus feature: The Screaming: Reborm – director remastered alternate verison of film
- The Screaming Reborn commentary with director Jeff Leroy, producer Dave Sterling and star Vinnie Bilancio
- Image Gallery
- Original Trailer
- The Screaming: Reborn Trailer
- Visual Vengeance Trailer
- Optional English subtitles
- Visual Vengeance Trailers
- Folded mini-poster
- ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS sticker set – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- Reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art
- Limited Edition O-Card – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
