MovieChat Forums > Psychosis (2011) Discussion > Steals directly from 'Screamtime' 1983.

Steals directly from 'Screamtime' 1983.

posted 14 years ago by dissolvedpaul
5 replies | jump to latest

This movie is absolutely shockingly bad, I reviewed it already on the main page but I think the main concern is that people really should know how much Reg Traviss has stolen directly from (Not paid tribute etc) from the horror anthology movie "Screamtime" from 1983
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086263/

This movie is not yet available on DVD and really deserves to be since "Psychosis" will be getting lots of attention.

The amount it steals from the "Dream house" episode of "Screamtime" is incredible and scandalous to be honest. Obviously Traviss was hoping no one would ever really have seen "Screamtime" and that he'd get away with such plagiarism but he was wrong. "Screamtime" is a creepy minor classic where as his movie is an overblown, badly directed, boring and un-scary 90% direct copy of "Dream house". The stealing is mostly from the hallucination scenes, some reviews say that the movie is like older haunted house movies, hammer etc but they are missing the fact that it steals directly, there are scenes that are like holding a mirror up to each of the two films. I mention many of these in my review and will not repeat them here but wow. This is stealing of the highest order!

[–] dissolvedpaul 14 years ago

I shall have to amend this slightly as I've just found out that apparently "Psychosis" is a licenced remake of the "Dreamhouse" story from "Screamtime" which explains the copying and justifies my frustration too as I was definitely not aware that it was a remake before hand. I imagine many fans of "Screamtime" who see this film may not be aware of this either and will react in the same way as I did. Anyway, remake or not, this movie is still not a patch on the original "Screamtime" and should definitely be advertised more as a direct remake of that story.

[–] slasher0010 13 years ago

I actually brought up this page because I wanted to see if someone else had made this connection. I'm watching "Psychosis" as I write this and immediately thought of "Screamtime" when the main character saw the boy playing soccer in her yard. In "Screamtime" it is a boy on a bike, I believe. I haven't seen "Screamtime" in over 15 years but good news, Netflix has it on InstantPlay!

[–] dwkelly 12 years ago

yep, just finished watching this and was like, "i saw this same exact plot on some anthology movie back in the 80s when i worked at a video store." Glad you guys knew the name. Thanks.

--Daniel W. Kelly, author of "Closet Monsters" and "Horny Devils."

[–] libra113 11 years ago

I saw "Screamtime" on Netflix last night and as soon as the hallucinations/ visions started I thought of this movie.

My initial thought was that maybe they were both based on a short story or book somewhere with movie representing the full story and the other one being an abridged version (given the difference in length).

I know this one, being longer, includes things like the guy is cheat on his wife and they're trying to make her think she's crazy, showing the husband visiting the wife the asylum and mocking her about the truth (making his death a bigger pay off and I THINK his girlfriend was in the car with him and also got killed), etc...

Yeah, as the original poster said the visions were the same, which was the big give away.

I actually hadn't seen this movie in well over a year and didn't remember much about it but I remembered enough to make the connection. :)

[–] Pinhead-lament 8 years ago

Well at least the TC managed to do some better research on this one specific movie.

Now if only you applied the same to history in general. So we can stop being annoyed by idiots who think two movies having similar plots will amount to "stealing" or "plagiarism".

That kind of stuff only flies in a critical class. In a history class it's laughable. And in a court of law it needs an actual smoking gun to directly relate movie B to not exist without the acknowledgement of A. In which most studios settle out of court anyway, as it's just a payday for when a studio tries to skirt around a development idea.