1971’s Lets Scare Jessica to Death deals with a woman who is attempting against all odds to hold onto her sanity in the face of a supernatural horror.
The film begins with Jessica being released from an institution after suffering a mental breakdown. It seems that Jessica is plagued by strange voices and visions of a mysterious woman. In order to help rehabilitate her, her husband and a friend take her to a small backwater Connecticut town. There they purchase an isolated house, and apple orchard, and plan to work the land and hang out and play acoustic guitar. Oh, and they happen to drive a hearse… for some reason.
When they arrive at the house they are surprised to find Emily, a free spirited hippie squatter living on the grounds of the estate. The group inexplicably takes in Emily and allows her to stay on the farm, but soon strange things start to occur. Jessica’s strange voices start coming back in her head, and she gets a sneaking suspicion that Emily is having an affair with her husband. Jessica also discovers that things are not quite right in town, as the entire population seems to be comprised of middle aged men who are mysteriously bandaged. Then Jessica finds that a woman mysteriously drowned on the houses property decades earlier, and legend has it her spirit still haunts the area.
Due to the questionable psychological state of the main character, you never really have a lot of certainty as to what really happens in this movie. The movie has a strange dream like quality that is highlighted not only by the mysterious voices and visions that Jessica experiences, but also by the irrational and sometimes quite silly actions of the main characters. It seems like these characters take bizarre happenings in stride, and don’t seem to mind the series of inexplicable events that happen in the plot. This would be fine, but I wish that the film had taken some time to get to know the characters better.
We find out very little about the characters and their relationships in this movie behind the basic back story, and this makes it really hard to figure out what we are really supposed to take away from what is shown in this movie. If you don’t like ambiguity, then stay far away from this movie. Things are not helped here by what is also a very thin plot. There is basically an hour of slow build up followed by about 30 minutes of action, and to be quite honest I didn’t feel like the pay off of this movie justified the first hour.
I do have positive things to say about this movie. The music, directing, and cinematography add up to a very creepy experience. It is interesting to note, that I found most of the creepiest scenes were the ones that took place in broad daylight, such as when Jessica comes face to face with ghostly figure emerging from a lake. There is some great imagery in this film. Also, when things do pick up toward the end, the film is pretty well done and entertaining.
I can appreciate this films attempt at slow paced psychological horror, but I wish the film had a more unexpected pay off and better developed, interesting characters. It lacks both of these. If your’re looking for some eerie early 70s horror film making you might enjoy Lets Scare Jessica To Death, but I found myself wishing there was a bit more substance behind all the creepiness.
5/10
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