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The Night God Screamed

The Night God Screamed
Directed by Lee Madden
Produced by Ed Carlin
Gil Lasky
Screenplay by Gil Lasky
Starring Jeanne Crain
Alex Nicol
Daniel Spelling
Music by Donald Vincent
Cinematography Stephen Larner
Edited by Mark Dennis
Production
company
Lasky/Carlin Productions
Distributed by Cinemation Industries
Release date
1971
Running time
85 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Night God Screamed is a 1971 American psychological horror film, independently made on a low budget by Lasky/Carlin Productions (producers Ed Carlin and Gil Lasky, with Lasky writing the screenplay). Due to the sensitivities connected with displaying such a provocative title, theater owners in small town and rural communities were offered the option of using the short alternative appellation, Scream.

Copyrighted in 1971 and intermittently distributed between 1971 and 1974 by exploitation producer Jerry Gross' soon-to-be-bankrupt Cinemation Industries, the sparsely exhibited feature was directed by Lee Madden and gave top billing to Academy Award nominee (Best Actress for 1949's Pinky) Jeanne Crain, whose previous two film appearances were in 1962 and 1967, with her one remaining film credit, a year after filming The Night God Screamed, being a fifth-billed supporting role in MGM's big-budget airplane drama Skyjacked.

In the seven-and-a-half-minute pre-credits sequence, a faceless hooded figure, dressed like a monk and carrying a six-foot cruciform staff, walks through a forest, stopping on a hill overlooking a lakeside baptismal ceremony conducted by a Christ-like figure (Michael Sugich) who starts making a speech/plea to God, expressing gratitude for being shown the light and receiving "a chance to be saved". He then thanks God for giving him the power and for making him "Your son". He tells God that all those present "were just a bunch of sinners", but "I saved them", because "I made them see that using dope was the way to turn on to you". Continuing, "we got trouble, Lord — the heat won't leave us alone — they want to bust us for being hooked on you", he then declaims that "they don't dig our kind of faith — they put us down cause we ain't one of them uptight establishment churches with one of them phony moneymaking ministers, lying and stealing…" He tells God and the assembled young followers that one among them was sent to "spy on us and try to bust us". He then focuses on one of the girls and announces, "there's a chick that don't want to be baptized — she don't want to follow me" and finishes by pronouncing, "Oh, yes, Lord, in our happy flock, maybe we got us a Judas". When the girl (Andrea Darvi) gets up and tries to run, she is quickly caught and held, as the Christ-like figure, now revealed to be the leader of a Charles Manson-styled cult, calls for "The Atoner" who, appearing from the bushes, is the initially-seen silent hooded figure with the tall cross/staff. The cult leader, whom the girl addresses as "Billy Joe", forcibly "baptizes" her, with The Atoner holding her underwater, in front of all assembled, until she drowns.


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