The Screaming Skull

A newlywed woman moves into her husband's estate, the home he shared with his first wife, who drowned on the grounds. Soon she begins seeing a skull that rolls toward her and hearing screams no one else can hear, and she starts to wonder whether she is losing her mind or whether the dead wife is reaching out from the grave. The Screaming Skull is a low-budget black-and-white horror film that builds its scares from atmosphere and suggestion rather than effects. The opening famously warns the audience that the film is so frightening the producers will pay for a burial coffin if anyone dies of fright while watching. It entered the public domain and later found a second life through Mystery Science Theater 3000.