Weird Wednesdays: Scream for Help, Michael Winner's Cherry Popping Good Time

This screening was part of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesday series. For upcoming shows, click here.

Scream for Help is a sleazy, over-the-top, laugh-out-loud film that the Alamo Drafthouse programmer must’ve found at a VHS convention. This direct-to-video delight of the 80’s is as much a product of its time as films like Bodies, Bodies, Bodies is a product of ours. The teenage melodrama, off-beat dialogue and neighborhood mystery couldn’t help but remind me of Twin Peaks, which I’m a huge fan of. This teen detective movie is a fever dream that begs to ask the bold question: what if Nancy Drew solved mysteries within the folds of a Playboy Magazine? 

The film follows Christie (Rachael Kelly), a small-town teen who knows one thing for certain: her step-father is trying to kill her mother. Her step-father, Paul Fox (David Allen Brooks) is a slick car salesman who won Christie’s mother over from her father and who’s charm and good looks impress everyone but Christie. (The name Paul Fox feels like a name directly from Nancy Drew..) After a suspicious death occurs in their home under unlikely circumstances, Christie is only further convinced that Paul has it out for her mother. During the investigation, Officer Dealey (Tony Sibbald) hardly believes Christie’s theory about Paul but she persists, enlisting the help of her best friend, Janey (Sandra Clark) and her boyfriend, Josh (Corey Parker). She begins snooping on Paul’s whereabouts, following him after work on her bike, and what she uncovers is both risque and dangerous. Her disdain for Paul drives her forward in her investigation leading to a story with an unexpected array of characters, relationships, sex and voyeurism. The classic hijinks of Home Alone meet Blue Velvet’s seductive suburbia in the climax with Christie coming face to face with the enemies she made through her investigative journey.

I use the term enemies a little lightly because with all the sincerity the actors put into their roles, I couldn’t help but feel they were exaggerated in a Scooby-Doo like way. The only quote that was missing was “And I Would Have Gotten Away With It Too, If It Weren't For You Meddling Kids!” Allen Brooks's Paul is constantly taunting Christie, and the other adults she tries to turn to are less than helpful. It truly feels like we are watching the film unfold from Christie’s eyes, complete with inner-thought narration and emotional teenage obstruction. Rachael Kelly’s performance was on the nose given the premise of the movie and her counterparts, Clark and Parker, were so outrageous, crude and unpredictable that most of their on-screen time the audience spent snorting or chuckling. 

 Beyond Christie, all the characters are smart-mouthed and having great banter with each other which makes this otherwise serious accusation between daughter and step-father very amusing. The overt displays of sex that Christie is constantly barging into (literally, barging) starkly contrast her personality and overall demeanor, yet she acts like it’s no big deal. Running into the room while your best friend is having sex with her boyfriend is just girly things, I guess! The high school scenes make you wonder the last time the writers stepped foot in an actual high school or spoke to a teenager, because the bullying and name-calling feels like it came straight from Riverdale. 

For all the campiness the film is masterfully scored by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. Jones captures the feeling of this suburban mystery in an authentic and noticeable way. The importance of sound and score in horror can sometimes go unnoticed by horror aficionado’s including myself (self-proclaimed), but this one was particularly vibrant and in-your-face – so much so I looked into the composer. I absolutely loved what Jones did with the score and honestly, in terms of horror scores it felt on par with those of John Carpenter or Danny Elfman.

Overall, this was a fun film that I would love to show friends for a good laugh and lots of interjecting. The full theatre was cackling at the absurdity of the sexual situations and the downright strange dialogue choices. It doesn’t take itself seriously, truly at all, and is a great, under-the-radar addition to the 80s campy repertoire (of which I’m always happy to add to!). Movies like this make me so happy that Weird Wednesday’s exist – we need a space for movies like this to be appreciated in all their bizarre glory. 

If you liked this, you would enjoy Frankenhooker, another sexy, campy 80’s movie about a medical student trying to bring his hot girlfriend back to life.

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