The House That Screamed / La Residencía (The Boarding School / The Finishing
School, 1969) or German title - Das Versteck: Angst und Mord im Mädcheninternat
"Fruktans skri" - was the Swedish title

US Arrow Video 2023 Blu-ray edition - States region A on sleeve but plays All
2K restoration by Arrow Video

First pressing with Booklet and Poster. Text by Shelagh Rowen-Legg and
Artwork poster by Colin Murdoch

105 minutes uncut version and 94 minutes US theatrical version

Directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador and with gorgeous cinematography by
Manuel Berenguer. Amazing images with many frames looking like Pieces of
Art. Lili Palmer is fantastic as the Governess of the Reformatory/Boarding
School. This film is the Blueprint for Dario Argento's "Suspiria" with scenes
and images of : the camera glide along the water pipes,
the dormitory, the
ballet lesson, the corridor, the door handle, the kitchen staff, the library door
slowly opening just before the victim (Teresa) getting her throat slit.
Surely this film must have stayed in Argento's head before he shot Suspiria.

2K Blu-ray restoration from US Arrow Video with film in 2.35:1 widescreen
ratio with Spanish or English audio mono and with english subtitles (the film
was originally shot in english) Booklet and Poster, region all



Extras:

Audio commentary by Anna Bogutskaya who doesn't mention either the
young spanish actress Maribel Martin (who took part in classic Spanish
horrormovies as i.a. the 1973 "La Campana del infierno" (A Bell from Hell)
or the 1972 "La novia ensangrentada" (The Blood Spattered Bride).
Also, she doesn't mention films that probably were inspired of this classic
or anything about the missing or scrapped Boiler Room scene

Interview with actor John Moulder-Brown / interview with actress Mary
Maude (12 minutes from 2012) / interview with author of the story, Juan
Tébar (9 minutes in spanish with subtitles) / interview with the son of the
director Alejandro Ibañez (14 minutes in spanish with subtitles) /
Screaming the House Down: Film Scholar Dr. Antonio Lázaro Reboll
about the film (20 minutes in english) / Alternate footage from the original
spanish theatrical version / Trailers / Gallery / Booklet / Poster

Booklet

 

German Colosseo Film DVD edition - long version with the kissing on the back etc.

WOW! That's a cool DVD sleeve. The Germans sure know how to make cool DVD sleeves

The long version is placed in the extras, and it's in widescreen and not 4:3 as the
dvd meny wrongly says

 


"None of these girls is any good to you, you need a woman like me" - says Lilli
Palmer's mother and gives her teenage son Luis a kiss on the mouth. Never a smart
way to raise a son, and especially not in a horror film.

La Residencia has become something of a Holy Grail among genre lovers, everyone
that has seen it in all it's glory on the big screen (and i have, see below) wants to
have it on a decently made DVD (i don't know if there's finally a blu-ray version of
it also?). Note 2023: Yes, there is. See above Arrow Video's Blu-ray edition in 2023

The film is an exquisite very well made Spanish horror .... or maybe a gothic giallo
perhaps .... that has gained a legendary status for it's amazing atmosphere, for the
cinematography from Manuel Berenguer, for the performance of the German actress
Lili Palmer as Madame Fourneau, for the great old house itself, the corridors and
stairs and the ballet class that makes you think of Suspiria. The door handle moving
makes med think of Suspiria also, so Argento surely watched it.

Suzy Bannion in ballet class ... No sorry that was Suspiria, Isabelle (Maribel Martin) it is

The film has got a plentitude of different titles (as The House That Screamed,
The Boarding School or The Finishing School) and there's also a whole bunch
of different versions from different countries containing and omitting different
scenes, and this is discussed on various genre sites on the net, and also there
has been problems with the picture quality.
So how is this German, i guess pretty new, DVD then? The Picture quality is
Good, the best i've seen on a DVD yet but not perfect, still a bit grainy but
much better than the awful Elvira's Movie Macabre release i had earlier, or my
old VHS copy of it .... a french 2nd generation dupe bootleg from the end of the
1980's where you had a hard time to see what happened due to being too blurry.

The version to see in this DVD edition that's the long version found in the Extras,
101 min or correctly 100 minutes 35 seconds in PAL compared to the shorter 99
min version. It's not in 4:3 as the meny says but in a wide widescreen ratio of
appr. 2.40:1 and with missing footage inserted from some other darker print, and
with a bit better picture quality than the shorter version.
The shorter version is in an anamorphic widscreen and 1.85:1 (says the cover?)
cut ratio. So, it's pretty obvious which version you have to watch.

What's the difference from the somewhat shorter version? Madame Forneau's
kiss on the whipped back of Cataline, some moments from the shower with
Cataline provoking Madame ... maybe (?) and the close up of her lips from the
unappropriate kissing scene between mother and son, and maybe something else.

Catalina (Pauline Challenor) with whipping marks on her back provokes
Madame Fourneau in the shower

There's some discussion on the Net about the lost scene where Luis (John
Maulder Brown) is helped out of his trap in the boiler room by Theresa
(Christina Galbo) and this scene seems to be lost forever. I have a vague
feeling that this scene was in the film when i saw it in a cinema at the end
of the 1970's - but i could be wrong? (She let him out and then they talked a
bit, still in the boiler room, but i could be wrong. Would be nice if i could
watch my old 1980's VHS and compare, but i don't have a cassette player).
Note October 2016: I watched this 1980's VHS with spanish audio and
without any subs, but it was the same version as the German 99 minutes
one above and there were no Boiler room scene with Luis getting free

If there's a horror film that really, REALLY deserves to be restored to pristine
condition on a Blu-ray, this film is it, and with commentary tracks and lots
and lots of documentaries and interviews with the ones still alive. That
would be the Holy Grail of Horror for me ..... OK, next to a fat commentary
track to Phenomena with Jennifer Connelly that is, naturally.

Above: Awful DVD release i watched in 2009

Probably a public domain copy from the TV series Elvira had sometime
in the 1980's or so, with awful sound and a blurry picture and also the
shortened version without the scenes with lesbian vibes and the mother
on son mouth kissing close-up.

The Following written in Swedish - about 1. my experience watching this
film in the cinema in Stockholm a long time ago, and 2. The Story

...........................................................................

In Swedish below

Fruktans skri på Kvartersbion

Den här filmen har jag sett på en svensk biograf en gång, kanske inte så
många som gjort det och ngt som avslöjar att jag inte är ngn yngling längre
direkt. Jag såg den flera ggr i slutet av 70-talet på Kvartersbiografen
Hornstull i Stockholm som drevs av den kufiske legenden René Reiss, och
den svenska titeln var Fruktans skri (eller möjligen Fruktans skrik).
Den gjorde stort intryck och jag och mina kompisar såg den flera ggr, och
detta trots att den var klippt av den då bestialiska svenska filmcensuren.
Scenerna med knivhuggen var kortade, Irenes handstump puts väck och
man fick aldrig se vad Luis hade på bordet uppe på vinden, såvitt jag minns,
jag kommer jag inte ihåg om scenen när Lilli Palmer kysser ryggen var med.

Nåja, som jag skrivit i samband med andra horrorfilmer så visade Kvartersbion
i Hornstull på den tiden massor av repiga "trashfilmer" eller snarare vad som
idag kallas för klockren kultfilm, ett begrepp som inte existerade i Sverige än
på den tiden (och knappast ens i USA för den delen, även om Cult Movies
på 1970-talet började bli ett begrepp).

Vi såg filmer som Suspiria, Fruktans skri, Kvinna i cement (en Tony Rome
rulle), Phantom of the Paradise m.fl. och filmerna gick ofta av då de var slitna.
Jag tror (OBS vet ej) att det ofta kan ha varit kopior som gått land och rike
runt på vischan och som nu nått sista posten innan den slutliga vilan, i form
av nedmalning hos filmbolaget och att dessa filmer därför kostade lite att visa.
I vart fall minns jag att färgerna, dekoren, de vackra flickorna och den tungt
klaustrofobiska atmosfären med lesbiska undertoner i La Residencia gjorde
ett magnetiskt intryck på en.

Above: Lili Palmer

Handlingen The Story:

En ny elev anländer med hästdroska till ett på den franska landsbygden
avlägset beläget internat. I praktiken ett fängelse för vanartiga flickor
som föräldrarna inte vill veta av. Den entusiastiska och tjusiga rektorn
madame Fourneau (Lilli Palmer) visar den snart 19-åriga flickan runt under
det att rektorns hårt hållna 16-17 åriga son Luis (John Moulder Brown) följer
efter. Hon heter Theresa (Christina Galbo) och när hon anländer så har
redan 3 flickor försvunnit från skolan, förmodat som rymlingar.

Hon vet heller inte ännu att Madame Fourneau regelbundet låter piska
uppstudsiga elever eller att flickorna "i hemlighet" turas om att göka med
vedmannen när denne då och då besöker skolan. Eller att tre elever, på
gränsen till lesbo bullies, styr de andra med järnhand, och här övertygar
verkligen Mary Maude som den elaka Irene.Sköna Isabelle (den då unga
Maribel Martin, senare känd för några spanska horrorklassiker) som i
hemlighet är ihop med Luis mördas i växthuset i ren gialli-stil, Luis som
tjuvkikar på flickorna när de duschar får hela tiden höra av sin ömma mor
att ingen flicka är god nog åt honom och att han skall ha en kvinna som hon
- vem är mördaren? Whodunit ? Ja, vem kan det vara, no surprise there.

Ett stort hus med unga kvinnor, brutala knivmord, scenen med balettlektionen,
med flickan i den långa gången, med kökspersonal i utrymmena intill och med
de hårda stegen i korridoren av en hotfull kvinna - visst leder det tankarna
till Argentos "Suspiria".
Undrar om han medger en öppen influens av "La Residencia" eller om han
undermedvetet påverkats inför Suspiria. Vore kul att veta.
Nåja, den här usla suddiga kopian är i vart fall i widescreen, mono engelskt tal
och ca 97 minuter lång. Man kan också, om man är störd, välja versionen med
Elvira som avbryter filmen för hånfulla kommentarer om nu ngn skulle utsätta
sig för det (passar ju inte så bra på en klassiker direkt, och detta är hädelse.

...........................................................................

This German DVD has a German and Spanish audio dub, but luckily also an
English one Dolby Digital 2.0 and the sound quality is still quite bad with cracklig
noises to it, and that's a shame as the film also has got a beautiful soundtrack
from Waldo de los Rios.
A widescreen 2.40:1 101 minute version (and a shorter anamorphic widescreen
version 1.85:1), Extras:
A 5 minute long interview with John Moulder-Brown made in 2011 (and he
looked just about the same then 42 years later as in 1969), some trailers for
"La Residencia" from different countries, and a picture gallery

 

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