Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

 

Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

 

All Horror afficionados have a list of films in their heads that are “lost” classics that need to be “re-discovered,” and sometimes they do get found: “Black Christmas” (1974), though was a critical and financial mediocrity in its time, had a gigantic and quite direct influence of the hugely popular “Halloween” (1978), spurred two terrible remakes (2006 & 2019), and launched the “legit” career of Bob Clark, who became a tremendously successful Director.

 

Circumstances like that enable films not appreciated their first time around to find a substantial audience later. Bizarrely it seems the ultimate badge of honor for a 1970s or 1980s low-budget Horror movie is that somebody remade it in this millennium just to demonstrate the brilliance of the original by side-by-side comparison with the new piece of sh*t.

 

“Let's Scare Jessica to Death” has appeared on multiple lists of films deserving a second look going all the way back to the 1980s, but as Director John D. Hancock (also co-Writer with Lee Kalcheim) never achieved the fame of Bob Clark though he should have. Though looking at both resumes side-by-side, Hancock made more really quality films than Clark, because Clark was treated by the studios as a reliable "Director for Hire" propping up bad projects with an occasional great film thrown in, while the lesser-known Hancock seemed more selective in the projects he worked on. Also, this film didn’t have a substantial influence, it was a subtle Horror tale at a time when violence was becoming more explicit, movies like it would not become popular again until 1999. So, no, this one has yet to earn either the place in the sun it deserves nor a terrible remake.

 

I first saw “Let's Scare Jessica ...” long after its release, but so far in the past that we still had VCRs. I was drawn to the title, of which I have to say, though it’s great, it’s misleading. That’s the title of a “Les Diaboliques” (1955) variant, but even though this is a Psychological Horror tale centered on an Emotionally Fragile female, in this story, the Supernatural elements are “facts.” It’s a Vampire tale, leaning heavily on Sheridan Le Fanu's “Carmilla” (1871), but far removed from the style of telling of most of its kin like the Vampire films of the Classic Era of the Universal Monsters (1923 - 1941) or the best years of the Hammer House of Horror (late 1950s - early 1970s. Hammer's “The Karnstein Trilogy” was also based on “Carmilla” and was drawing to a close as this film was released, but it was also pretty trashy. Ultimately, the film I find most similar to "Let's Scare Jessica ..." is "The Haunting" (1963) because they are the two finest explorations of the theme that those plagued by Inner Demons are the one's Supernatural Demons covet the most.

 

An important element is that it chose a contemporary American setting but then seeped itself in the character and lore of that setting – it was filmed in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and the sins of the past that impinged on an innocent present in a way that stylistically echoed the traditions of subtler and less Grandiose Vampires.

 

The opening image is that of a silhouetted woman sitting in a drifting row boat. Morning mist distorts our view, and an autumnal orange sun light makes the scene unworldly. That woman is the title character Jessica (Zohra Lampert), and her Voice-Over/Internal Monologue informs us that she is unsure of what is real and what is not. 

 

Cinematographer Robert M. Baldwin is a low-budget Horror veteran and this maybe his best work, it’s certainly his most romantic. Any scene not filled with dark and spooky shadows conveys a gorgeously idealized New England paradise; this film is about things being idyllic on the outside, but eroding within. But it is about something else as well, because the idyllic setting is not any safer than the darkness in Jessica’s head.

 

Other things are not so great, some of the sound is sloppy, and the score, Composed by Orville Stoeber, is way too intrusive for such a quiet film.

 

Next scene begins the Flashback that runs the rest of the film: Jessica has recently been released from a Mental Institution. She, her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman), and their close friend Woody (Kevin O'Connor), have moved into a lovely house with a working Farm because the peaceful, Agrarian setting is supposed to facilitate her recovery. That detail about her being Institutionalized intersects the unfolding narrative two ways: the first is obvious, when she senses things are off, she’s not considered a Reliable Witness by others and even she doubts her own perceptions even though the audience knows she’s onto something for real. Secondly, she has deep dependencies, leaning on Duncan so much it strains their marriage, and then leaning on the newly arrived and beautiful stranger, Emily (Mariclare Costello), who will turn out to be our Supernatural Monster.

 

Emily’s first appearance has a beautiful set up; Jessica sees her on the top of the stairs, she’s thinks she’s Hallucinating/having a Relapse, but Duncan confirms the woman’s Reality. Emily explains she’s been squatting in the empty house, didn’t mean to scare anyone, and completely charms the trio and is invited to stay.

 

Lots of horror films play with the conceit, “Is it real of is the POV character crazy?” This one plays it slightly differently as it’s frequently outside of Jessica’s POV, signaling it’s not “all in her mind” (though some of it is). For far too long, each of the trio ignore each and every clue that Emily isn’t what she says she is. The fact of the Supernatural is undeniable but ignored, so the film becomes about the mounting stress placed on poor Jessica.

 

The film also hints that her instability lends her Psychic sensitivity and when she does eventually start Hallucinating again, so her inner world is getting bizarre at a faster pace than the outer world, but these Hallucinations contain substantive messages, potentially useful except that they are ruining her Mental Health.

 

Lampert is convincing as her fragile Rationality transitions in genuinely Crazy. She also continues the Narration making it a sort-of Nightmare version of the Rom-Com “Bridget Jones’ Dairy” (2001), in both films the Monologue is revealing, but not especially expository; in Jessica’s case it’s running Self-Test on her grip, a list of what she counts on and what she fears losing, and the Rules she set for herself to protect her from her Inner Demons, contemplation of what she should-or-shouldn’t be fully honest about with those she loves. Outside the Narration, she is constantly, putting up facades, laughing at jokes she doesn’t get, desperate to fit in again. She tells us when she notices Duncan's attraction to Emily, "He likes her," but keeps quiet to about it to people she actually lives with (she seems a bit oblivious of Emily’s carnal interests in her, she seems to perceive that attention as sisterly). And when she starts hearing voices again, she knows she must disguise it, "Don't tell them, act normal." As the rules of Rationality outside her erode, the Narration becomes more Dreamlike, she repeatedly tells herself, "I'm alive, I'm alive."

 

The film includes a critique of the trustingness of the era’s Bourgeoisie Drop-Outs, people who reaped the full benefits of what this Country had to offered, but rejected our Society as Corrupt and exited with the luxury of a Golden Parachute of Entitlement and Security. They seemed to believe that is you were nice, everyone would be nice back, and you wouldn’t have to be so Up-Tight, Guarded, and Prejudiced all the time – of the trio, only Jessica is touched by fear, and she fears mostly herself. That Faith is why the ex-Hippies look back on the era with such desperate Nostalgia, to be able to believe that it was possible to feel truly Loved by Everyone all the time. For most Real-World ex-Hippies I know, they lost the faith gradually, they didn’t see their sweet, naive, Zeitgeist burn down in Horror, but they did watch turn sordid on the news every night – the Inner Cities were crumbling and becoming more dangerous, it was the season of Assassinations, and of course there was a Manson family, who were on trial while this film started production. They can still be Nostalgic based on their uncorrupted Dreams of youth but some others weren’t so lucky.

 

Critic Michael Doyle described the film as a "haunting elegy … [it] isolates and illuminates the death and corruption of counterculture values … [and anticipates the] festering paranoia" of the decade to come.” Director Hancock added, "You could already feel that negativity brewing when we were making Jessica; that things weren't working out the way some of us had hoped and dreamed they would.”

 

Succubus Emily such an appealing, disarming, Hippie-Chick and it’s perceptive that the most Hippie of the initial trio, Woody, was the first to be suspicious of her. Though it’s never said, it’s quite obvious he was always a bit more Economically Marginal than Jessica or Duncan, so never enjoying their bubble. Unfortunately for all, Emily very effectively distracts him with sex. Guys are all alike that way.

 

By this time, Emily’s attentions towards both Jessica and Duncan are obviously more than just friendly, so to be directing her attentions to Woody so late, even though he’s the only person available with whom coupling with wouldn’t be hugely damaging to all, means she did so only because it serves her larger plan, a deft statement on the Manipulation Cynicism underpinning that whole “Free-Love” thing.

 

The film also addresses the Hippie’s Class and Age Prejudices. The town’s folk are dominated by older, less educated, yokels. They are odd seeming, most are wearing bandages on their necks, and they are near universally, unaccountably, rude to the trio. As it becomes a low-key version of us (in the farm house) vs them (in the town) and it never occurs to anyone that Emily maybe pulling all the strings on all sides.

 

Things get worse as Jessica starts to see pale girl popping up and disappearing in the woods and in the water, and who eventually leads her the dead body; but when she brings Duncan to the scene the body is gone. Jessica is at a breaking point, needing Duncan more than ever, but he’s becoming increasingly distant. As she starts to lean on Emily more, she finally starts drawing connections between Emily and the history of the Farm. That’s the films masterstroke, as Jessica plaintive pleads to us "Madness or sanity? I don't know which one is which," we in the audience understand the Monster is real, we also understand the Monster is only one of the Threats Jessica faces.

 

It’s a very distinctive piece. Critic Tom Fallows came up with a good phrase for it, “horror‑melancholia.”

 

 

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX4eZD3GiL0