The House That Screamed (1969 film)

The Residence), also released as The Finishing School,[5] is a 1969 Spanish slasher film written and directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, and starring Lilli Palmer, Cristina Galbó, John Moulder-Brown, and Mary Maude.

It follows Señora Fourneau, the strict headmistress of a nineteenth-century French boarding school for girls where the students begin to disappear under unusual circumstances.

In 1971, American International Pictures acquired the film for distribution in the United States, where it was released under the alternative title, The House That Screamed.

When one of the girls goes missing one night, Irene is blamed by Señora Forneau for not keeping close account of the keys that allow entry in and out of the school.

Meanwhile, Teresa begins a romance with Luis, but grows increasingly unnerved by the atmosphere of the school and the multiple disappearances of students.

In a secret chamber of the attic, Señora Fourneau finds her son with a corpse made up of various dismembered female body parts.

Señora Fourneau realizes Luis' frustrated desires have forced psychotic urges to the surface, compelling him to stalk the hapless girls to acquire body parts in order to create his own "ideal woman" with features similar to his mother.

[1] It later received a theatrical release in the United States under the title The House That Screamed through American International Pictures, opening on 16 March 1971 in Tucson, Arizona,[17] and expanding to other regional U.S. markets throughout the remainder of the month.

[20] In an issue of Filmfacts published in 1971, it was noted: "That The House That Screamed should receive a mild 'GP' rating is ironic proof that there lingers in some minds a crazy kind of puritanical logic, the evils of which are so morbidly epitomized in this grisly horror film.

[29] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the film's period details and performances, describing it as "a thoroughly convincing, even elegant exercise in evil...  All this depravity has been served up with considerable skill.

"[18] Thomas added that Palmer "works hard to give humanity and tragic dimension to her part," but concluded that the film ultimately "exploits rather than indicts what it lovingly depicts.

[33] The House That Screamed inspired a number of subsequent horror and slasher films, such as Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) and Juan Piquer Simón's Pieces (1982).

Drive-in advertisement, March 24 1971