This Cult British Horror Starring John Hurt and Tim Curry Is About a Killer Shout, and It’s Peak ’70s Surrealism

The '70s were an amazing time for complex horror films with vivid psychosexual motives and often unabashedly surreal aesthetics, and Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout, which came out at the end of the decade, is one more prime example of this. While carrying a bit of a cult fame, the film tends to be slightly forgotten and underappreciated today, which is a shame — it's a truly visionary piece that feels completely modern and manages to not only be chilling but to pack commentary on so many relevant issues, from interpersonal power dynamics and conventional views of masculinity in society to colonial guilt and the fear of "the other". Despite its appropriately outlandish premise — what if there was a sound that could kill people? — The Shout has a more coherent narrative than some of the other great surrealist works of the '70s, such as Black Moon or The Holy Mountain. Still, it rather quickly dives straight into dream-like, almost nightmarish territory.