# The Shout
**The Shout** is a 1978 British psychological drama directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, adapted from [Robert Graves](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-graves)'s short story of the same name, in which a drifter who claims to have learned a lethal "terror shout" from [Aboriginal Australians](https://www.edgepedia.org/aboriginal-australians) invades the lives of a Devon village couple. It stars [Alan Bates](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-bates), Susannah York, and John Hurt, won the Jury's Special Grand Prix (ex aequo) at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, and was the first film produced by Jeremy Thomas's Recorded Picture Company.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c52089c5-0918-57f5-9ae8-664bc72c3709/the-shout) • [2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1978/awards/) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | United Kingdom, 1978; 86 minutes; directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, produced by Jeremy Thomas[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c52089c5-0918-57f5-9ae8-664bc72c3709/the-shout) |
| Source | Short story "The Shout" by Robert Graves, written in 1926–1927 and published in 1929[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) • [4](https://revuemusicaleoicrm.org/rmo-vol10-n1/sound-and-fury/) |
| Principal cast | Alan Bates (Charles Crossley), Susannah York (Rachel Fielding), John Hurt (Anthony Fielding), Tim Curry (Robert Graves), Robert Stephens (chief medical officer)[5](https://www.criterion.com/films/27993-the-shout) |
| Cannes 1978 | Jury's Special Grand Prix, ex aequo with Marco Ferreri's *Ciao Maschio*; nominated for the Palme d'Or[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1978/awards/) • [6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-the-shout-1978-online) |
| Music | Theme and incidental music by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford of Genesis; electronics by Rupert Hine[5](https://www.criterion.com/films/27993-the-shout) |
| Sound milestone | The first British film with a Dolby soundtrack[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-overlooked-british-horror-films-1970s) |
| Production | Shot in six weeks on location in North Devon[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/roots%2C%20rituals%20and%20phantasmagoria/2024/09/18/shout/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and structure
The film opens at a cricket match on the grounds of a mental institution, where an inmate, Charles Crossley (Alan Bates), narrates his story to a visitor named Robert Graves ([Tim Curry](https://www.edgepedia.org/tim-curry)), the author of the source story appearing as a character.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) • [9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-shout) The tale he tells, in flashback, concerns his intrusion into the remote cottage of Rachel and Anthony Fielding ([Susannah York](https://www.edgepedia.org/susannah-york) and [John Hurt](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-hurt)), a married couple in rural Devon. Anthony is an experimental composer who plays the church organ and builds musique concrète pieces at home from recorded everyday sounds.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury)
Crossley claims that during eighteen years living among the Indigenous people of Australia's Northern Territory he acquired ritual abilities, including casting spells with stolen personal objects and mastery of the "terror shout," a cry forceful enough to injure or kill those who hear it.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) The film develops into a power struggle in which Crossley establishes physical, psychological, and sexual dominance over the household, and Anthony's curiosity about the shout draws him toward his own undoing.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) • [10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/40-years-shout-scariest-sound-film) The narrative is repeatedly interrupted by dreams, premonitions, and hallucinations, and the film never settles whether Crossley is reporting or inventing what he tells; Time Out notes that the boundaries between truth and falsehood merge rather than those between madness and sanity, and that his claim to kill with his shout is proven within the story.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) • [9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-shout)
## Sound design and music
Sound is the film's central device as well as its subject. The BFI's retrospective feature calls it one of British cinema's most unnerving examples of sound design, and the film was the first British production to carry a Dolby soundtrack, which Skolimowski used notably in the beach sequence.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/40-years-shout-scariest-sound-film) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-overlooked-british-horror-films-1970s) The most famous scene is the demonstration of the shout on the sand dunes of the Devon coast: a long, near-silent walk to a secluded spot, slow-motion inserts that stretch the time, and then the shout itself, cut against close-ups of Bates's screaming mouth in a style the BFI essay compares to [Francis Bacon](https://www.edgepedia.org/francis-bacon)'s paintings.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/40-years-shout-scariest-sound-film)
The shout itself was constructed in post-production by layering dozens of sound effects, including a rocket launch and [Niagara Falls](https://www.edgepedia.org/niagara-falls), combined with Skolimowski's own sustained yowl.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) The score was written by Tony Banks and [Mike Rutherford](https://www.edgepedia.org/mike-rutherford) of the progressive rock band Genesis, with electronics by the composer and producer Rupert Hine; the main motif, the ambient instrumental "From the Undertow," also appears on Banks's 1979 debut solo album *A Curious Feeling*.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) • [5](https://www.criterion.com/films/27993-the-shout) The synthesizers seen on screen, including an EMS Synthi VCS3 and a Synthi Sequencer 256, were current studio equipment in 1978, made by Electronic Music Studios, the company cofounded by the electronic-music pioneer Tristram Cary.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury)
## Production
The project began when the screenwriter Michael Austin, a friend of producer Jeremy Thomas, wanted to film Graves's story; Thomas chose Skolimowski to direct after admiring his *Deep End* (1970).[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/roots%2C%20rituals%20and%20phantasmagoria/2024/09/18/shout/) The National Film Finance Corporation supported the production, which was shot in six weeks on location in North Devon in good summer weather.[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/roots%2C%20rituals%20and%20phantasmagoria/2024/09/18/shout/) Skolimowski reworked Austin's first draft himself, expanding the composer's role and inventing the cobbler's wife character, and said he was drawn to the story's ambiguity and absurdity.[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/roots%2C%20rituals%20and%20phantasmagoria/2024/09/18/shout/)
*The Shout* was the first film of Recorded Picture Company, the company Jeremy Thomas founded, which later produced [Bernardo Bertolucci](https://www.edgepedia.org/bernardo-bertolucci)'s *The Last Emperor* (1987), [David Cronenberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-cronenberg)'s *Crash* (1996), [Jonathan Glazer](https://www.edgepedia.org/jonathan-glazer)'s *Sexy Beast* (2000), and Skolimowski's *EO* (2022).[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) For Skolimowski, who had left Poland in 1967, the film came in the middle of his period working in England, between *Deep End* (1970) and *Success Is the Best Revenge* (1984); it was his second feature made in Britain.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) • [9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-shout)
## Reception
At the 1978 Cannes Film Festival the film competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) and shared the Jury's Special Grand Prix with Marco Ferreri's *Ciao Maschio*; the Palme d'Or that year went unanimously to Ermanno Olmi's *L'albero degli zoccoli*.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1978/awards/) Critics treated it as a major work by an established director, and Time Out called it a triumph for independent production with an impressively streamlined screenplay and faultless performances.[11](https://sightlines.media/film/48131/the-shout-1978) • [9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-shout) Roger Ebert wrote in the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) that what makes the film terrifying is the way outback magic is introduced naturally into the placid fabric of village life.[12](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-shout/critic-reviews/) Vincent Canby of The New York Times was negative, finding the story increasingly muddled with loose ends and cryptic symbols.[12](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-shout/critic-reviews/) The film holds a Metascore of 67 on Metacritic, indicating generally favorable reviews.[12](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-shout/critic-reviews/)
Later commentary has placed the film in the folk horror tradition, alongside *The Wicker Man* (1973), while noting that it is more art-house than genre picture, sparing in its horror trappings.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) • [11](https://sightlines.media/film/48131/the-shout-1978) A 2026 [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) essay by Leo Goldsmith, an assistant professor of culture and media at the New School, reads the film's treatment of sound, colonial guilt, and sexual power as central to its continuing reputation.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury) The film received a director-approved Criterion Collection Blu-ray release (spine number 1331) with a 2K restoration approved by Skolimowski and cinematographer Mike Molloy.[5](https://www.criterion.com/films/27993-the-shout)
## References
1. [The Shout (1978), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c52089c5-0918-57f5-9ae8-664bc72c3709/the-shout)
2. [Retrospective 1978 Awards, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/1978/awards/)
3. [Leo Goldsmith, "The Shout: Sound and Fury," The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/9306-the-shout-sound-and-fury)
4. [Nicholas Chare, "Sound and Fury. Lending an Ear to Francis Bacon in The Shout," Revue musicale OICRM 10.1 (2023)](https://revuemusicaleoicrm.org/rmo-vol10-n1/sound-and-fury/)
5. [The Shout, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/27993-the-shout)
6. [Watch The Shout online, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-the-shout-1978-online)
7. [10 great overlooked British horror films of the 1970s, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-overlooked-british-horror-films-1970s)
8. [Jeremy Thomas and Jerzy Skolimowski on 'The Shout,' BFI Southbank programme notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/roots%2C%20rituals%20and%20phantasmagoria/2024/09/18/shout/)
9. [The Shout review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-shout)
10. [Adam Scovell, "40 years on, is The Shout the scariest sound in film?" BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/40-years-shout-scariest-sound-film)
11. [The Shout (1978): analysis and influences, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/48131/the-shout-1978)
12. [The Shout critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-shout/critic-reviews/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Psychological horror films › Psychological horror films, 1960s to 1980s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license