The Shout

A wandering stranger arrives in a quiet part of Devon and insinuates himself into the lives of a married couple. Charles Crossley claims to have spent eighteen years in Australia, where he learned from Aboriginal sorcerers the secret of a scream that can kill. Anthony Fielding, a musician, and his wife Rachel find themselves both repelled and drawn to the intruder, who gradually takes over their household. The story reaches the audience framed by a cricket match at a psychiatric institution, where Crossley tells it to a visitor named Robert Graves.

Jerzy Skolimowski directed this British production from a screenplay he wrote with Michael Austin, with Jeremy Thomas producing. It followed Deep End in the director's filmography and came before Moonlighting. Alan Bates plays Crossley, Susannah York and John Hurt play the couple, and Robert Stephens and Tim Curry appear in the framing scenes.

The film runs 86 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.5 from around 6,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6 from 129 votes; the larger, more sustained IMDb sample suggests a moderately received genre piece with a settled reputation. A critics' rating of 6.2 from 14 reviews places critical appraisal close to the audience response.