Let's Scare Jessica to Death

source: Let's Scare Jessica to Death

Recently released from a mental institution, Jessica(stunning performance from Zohra Lampert who shows the fragile slippery slope her character's mental state is operating on)is taken by her troubled and tired husband Duncan(Barton Heyman, who shows the weary state his wife's condition has caused him..we see that he is constantly frustrated or frightened when Jessica might shows signs of seeing people that aren't there or experiencing things that would point out her insanity again)and pal Woody(Kevin O'Conner)to live in a farm house near an apple orchard. Duncan was once on the Philharmonic and Woody decided to join them for the time being. Once they arrive to the house, however, there's an uninvited guest..the mysterious red-head Emily(Mariclare Costello, quite seductive and creepy)who just might be a vampire. All the locals in town act real strangely and wear bandages on their necks..this might explain the vampire theory. There's a wise tale speaking about an Abigail Bishop(in the family portrait, Abigail looks exactly like Emily)who drowned in the lake, near their farmhouse, before she could ever wear her wedding dress and marry. Swimming in the cove near their house, Jessica sees something or someone white under the water beckoning her to come while moving toward her. Telling Duncan, his reaction of horror(here she goes again seeing things)is one Jessica will have to deal with as Emily whispers to her which forms a mental anguish that remains tormenting her throughout. When awful occurrences continue to happen to Jessica(she discovers the body of an antique owner who moved from New York like they did bloodied in the cove thanks to a mute girl which isn't there when Jessica returns with Duncan;Jessica's pet mole was stabbed), her marriage to Duncan becomes strained and he is seduced by Emily. Jessica's life becomes a nightmare as everyone around her seem ghoulish with a strange gash down their face or neck. Emily, in my favorite sequence, rises from the cove in pursuit of Jessica after almost biting her. I love this film because it's unsettling almost from the very beginning, with eerie music accompanying an uncanny creepiness in how the film is photographed(I use the term hypnotic, which is what it felt like to me)..but, I felt the film's greatest success is asking the question..is what Jessica seeing real or merely a delusion of a damaged mind unable to grasp reality? Or, are there vampires at this little town led by Emily, who once drowned but has returned to collect victims who dare enter in? The answer is up to you. This is one of those unsung gems from the early 70's that deserves attention. It's a testament to this particular decade that I can find gold nuggets I've never heard of such as this film when I watched it back early last year for the first time. The DVD boom sure has given rise to cult films that remain with you after the credits roll.

If you can ignore the basic and sometimes crappy production values, you can expect a surprising good movie. This is a B movie after it shows in some of the dialogue. Don't let that distract you. At times very slow moving and some would say quite boring to the point where a lot of people would turn it off.......DON'T. The last 30 minutes of so makes up for the whole movie and for me made it worth watching to the end. Really good performances from Zohra Lampert and Mariclare Costello, neither of whom I had never heard of until I watched this. The rest of the actors are a bit wooden, but that could easily be blamed on the script and dialogue. The really great thing about this movie is that the ending is completely open to interpretation. Did it all happen or was it all the imagination of a really messed up mind? If you don't mind old movies with low production values this is one worth watching. An easy 7/10 for me, well worth the 90 minutes.

This is, without question, the most frightening film I have ever seen. I long for the days when Hollywood could make a truly scary film on a cerebral level, without resorting to buckets of fake blood and wanton slashing. The scariest thing about scary movies is what you DON'T see. This one pushed all of my fear buttons, i.e. fear of the unknown, fear of inescapable doom, fear of the dark, fear of the mysterious "other." Don't take my word for it. See this film sometime for yourself and then just try to sleep with the closet door open.

I first saw this movie as a child back in the late 70's on "Chiller Theater" & remember being scared stiff! I just watched it again this past week with my 18 year old nephew & was surprised to find that not only was I scared, but he was as well...I think that's the best compliment to a horror film - how it stands up with time... This movie is such an under-rated classic, I really enjoy introducing it to friends who have never even heard of it...I have yet to have someone walk away from it & not feel a little bit creeped out... I won't give away any story-line, as you can find out those details on this web-site, but with Halloween rapidly approaching & if you want to give yourself a good old-fashioned scare - THIS MOVIE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... (Minor Spoiler:)To those who have seen it...the scene where Emily emerges from the cove haunted my dreams for a LONG TIME! Do yourself a favor & find this lost treasure...

Jessica(Zohra Lampert),her husband and their friend start a new life in the country,but Jessica,who has a history off mental illness,starts to believe the area is haunted and grows suspicious of the young woman who has joined them at their house..."Let's Scare Jessica to Death" is an excellent low-budget horror film loaded with eerie atmosphere of rising paranoia.Zohra Lampert does a terrific job showing us Jessica's growing desperation and there are some fairly gruesome gore effects at the end.The photography is gritty and the climax is extremely haunting.The viewer is never sure whether Jessica is really onto something sinister,or whether she's just going insane.There are some subtle touches of eeriness:Jessica's husband drives a hearse,and she decorates their new home with tracings she made from a local cemetery.So if you are a fan of old-fashioned spooky horror films give this overlooked gem a look.9 out of 10.

I only watched this old movie because I read some very positive reviews about it on IMDb. Some pretending and I quote "it scared the bejesus out of me", sounded mysterious and promising, but the reality is that this movie is below average. Maybe fifty years ago it had something, which I doubt if to be honest, but to me it just didn't do anything. The acting is what to expect from movies from that time, it all looked forced and it's just not good. The story is very weak, not elaborated enough, not scary at all, in other words to me it's not a mystery/horror. The only mystery is how the hell did it got such high ratings? The horror is me wasting my time with movies like this one.

I wouldn't expect such a luridly titled horror film to be as multi-layered as LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH is. JESSICA is first and foremost a psychological drama of rural paranoia but the marginal use of the living dead in the final act (or at least a vague version of them left unexplained by the film) is worth noting for one reason: the 'living dead' films (and I use the term very loosely here) that followed in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD's wake in the early 70's were a lot more interesting and innovative (even if the executions often left a lot to be desired) than the typical "zombie" flicks that followed DAWN OF THE DEAD and more or less solidified what a 'zombie flick' is supposed to be. What distinguishes the two eras is the bitter aftertaste of the hippie dream gone bad, the chemical hangover of the age of Aquarius crushed under the weight of its own hopes, one tab of LSD at a time. The titular heroine in JESSICA is taken to a remote countryhouse by her musician husband and his friend, to recover from a psychotic episode she suffered six months ago in New York. On arriving in the small village, they are greeted with hostility by the creepy old men that inhabit it ("damned hippies!"), and discover a young girl living in the house. They invite her to stay with them for a while but she quickly becomes romantically entangled with both men, while Jessica spends her time trying to hold onto her sanity which is not helped by apparitions of a girl in a white gown. JESSICA at its heart is a moving psychodrama about a woman trying to hold onto her sanity as the world around her bears her false witness. When Jessica discovers the young girl living in the house but still needs her husband's confirmation that the girl is real and not a figment of her imagination ("it's okay, I saw it too Jess") we realize she's "broken before a frozen god" (to use Cormac McCarthy's words). But even in 90 minutes running time, relatively unknown director John Hancock finds place in his movie for commentaries on small-town hostility, extra-marital drama, post-hippy broken dreams (the two men and Jessica arrive in the small time driving a hearse with the peace symbol stenciled on the side) and an intriguing mix of ambiguous supernatural horror and psychological drama that recalls some of the best moments of the genre, from THE HAUNTING to the works of Jacques Tourneur in the 40's. As Jessica mutters to herself in one of the many monologues delivered with a close-miked intimacy that almost makes us voyers of her psyche: "Madness and sanity, dreams and reality. I don't know which is which." If there are plot inconsistencies and threads unresolved (not least of all the white-gowned girl - which was added on the script on demand by the producers), they are overshadowed by the mesmerizing effect of the entire movie. Pivotal in the film is Zohra Lampert's stunning performance as Jessica, carrying with her the fragile air of a person who is trying to pass for normal but also a genuine love for life. As with Robert Altman's heroines in his psychodrama 3 WOMEN, Hancock has only sympathy for Jessica's drama. To quote Stephen Thrower, "Jessica walks with the gauche fragility of a doll hoping to pass for human; her movements are cautious re-enactments of grace, an approach well suited to the role of an intelligent, sensitive woman recovering from a nervous breakdown". It is truly an Oscar-worthy tour-de-force and definitely far and above the acting usually associated with low-budget horror films.

WARNING:SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!!!!!! This chilling movie came out when I was just a child and I still remember when it hit the television screens-it had a reputation as being so scary every kid in town wanted to watch it and every parent in town was trying to keep us away from the TV that night. Many people haven't heard of this one and I'm hoping some horror purist stumbles across this review so they can treat themselves. This was a SCARY movie! I'd compare it to another old movie and chill fest The Other. The premise is completely different but the quietly terrifying atmospheric mood to the pic is similar. The Other is actually scarier then Jessica-but Jessica is more of a FUN movie in the sense that it manages to chill and scare you but remain watchable. The main problem with The Other(scariest movie ever made in my opinion) is that it's almost TO scary, and is at times tough to sit through. Jessica doesn't have that problem, if you are a horror purist and liked The Other or just like thrillers that scare you psychologically rather then lots of blood/gore then you will like Jessica. You will find it hard to leave your seat during the length of the film. The plot centers on a woman(Jessica) who had been having some emotional problems who moves into a farmhouse in the New England Country(they get the atmosphere here down to a tee) with her husband and a friend of theirs.They then encounter a beautiful young girl there who they invite to stay.... AGAIN-SPOILER WARNING: I'm not gonna reveal ANYTHING else except to say VAMPIRE MOVIE LOVERS-in particular will love this-and that's all I'm saying! Jessica is one of the best thrillers I've ever seen. Scary enough, engrossing enough, has that old school horror look to it that you never SEE these days, doesn'r drag, Great photography. Definitely see it if you haven't!

Saw LSJTD when I was an impressionistic teenager and have never been able to forget this movie. I have been a horror fan all my life and judge my reviews based on the time tested theory. Even twenty years later, whenever I watch this film, I am left with a deep sense of unease and a nostalgic chill that seeps deep into my bones. The acting is completely natural and unaffected, as if this film were shot without a script. The music is perfectly attuned to the bizarre climate of this isolated hell, as simple and sharp as the old fashioned carving knife used in one of the film's most horrific moments. Zohra Lampert should have received an Oscar nod for her brilliantly subtle portrayal of paranoia and terror. This film set the bar for the psychological horror film, and I have yet to be as affected by another.