The Screaming Skull was really the ghost Marion Whitlock the deceased first wife of Eric Whitlock. Marion died when she accidentally slipped and hit her head on the edge of a decorative pond on the estate, drowning in the pond.

Eric's second wife, Jenni, is disturbed both by their gardener Mickey's belief that Marion's ghost wanders the estate and by Marion's self-portrait inside the house, which Jenni believes resembles her mother. When she begins to hear unexplained screaming noises and see skulls around the house, she believes that Marion is haunting her. Though Eric speculates to Jenni that Mickey, who was a childhood friend of Marion and thus dislikes Jenni, may be behind the trickery, Jenni worries that she is going insane. Eric suggests that they remove Marion's self-portrait from the home. Eric and Jenni take the painting outside and burn it, later uncovering a skull from the ashes. Jenni panics at the sight of the skull, but Eric denies that the skull is there. As Jenni faints, Eric withdraws the skull and hides it, revealing that he has been gaslighting her all along.

Believing she has finally lost her sanity, Jenni resolves to be committed, and Eric says he has arranged for them to leave that night. Reverend Snow visits, and Eric tells him that Jenni is going back to the hospital. Later, Jenni tells Eric that Reverend Snow, when saying goodbye, had promised to bring people the next day so that the entire property can be meticulously searched for the skull as a last resort. Mickey secretly steals the skull and brings it to Snow before Eric can retrieve it. That night, Eric prepares to murder Jenni and stage it as a suicide. Jenni sees Marion's ghost in Mickey's greenhouse and flees back to the house, where Eric begins throttling her. The ghost appears and chases Eric outside, corners, and attacks him, drowning him in the decorative pond.

After Jenni regains consciousness, the Snows arrive. Mrs. Snow comforts an hysterical Jenni and the Reverend discovers Eric's body in the pond. Some undisclosed time later, Jenni and the Snows depart from the house. Reverend Snow declares whether or not Marion's death was an accident will remain a mystery.

The film ends with Mickey taking some water from the pond in his hand and placing it on his face before saying "They're gone. Rest." A vision of what may be a woman's face begins to appear in the pond as smoky bubbles cover its surface.

* Screaming Skull (1958)

* A screaming skull is a paranormal object, a human skull which per legend speaks, screams, or otherwise haunts its environs. The legend is mostly found in England and other English-speaking regions.

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screaming_Skull Wikipedia]
*[https://horror.fandom.com/wiki/The_Screaming_Skull_(1958) Horror Film Wiki]
Category:Horror Characters