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Post by wmcclain on Jan 2, 2021 13:08:42 GMT
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971), directed by John D. Hancock. Just recently in a mental hospital, Jessica doesn't want to admit that she is seeing strange things. With her husband and a friend she moves to an old farmhouse with an unsettling history. The locals are not very friendly and seem physically marked in strange ways. She's hearing a voice. Is it insanity or something else out there? Something in the lake? I admire indie horror films made on a shoestring budget with a semi-pro crew. What else was Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Blair Witch Project? Other examples I've reviewed: Carnival of Souls (1962) and Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (1973). This is much slicker than any of those efforts, while still having an indie ambiance. Photography is rather good and the actors are given time to do their thing. I don't know the budget-- Paramount was the distributor but I don't know if they produced as well. "Psychological horror" implies slow-moving and inexplicit, which is more or less a fair assessment here. Intimations of the macabre take time to develop. Jessica's suspicion of unnatural horror is wrapped up with questions of her own sanity and doubts about her marriage. And yet. We're used to our horror being conditioned by music and lighting and a certain action or fantasy gloss. If that is all removed, if the thing just appears in normal daylight without the normal "let's pretend this is real" -- that is scary in a different way. In the end: probably only for serious fans of the shoestring genre. Netflix has the DVD, which has pretty good color and detail for such a minor title. Later: Shout Factory produced a Blu-ray edition. My thumbnails are from the DVD.
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Post by TheOriginalPinky on Jan 5, 2021 17:37:58 GMT
TRIPLE PLAY!!!!! How are you reaching into my head and pulling my favorite horror movies?? This one is wonderful! I own all three (Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead and Let's Scare Jessica to Death). I love movies, but collect mostly horror. This one is very creepy, and yes, the first time I saw it was in a drive-in!! I saw a lot of horror movies at the drive-in. We had four of them within a few minutes drive. Now, one is an overflow parking lot for a huge retail mall, one has been developed into a corporate park, one has a hotel and corporate building on it, and I can't recall what the fourthe one is.
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Post by fangirl1975 on Jan 5, 2021 20:22:10 GMT
Let's Scare Jessica To Death sounds like it's right up my alley.
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Post by dirtypillows on Jan 6, 2021 2:07:39 GMT
I like the movie. Zohra Lampert is very appealing as the quiet, introspective Jessica.
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Post by dirtypillows on Jan 6, 2021 2:09:22 GMT
TRIPLE PLAY!!!!! How are you reaching into my head and pulling my favorite horror movies?? This one is wonderful! I own all three (Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead and Let's Scare Jessica to Death). I love movies, but collect mostly horror. This one is very creepy, and yes, the first time I saw it was in a drive-in!! I saw a lot of horror movies at the drive-in. We had four of them within a few minutes drive. Now, one is an overflow parking lot for a huge retail mall, one has been developed into a corporate park, one has a hotel and corporate building on it, and I can't recall what the fourthe one is. That's cool you got to see this at a drive-in.
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Post by novastar6 on Jan 6, 2021 6:13:15 GMT
Heard of it, but haven't seen it yet.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jan 8, 2021 13:47:33 GMT
Always a title I'd heard, and finally watched it a few years ago. Liked it a lot for its cryptic oddity. It's genuinely weird and pretty unsettling in that way, and that feeling of insanity is well communicated in composition and montage. I think it's pretty cool, but I agree that it wouldn't have a wide appeal.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 24, 2021 16:26:26 GMT
Great movie.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Jan 31, 2021 15:03:53 GMT
This movie eluded me forever. I had multiple chances to rent it as a kid but never did. Finally saw it in October for the first time. Certain shots were very creepy and it has a trippy vibe.
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