Low-budget sci-fi and horror movies may not always be known for impressive acting talent nor cinematography, but what can make or break them are the story and special effects. This is the case in the 1966 Spanish movie “Sound of Horror”, starring James Philbrook (“I Want to Live”, 1958), Arturo Fernández, José Bódalo, Soledad Miranda, Antonio Casas, Francisco Piquer, and the debut role of the Swedish-born Ingrid Pitt. Pitt is best known for her portrayals in the British Hammer Films “The House that Dripped Blood” (1971), “The Vampire Lovers” (1970), and “Countess Dracula” (1971). Directed by José Antonio Nieves Conde, the original title in Spanish is “El sonido de la muerte”, also known as “Sound from a Million Years Ago” and “The Prehistoric Sound”.
The film opens with a group of people on a Greek island in the Mediterranean, suggesting the island location is pastoral but remote and full of mystery, with no other visitors present. This particular group, however, is searching for a lost treasure supposedly located in a cave which they must investigate. When they stumble upon a nest of what appears to be prehistoric eggs, however, their entire stay changes drastically, and before they know it, a plague in the form of an invisible prehistoric creature starts to pick them off.
The external scenery is pleasant enough, suggesting a rather peaceful excavation tour which has not been explored by outsiders. In fact, the initial exploration of the cave situated on a hill above the house where the group is staying is uneventful, at least until they discover that people from before have indeed tried finding out what was in the cave. The housekeeper, Lola Gaos, warned them of an ominous presence which lives in the cave, dating back to mythological times, but they do not heed her warning until it is too late. A row of standing coffins buried deep in the cave, along with skeletons unearthed while digging for the treasure, mysterious scraping noises, and an unearthly shriek before terror strikes, along with sharp claws and bloody victims, evolves through the story. At times the pacing may seem slow, especially while the characters are in the house while not seeking the buried treasure, but this is primarily for character development: Bódalo and his girlfriend Pitt, as well as the personal and professional relationships among the rest of the major players in the story.
While Philbrook and Bódalo continue to dig at the supposed cave location of the treasure, Piquer gives his attention to one of the mummified bodies which fell from one of the coffins lined up against the wall during a previous visit, writing extensive notes upon a clipboard. Once Philbrook’s team hits what appears to be the lid of a treasure box in the cave, they speak with Bódalo before leaving and returning to the house for a break. Unfortunately for Bódalo, their enemy-to-be finally appears through the sounds it makes: the scraping of a tail along the floor of the cave, soon followed by a shriek that is enough to make anyone’s blood curdle. Since Bódalo cannot see what is attacking him, he attempts to fight what he can feel instead of see, eventually losing in the end. This is just the first of a number of fatal attacks inflicted by the invisible dinosaur, which take place not only in the cave but outside when the housekeeper Gaos is attacked, plus inside the house where the treasure seekers try to remain barricaded on more than one occasion. To the viewer, there may seem to be endless times where one part of the group is in the cave, while the rest, usually the women, are at the house. Yet this provides a seamless continuity, documenting the very beginning of the story until the end, without leaving anything out, no matter what part of day or what the characters in the story are doing. In the December 1, 1966 issue of Film Ideal, Spanish movie reviewer José María Palá states there are two elements in “Sound of Horror”: the psychological drama of the treasure hunters, plus the science-fiction element, suggesting that it is the secondary aspect which is used to add the real excitement and action to the story. While the attack scenes are grisly enough here, courtesy of special effects by Manuel Baquero, the scraping sounds leading up to the ominous shriek of the dinosaur is what tells the viewer that danger is going to strike and strike fatally.
So how does a small group of treasure seekers deal with this malevolent entity which could strike them at any second, since they are unable to see it? By using the seemingly obvious ingredient which they see in the kitchen of the house spread all over the floor: a bag of flour, bearing imprints of the invisible dinosaur feet. When the men start spreading more bags of flour on the ground outside to trap the dinosaur, with dynamite loaded into their truck nearby, the beast becomes a casualty. But what of the other prehistoric eggs found ibn the cave, one of which was brought inside the house and left on the fireplace mantle to hatch, only to be killed and thrown into the roaring fireplace? Will they also be invisible, waiting to hatch when future generations decide to explore the same cave? Also, are these beings truly invisible? Why did the beast suddenly appear visible to Soledad Miranda when she peeked into the bedroom when she heard it before it lost visibility? Or when the outline of the monster appeared visible in the smoke when their car blew up, prompting the four surviving members to walk off to safety, the cave entrance blocked through an explosion?
The basis for “Sound of Horror” suggests it may belong to an ancient Greek myth where a dragon protects a treasure hidden deep in a cave somewhere on a remote island, much like the ones these people are on. Similar to the myth of Ladon the dragon, it would explain why many people have attempted to retrieve the treasure, only to be met with death, as it occurs in the story. Written by Sam X. Abarbanel, José Antonio Nieves Conde, Gregorio Sacristan, and Gregg C. Tallas and directed by Conde, what makes “Sound of Horror” work is the original plot and story. The cinematography by Manuel Berenguer is effective enough when it comes to depicting the exact location of the dinosaur which cannot be seen as it roams the cave and land outside. While invisible monsters have been portrayed in sci-fi movies before, such as “Invisible Invaders” from 1959 starring John Agar, it is the human-killing invisible dinosaur with its unearthly shriek which predates upon the characters in the story and also the viewer. More recently is the movie “The Invisible Raptor” (2023) directed by Mike Hermosa and starring Mike Capes and Sandy Martin, which takes place in an amusement park, but could have been independently conceived by writers Capes and Johnny Wickham, versus a direct influence from “Sound of Horror” due to its dark-comedy genre.
In all, “Sound of Horror” is one of those rare Spanish sci-fi/horror movies worth watching for its novelty status in the genre, special effects, and of course the beautiful Ingrid Pitt.
Image Credit: “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan, New York: The Century Co., 1898, Library of Congress, The Internet Archive.
Zindbar Admin
You May Also Like
