First, a woman is killed in a deluxe apartment building in New York and then another and soon enough, bodies are piling up and all roads lead to one of the doormen as played by Ian McShane. That means that a police detective as portrayed by Mike Conners and his partner Anne Archer are going to have to solve it before anyone else manages to lose their life. While undercover, Archer starts feeling a little something for the doorman and as the film enters its final act, things turn out to be not all that they seemed.

For a slasher, Too Scared To Scream is not bad and perhaps just a bit better than most might think. There is nothing overly great about it and yet there is nothing overly bad about it either. The most interesting thing the picture sports is its cast with a younger McShane than most people are used to these days, Archer in one of her first roles, Conners from Mannix as well as Maureen O’Sullivan, John Heard, Carrie Nye, Ruth Ford and a few others. Everyone turns in a solid performance and one cannot find any fault in the actors or what they managed to perform on the screen. As for the story, it was not exactly the most thrilling tale that one has ever seen at the movies but the ending definitely more than made up for it as it came out of nowhere with nary a hint as to what was about to happen.

Despite the film doing what was needed to satisfy those who love horror and slashers in particular, there was a bit of a pacing issue as the time between some of the kills tended to drag on. There was some character growth and exploration, an investigation into McShane’s doorman whom most thought guilty and quite a few scenes involving Archer who would prove to be integral to the case, mostly by going undercover and being bait for the killer. McShane for his part was excellent and made for a good villain or at least the makers of this movie would have the audience think so. There is some nudity of course, no slasher is complete without it and a bit of blood to go along with it but the killings were uninventive and it could have used a bit more in that department to really up that horror quotient.

Overall, all the bits that made up this film should have equalled a win and overall, while it was a decent watch there was not enough to really set it apart from every other slasher of the decade even if they did stick the landing and that ending was good even if it was out of the blue. Perhaps if they had tightened up the running time, made things a little more graphic and added just a little more suspense to the proceedings, it would have made a discernable difference. As it was, it was, again, not bad.

3 out of 5