Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) - Region 2 PAL [Import]

Like it hate it film....I liked it but can see what would annoy & frustrate people.This Italian release has English Language & removable subtitles.Enjoy!.....or not 🙂

AKA : Lets Scare Jessica To Death. Surprisingly well done psychological horror. While it's very much a period piece, it doesn't feel too dated. Visually it's quite arresting with some wonderful set pieces and a rather spectacular soundtrack. Going from dreamy acoustic guitars to brutal jarring proto electronica. Wonderful.

A somewhat oblique 70s `vampire' piece (in the loosest and least explicit sense possible), `Let's Scare Jessica To Death' really functions best as a jittery study of mental degeneration, during the course of which the viewer is never totally clear on the reality of the situation. The film tells the story of fragile, gamine Jessica, who, following a six-month spell in a New York asylum for undisclosed mental illness, likely of a schizophrenic variety, moves out to the country with her musician husband Doug and hippy friend Woody (who bears an odd resemblance to Ben Stiller, through a 1970s filter) to get back in touch with nature and manage an orchard. Unfortunately, the house into which the trio move is a) occupied by an emotionally manipulative ginger squatter called Emily, b) near a town full of judgemental rednecks who'd have been at home in `Easy Rider' and c) former home to a family whose daughter allegedly drowned in the nearby lake but is also reputed to exist as a vampire. As death-obsessed Jessica fights against the voices in her head and her own increasing suspicions regarding her husband's relationship with Emily, who bears an odd similarity to the drowned vampire girl, she starts to become convinced of murderous and possibly supernatural shenanigans in the locale, in the face of which she can only flee...To best appreciate `Let's Scare Jessica Death', you probably need to disconnect the rational mind and simply wallow in the depiction of Jessica's clearly unstable take on events. The film is no less schizophrenic than Jessica, almost wilfully denying the viewer any explanation for what is happening, an approach that naturally leans one towards a psychological interpretation. On the minus side, the film is undisputedly slow-moving and seldom less than obtuse. We don't know what is happening, we don't know why, and the director takes some significant time to really ramp up the horror. Whilst most genre fans can appreciate a slow, unnerving build up, this film takes it to an extreme, in the sense that the flick is virtually all build up, with the real shocks confined to the final five minutes. On the plus side, however, the film is rife with symbolism, extremely subtle, and boasts some wonderful images, particularly in regard to the recurring scars on the townsfolk. For my money, it is best read as an LSD allegory, not unlike `Blue Sunshine', and whilst the film never spells it out (in fact, it never spells anything out, not that this is necessarily a bad thing), it would not be too much of a jump to read Jessica's perceptions as tainted by some kind of acid flashback.Contemporaries? Well, the later `Messiah of Evil' is a definite point of reference, in terms of the flashback structure with a mentally-damaged female narrator, and in the sense of portraying inward-looking townsfolk as potential undead (a la `Night of the Living Dead'). Having said that, `Messiah' is more overtly supernatural, whereas `Jessica' seems much more grounded in notions of mental trauma and domestic crisis. Definitely not a film for all, but one which gains power the more it is dwelt on and analysed, `Let's Scare Jessica To Death' certainly maintains an irrational, unnerving ambience, and for that reason most of all has earned its place, however small, in the pantheon of US horror.

I watched this a few months ago alone in the middle of the darkest night and was surprised how spooky this little unknown movie was. The last time I felt the same was years ago when I first watched another older gem, The Changeling (1980). Recommended!

Jessica, her husband Duncan and their friend Woody arrive at a new house in the country that Jessica and Duncan have bought. When they arrive they are surprised to find someone squatting there. They ask this person, Emily to join them for their evening meal and then to sleep there for the night. The next day Jessica asks Emily to stay at the house until she finds somewhere else to live. From here on in strange things start to happen to Jessica. She has already just been discharged from a psychiatric hospital into Duncan's care and so she doesn't share what is happening as she thinks Duncan and Woody will think these events aren't real and are merely down to her psychological state.In fact, the notion of gaslighting and the doubting of one's reality feature prominently within the film.Jessica starts to see a blonde girl who appears at chosen times but then runs away again. When she is out swimming, someone or something grabs her under the water.Jessica and her husband find items in the attic that belonged to the previous owners of the house and decide to sell them to the antiques dealer in the local town. He tells them the history of the family who used to live in there- they were called the Bishops and their daughter Abigail drowned just before her wedding. But he tells them that locals say that in fact she isn't dead and is in fact a vampire who is always on the hunt for fresh victims.To give away anymore plot points would be to ruin the film and so they will end there! Let's Scare Jessica To Death is a fantastic gem of a film. Made in 1971 by director John Hancock, it has an air and feel all of it's own. I love the fact that we are privy to Jessica's thoughts which add another layer to the film and a palpable paranoia to proceedings.There's also the subtext of the city folk vs the locals that feels fresh here rather than cliched. And the locals of the local town are very unwelcoming indeed. In fact, they're downright scary. And why are they all bandaged in some way?There are elements of Carnival of Souls within the film and Hancock's film feels like it had some kind of influence on Spielberg's Something Evil (which, by the way, STILL hasn't been issued on Blu Ray. Scream Factory are the perfect candidates for this. Just a thought).Let's Scare Jessica To Death is a forgotten gem that isn't forgotten anymore. In fact, it's reputation has deservedly snowballed since it's original release.Hancock went on to direct the early De Niro masterpiece Bang The Drum Slowly which is also highly recommended.