Mike: "Are you ready to party? It's party time!"
Max: No, we're not watching "Return of the Living Dead." We're actually watching something scary.
Mike: Something scarier than brain-eating-zombies? I can only think of one movie that... Oh, no. We're not watching...
Max: You know it, man. The one movie out there that scares us both TO DEATH.
Mike: Can we leave the house lights on for this movie?
Max: No.
"Madness or sanity? I don't know which is which." - Jessica.
Mike: Let's Scare Jessica to Death is an intense psychological, supernatural horror film that thrusts you into a world of madness and terrifying imagery. The film opens up with our main character, Jessica, sitting in a boat in her nightgown, her head and shoulders slumped, questioning whether or not the events that she has been a part of were really there or just a nightmarish figment of her wild imagination. What the movie sets out to do is to have you question Jessica’s impression of her reality, and it does so through her interaction with great characters, an amazing score, and incredibly creepy, creative sound editing.
Max: This is an interesting point you raise, Mike. There is definitely a nightmarish quality to Jessica’s “impression of reality”, so much so, that there seems to be death wherever she looks. It had never occurred to me in previous viewings, but this film is completely shrouded in death imagery from the very get go. I was almost surprised that Jessica, her husband, Duncan and his friend Woody choose to drive a hearse. Early in the film, they stop at cemetery so that Jessica can do some grave rubbings. This appears to make Jessica very happy, however, we get the distinct impression that there is something mental (or perhaps paranormal?) going on in her mind. She sees a mysterious girl shrouded in white standing nearby, and yet, when the girl disappears, she decides not to alert anyone; her interior voice is saying, "Don't tell them, they'll think you're crazy."
Mike: I’m going to side step a little, because I want to touch quickly on the introduction to the bandaged up old men of the town; now, I think old people, especially those who look "Nearer, my God, to Thee," are particularly creepy, and the old men in the town were definitely at Death's door step, or had already crossed, because I could not stop thinking how menacing their presence really was.
Max: The old men in the town definitely look like they are at death's door, as you put it. Similarly, there is something ghostly about the red headed girl, Emily. She lurks like a hippie squatter inside the creepy Victorian house and from a cursory introduction, that’s what she appears to be. However, there is something eternal about the lurking that she does. When Jessica, Woody and Duncan arrive and she makes them chase her, only to jump out and scare them, she seems like an untamed force that's existed in that place forever. As Emily, herself, says to Woody, she's not going anywhere. Even Jessica asking Emily to stay seems redundant in a sense because Emily has no intention of leaving. There's no reason that a young attractive girl like herself would be hiding away in a house like that, not unless she was the original inhabitant. That's what makes the séance scene so interesting. When Jessica, Duncan and Woody sit down with Emily to raise the dormant spirits within the home, they may be sitting with a non-living person as it is.
Mike: I feel like the film does a great job of not letting you know whether or not Emily is a spirit among them, or just some hippie squatter who just so happens to coincidentally come and go out of scenes like a ghost. The movie really has you questioning Jessica's stability, but I'd argue that Jessica isn't insane, and may have never been insane to begin with, just misunderstood. What I think is interesting is that Emily is the one who seems to know something about Jessica without anyone ever introducing her to any of Jessica’s previous problems. She gets Jessica to confess about the suddenness of her father's death and how that had a huge impact on her. Now, it is sometimes said that when a person experiences a traumatic event that connections, channels, etc, open a person's perception to the supernatural world. It is just my opinion, but I think Jessica could communicate with the dead (possibly her dead father), and everyone around her just thought she had gone loony, because she couldn't handle the strain of losing her dad. So they send her away to a mental hospital, where she spends several months rehabilitating. When that girl from the cemetery disappears like a ghost, and when Emily first disappears like a ghost in front of Jessica at the house, she is quick to tell herself that she shouldn't say anything to anyone, because they might think she is crazy. I think it's a pretty good bet to say that she saw ghosts before and THAT is why she went to a mental hospital. She's not as insane as the film, on its surface, leads you to believe; rather, you need to look for the clues in the film that suggests that she might be sane, and with a connection to the supernatural.
Max: I really appreciate your take on this film, Mike, because for some reason, I had never quite pieced this together. I had always seen this as a meditation on the fine line between perception and reality, sanity and insanity. However, while I still think this element is central to the film, I can now see that Jessica is sensitive to messages from beyond the grave. This is why Jessica doesn't want to tell Duncan when she sees the recently dead body of the antiques dealer from town. She knows Duncan thinks her gift is merely an illness and the more of these incidents she has (like the mysteriously butchered rodent for example), the less inclined he will be to believe in her mental wellness.
Mike: It took this viewing, among the many that you and I have had of this film, for me to see that underline idea in the movie. Hell, we haven't even mentioned that this is a vampire flick! I'm going to go there, and you can follow me if you wish. Let's Scare Jessica to Death is NOT a typical vampire movie. You don't even get that it is one until the antique dealer talks about the death of the Bishop family’s daughter and how legend has it that she's a wandering vampire in the region. There aren't any teeth wounds on the victims, they have scratches and healed gashes that look like they were caused by a knife. There's no talk of staking or hanging cloves of garlic on doors, or a warning to any character to make sure they have a crucifix on their persons. I actually enjoy this all the more for it not following the stereo types of the traditional Hollywood vampire (this came from a major studio too, Paramount Pictures). This film, in regards to not following such mythos, is similar to George Romero's vampire movie Martin; where the Vampire doesn't have fangs or supernatural powers, rather he uses a razor blade to kill his victims. What is your take on that aspect of this film?
Max: Yes. The interesting thing about Emily as a vampire is that she's none of the things we're used to in the world of Hammer Horror or Universal Monsters. Instead, there's just something off about her, something that only Jessica (with her "mental problem" or sensitivity) is able to pick up on. Consider the scene, when Jessica and Emily are both in the attic and Jessica insists that Emily must be the girl in the creepy Victorian era picture. "That could be anyone," Emily says dismissively, but Jessica persists by stating that there is a striking similarity between Emily's bright green eyes and the eyes of the girl in the picture. Much like Romero's Martin was a Vampire in the political sense, Emily is a vampire in the psychological sense. Whatever she's been doing in that house, and in that town, amongst the old men who bare her strange markings, she's been doing it for some time. Only when Jessica arrives do we begin to notice the abnormality in all of this, just the way that she does. Of course, (psychologically speaking) Emily's vampirism still sets up Jessica to look like the perpetrator, every step of the way. Even the fact that she uses a knife is telling, as it's Jessica's hand we assume is wielding it....at least at first.
Max: Similarly, it's Emily's voice we hear speaking to Jessica, while we might mistake this for Jessica's "hidden voice" it's actually Emily communicating quite directly through the mind. While Emily might be saying one thing to Jessica with her words, Jessica knows she's really saying another through the power of her thoughts. I never realized this before, because I just assumed Jessica had a multiple personality disorder. The truth in this case is so much creepier. Also, if we consider the way that Emily manipulates both Woody and Duncan into her clutches, the evidence is there as well. After a while she exerts a literal power over the two men, probably in the same way that she controls the men in the village.
Mike: I wonder what the threat women have to Emily. It seems to me that she can only control men, and if that is the case, then I think this adds an another interesting take on the vampire mythos; she's a vampire who is not interested in the seduction of all sexes, like so many of the Hollywood bi-sexual vampires seem to be, rather she only wants men and feels threatened by other women.
Mike: That would explain the lack of women in the town
Max: The fact that Emily is constantly trying to drown Jessica in the lake would support what you are saying too. It could be her way of saying that there is only room for one woman in her house (or her town for that matter). Additionally, there is some psychological significance to this as well, since Emily was rumored to have drowned many years ago.
Mike: Well, another night in the balcony has come to a close (sanity questionably withstanding). This film rattles my nerves and sends chills up my spine every time I watch it, and with further viewings, I continue to push this movie up my list of All-time Favorite horror films. I give Let's Scare Jessica to Death two VERY enthusiastic bloody nubs up.
Max: Likewise, Let's Scare Jessica to Death has always managed to leave me full of paranoia and dread. I realize new layers all the time, which means this film is very re-watchable, (as difficult as re-watching may be, since it's so friggin scary!!!) Two bloody nubs up from me too, (as well as a mysterious facial knife wound.) This is seriously one of the weirdest treasures from the Paramount vault. Go check it out right now and scare yourself to death!
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