A traveller by the name of Crossley forces himself upon a musician and his wife in a lonely part of Devon, and uses the aboriginal magic he has learned to displace his host.
Acting
Bates is terrifyingly charismatic; York devastatingly fragile.
Sound
The titular shout is genuinely one of cinema's most disturbing noises.
Direction
Skolimowski keeps you perpetually off-balance about what's real.
Director
Jerzy Skolimowski
Alan Bates
Charles Crossley
Susannah York
Rachel Fielding
John Hurt
Anthony Fielding
Robert Stephens
Chief Medical Officer
Tim Curry
Robert Graves
Carol Drinkwater
Cobbler's Wife
Jim Broadbent
Fielder in Cowpat
Susan Wooldridge
Harriet
Nick Stringer
Cobbler
Peter Benson
Harry the Shepherd
Joanna Szczerbic
Cricket Umpire (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'shout' sound effect was created by mixing human screams, animal noises, and electronic distortion—Bates reportedly damaged his vocal cords performing it.
Based on a Robert Graves short story; Graves himself appears as a cricket spectator, making this a rare author cameo in his own adaptation.
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