Edo Van Belkom - Scream Queen

[dem bones]

Edo Van Belkom - Scream Queen (Pinnacle 2003)

Blurb:

TV'S HOTTEST SHOW ...

The idea is a guaranteed ratings winner; a reality TV show where six contestants audition for a part in a horror movie, a chance to be a "scream queen." Whoever lasts the night in a haunted house, rigged with shriek-inducing special effects, will walk away rich and famous .... if they make it out alive.

IS ABOUT TO GO ...
Too bad no one on the production crew delved into the past of the house itself, a place where a mad doctor carried out unspeakable human experiments ... where people say every room is haunted by the vengeful spirits of his tortured victims .... a house coming alive before their very eyes.

HORRIBLY OUT OF CONTROL
Now, as the cameras roll, blood is spilled, bodies disappear, and no one, not even the show's creators - can be sure what's a game and what's real. But with each terrifying discovery, the contestants are dwindling, and one thing is becoming chillingly clear .... on this show, there will be no survivors ...

Premise as described. When Jody Watts, a depressed young woman with vague designs on an acting career, learns that Screen Queen is auditioning in Southern California, she thinks "what the Hell" and writes the agency for a screen-test. The show is the brainchild of Erwin and Ike 'The Boo Brothers' Gowan, producers of a string of lowest-budget, b-grade horror movies, including Attack of the Blood Freaks, Teenage Brain-eating Zombies, Terror Dolls of Castle Pain, etc. Somehow they've raised substantial sums to fund their The House on Haunted Hill knock-off, though they are holding back the bulk for their next big screen project. Everything about Scream Queen will be done on the cheap.

Even as the crew arrive, a casualty. Romano Ramirez, carpenter, is horribly maimed when he falls through through rotting staircase, having taken to his heels to escape .... what?

TBC.

[ripper]

Reminds me somewhat of the plot for the 2002 Full Moon film Hell Asylum. Here, it's a reality show set in an old asylum where a group of girls have to spend the night and the winner gets a large prize. There are various traps and surprises set up to scare the girls, but also someone or something stalking them.

Scream Queen and Hell Asylum appear to be modern variants of the 'old dark house' genre of films that was so popular in the 30s and 40s--a group of people in an old isolated house, usually on a stormy night, being bumped off by someone.

[dem bones]

The old dark house in question is the old Shields place, a two story, five bedroom abandoned Victorian mansion in Kettleman City, California. During the 'thirties and 'forties, Marius Shields would pick up travellers on the highway, invite them home, murder them for whatever valuables they carried. Marius hung himself when the police began showing an interest in his affairs. After his death, the house passed through several hands - no-one stayed long - until the spring of 1970 when a rat infestation rendered the property uninhabitable. The Boo Brothers consider the back story too passé for their purpose and instruct Carl Dunbar, horror novelist and screenwriter, to play up the sex and slasher angle.

The network insist on a genuine parapsychologist, Feroze Mohammed, first inspecting the property before they commit. No point spending good money on a bogus haunted house. The brothers are much irked at this development - how much will it cost them to buy this clown's co-operation? They needn't have worried. Mohammed pronounces the site abundant in vengeful spirits, so much so that he urges the Gowan's to find a less troubled site for their show. They look ah him as though he's gaga. "Then I absolutely insist that you record my words for posterity." More marvellous footage for the accompanying documentary!

While the brothers and special effects man are booby-trapping the house with ghostly gadgetry, Jody comes through a perfunctory session with Dr. Sheldon Katz, Scream Queen's psychiatrist, without revealing any sign of alarming mental disorder. Phew! That was a close one! Lucky for her he's such a disgrace to his profession. We've yet to meet other contestants.

It's shaping up!