Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Thriller > Supernatural > Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971/Thriller)

Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971/Thriller)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: B-

 

 

The line between sanity and madness is tested again in John Hancock’s 1971 thriller Let’s Scare Jessica To Death, featuring Zohra Lampert as the title character in a very good performance, who has just come out of a stay from a mental hospital after major personal problems.  Going to a secluded country town, her husband (Barton Heyman) and a good friend (Kevin O’Connor) bring her and all should be peaceful.  However, it is not to be.

 

Instead, she starts to have horrific visions.  Is she seeing things via delusions?  The hospital stay should have fixed that.  Or is her husband and company trying to drive her insane?  That was the question with Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and this film too holds out the possibility of supernatural causes.  However, instead of Satanism, it just might be the ghost of the woman whose house they are now staying in.  What about the town?

 

The film asks for at least half of its 88 minutes if it is an elaborate hoax or something crazier is going on.  As it moves on, you wonder how they could be doing all this to her.  Also, decades before tired digital effects, exploitive reality TV, uglier public murder cases and other tired gimmicks, it is easier to keep the suspense going.  The title tries to combine the promise of Rosemary’s Baby with something like Whatever Happened To Baby Jane (reviewed elsewhere on this site) as both films still had the cycles they inspired going.  The conclusion is typical chilling 1970s, with dark twists that raise as many questions as they answer.  See it now before they remake and ruin this one too.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image looks good for its age, with some good color and clarity despite minor print problems.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is decent too, though not as good as the picture.  There are no extras, but there was an interesting promotional campaign and some trailers, so they ought to surface in a later HD version.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com