Scream for Help opens like a made-for-TV Nancy Drew mystery, with plucky teenager Christie Cromwell (Rachael Kelly) investigating her stepfather Paul Fox (David Allen Brooks),who she believes is trying to murder her wealthy mother (Marie Masters). It's not long, however, before director Michael 'Death Wish' Winner grows weary of this softly-softly approach, and adopts a more exploitative style, starting with gratuitous sex and ending with a violent 'home-invasion' set-up that ultimately makes his film more akin to a video nasty.

Winner's handling of Tom Holland's risible script is amazingly ham-fisted throughout, and the acting is generally just as atrocious (it was only Kelly's second screen role but it would also be her last),but it is this technical ineptitude, along with all the nudity and violence, that makes this film such an unmissable treat for fans of trashy cinema.

6/10 for being so entertaining despite being so bad, plus an extra point for the unforgettable Lolita Lorre in her one and only screen role as Brenda Bohle, Paul Fox's sexy partner in crime: not only does she go absolutely starkers for a surprisingly graphic sex scene, but she also has the best death, electrocuted in a trap prepared by the ever resourceful Christie.

Admittedly Michael Winner will probably never win a lifetime-achievement honorary award for his career as a director, but damned did that man ever knew how to make entertaining & hugely exciting movies! Apart from some of the films he shot with the legendary Charles Bronson (the "Death Wish"-series, "The Mechanic"),most of his work sadly ended up in oblivion rather quick, and this "Scream for Help" might even be the absolute most obscure and painfully forgotten movie Winner ever made. Contrarily, however, this one of the trashiest, most uncompromising & outrageously amusing movies of the 80's and it's guaranteed to make your cheer & chuckle from start to finish, unless of course you just finished drinking an entire bottle of the sourest vinegar there is. The plot is pure standard and derivative guff, but Tom Holland's script is unimaginably fast-paced and Winner's tight direction doesn't leave you any time to nag about the multiple shortcomings. Christie Cromwell is a hyperactive & stubborn teenager who's convinced that her handsome but vicious stepfather Paul Fox intends to kill her mother and run off with the family fortune. Christie uncovers his affair with the sluttish Brenda and tries to warn her friends as well as the police about a variety of failed murder attempts, but no one believes her. Even when she can finally prove the murder conspiracy with photographic evidence, the nightmare isn't over yet, as Paul and his psychopathic accomplices return to kill both the mother and Christie! The main storyline of "Scream for Help" is pure gold already (at least, to exploitation/trash fanatics it is) but particularly the sub plots are almost too demented for words. The triangular relationship between the criminals adds up to the suspense and - most of all – the entire film seems to be a very unsubtle campaign to promote premarital sex! Christie's friends Janey and Josh do nothing else than sleeping with each other and, after an unfortunate accident, Josh makes his life's mission to snatch Christie's virginity. "Scream for Help" is stuffed with socially incorrect elements like this (there's also rape, misogynistic violence and the pushing of people in a wheelchair down the stairs),making it easily one of the most genuine cinematic trash-highlights I've ever beheld. The teenage girl is more skilled in preparing booby traps than the entire A-Team all together, Lolita Lorre (as Brenda) is undoubtedly the hottest chick to have appeared in ONE film only and there's a terrifically absurd and implausible "he's-not-dead-yet" climax! Several of the reviews and user-comments I encountered on "Scream for Help" complain that the music misfits the nature of the film and that the camera placements were horrible more than just occasionally. Yeah, so? According to yours truly, this 'ineptitude' only contributes to increase the fun, trash and sleaze factors of the movie. This is awesome, unhinged and derailed 80's entertainment and if I could rate it 11 out of 10, I'd do it.

I first learned of this movie many years ago, when I was reading a film book that declared this movie as being one of the worst movies of 1984. So of course, I knew I would have to track it down and watch it to see if it deserved that dishonor. I just finished watching it now, and yes, it has to be one of the worst movies of its year. Or any year, for that matter! The script for the movie is unbelievably stupid, with characters making idiotic decisions at an incredibly rapid output. Sometimes this stupidity is, I admit, unintentionally funny, but most of the time you'll be angry at screenwriter Tom Holland's apparent feeling that the audience was beneath him.

In fairness, not all of the movie's failure is his fault. The always heavy-handed director Michael Winner can't seem to inject much intelligence in this moronic story, often telling it in a rushed and not fully explained manner that suggests that there was chaos in the editing room. (As it turned out, Winner also edited the movie under the pseudonym "Arnold Crust")

I must also add that the movie also has one of the WORST musical scores I have ever heard for a thriller in my life, being both strident and unsubtle. I will admit that the climatic 20 or so minutes do have a little spark and suspense, but then what good will the movie managed to build in those 20 minutes is ruined with Winner's stupid concluding scene.

On the back of the video box, there is a quote from Winner stating, "SCREAM FOR HELP is one of the most terrifying scripts I've ever read". All I can conclude from that is that Winner never read many scripts in his career.