#Let's Scare Jessica to Death

[six-demon-bag]

LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (1971) dir. John D. Hancock

[60sgroove]

Abigail Bishop (Emily) in Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) dir. John D. Hancock

[goryhorroor]

day 23 of horror: my list to underrated essential horror films

[classichorrorblog]

[winged-cries]

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971, dir. John D. Hancock) | A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973, dir. Jesus Franco)

[brudermord]

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) dir. John D. Hancock

[mask131]

There's still a haunt on the hill...

In my previous post, I dug through the ghostly chain of adaptations of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" starting by its various movie incarnations. But I am not done...

Because in 2018, Mike Flanagan released on Netflix his massively successful television series, "The Haunting of Hill House".

Flanagan's television series was strongly influenced by "The Shining", another major haunting-story of the 20th century, first marking American literature under the pen of Stephen King...

... Then marking American cinema by the movie adaptation of Stanley Kubrick.

Mike Flanagan never hid his passion and love for "The Shining", both the Kubrick and King versions, and it is for this reason he was the man behind the 2019 movie "Doctor Sleep"....

... an adaptation of Stephen King's sequel-novel to The Shining.

And fascinatingly, a lot of details and ideas of Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" (or its sister-series, "The Haunting of Bly Manor") were reused for his Doctor Sleep movie...

But, speaking of Stephen King, did you know he made his own "The Haunting of Hill House"? Well, almost... He and Steven Spielberg worked on a project in the 1990s: a remake of The Haunting/a new movie adaptation of "The Haunting of Hill House". Unfortunately this movie never came to the light of day, as the two men split apart due to creative differences...

However this did not stop Stephen King from reusing the unused/unfinished script/concept for his "Haunting of Hill House" adaptation, throwing in a lot of elements from his own "The Shining", with several nods to the real-life Winchester Mansion, and tadaa! The result was 2002's mini-series "Rose-Red".

Stephen King has very often praised Jackson's novel. In fact, in his eyes it is one of the two greatest ghost stories of American literature... Alongside Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.

Do you recall Henry James? Sure you do! From the previous post... He wrote the "Ghostly Rental" story, that itself got adapted in 1999 into a horror movie called "The Haunting of Hell House" - confusing Jackson's "Hill House" with Matheson's "Hell House".

Do the links stop here? NOT AT ALL! Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" was supposed to be the first season of an anthology series about ghost stories. This project got cancelled, but not before a sister-series to "The Haunting of Hill House" was made... a second season called "The Haunting of Bly Manor", which is a loose adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw".

AND THERE'S MORE! Because you see, before being re-adapted by Mike Flanagan, "The Turn of the Screw"'s most famous adaptation was a 1961 movie called "The Innocents". A movie which also became a classic of black-and-white haunted house horror movies, just like "The Haunting" that was released two years afterward... Film critics, cinema theoricians and movie enjoyers all agree that the two movies have to be compared, with something of a sibling relationship to each other.

"The Turn of the Screw" - and more specifically the 1961's "The Innocents" movie - also had a huge influence on one of the greatest Spanish moviemakers of the 21st century: Guillermo del Toro. In fact, it was to pay homage to both the classic of Gothic that was "The Innocents", and the behemoth of the traditional horror that was Kubrick's The Shining, that he decided to create his own Gothic horror movie... The wonderfully horrifying "Crimson Peak", released in 2015.

And not only does Crimson Peak unites The Turn of the Screw with The Shining (Guillermo also invoked the influence of other massive horror movies, such as The Omen or The Exorcist) - but this movie also is the final union, the ultimate blooming of Jackson and James' works. Because del Toro's original intention for this movie was to pay homage to the "two grand dames" of the haunted house movies... 1961's The Innocents, and 1963's The Haunting. The two ghostly tragedies finally united in one Gothic movie...

Well... To be fair, the uniting of "The Haunting of Hill House" and of "The Turn of the Screw" had already happened long before del Toro's Crimson Peak, but with a much less famous and successful movie: 1971's Let's Scare Jessica to Death... A cult piece (despite its lukewarm reception), it was created with only one goal in mind: recreating a psychological horror story with ambiguous implications, in the style of James' The Turn of the Screw, and Robert Wise's The Haunting.

(Think we're done? FOOL! Just you wait...)

[creepynostalgy]

Mariclare Costello and Zohra Lampert in Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971)

[schlock-luster-video]

On May 11, 2012, Let's Scare Jessica to Death was screened on TCM Underground.

[bigodesuado]

[the-worm-jester]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death is an even scarier movie when your name is Jessica. Every time those creepy voices said her name I looked up to see if someone was calling me.

[60sgroove]

Abigail never got to wear that wedding dress. She drowned in the cove behind her house. Your house, I mean. Never found her body. The legend is that she's still alive. Some say she's a vampire and roams the countryside.

[goryhorroor]

let's scare jessica to death (1971) directed by john d. hancock

"I sit here and I can't believe that it happened. And yet I have to believe it. Dreams or nightmares? Madness or sanity? I don't know which is which."

[ourlittlesister2015]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971), dir. John D. Hancock

[haverwood]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death John Hancock USA, 1971 ★★★ A good (slow) time.

Plus, Zohra Lampert is really something.

[sloshed-cinema]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

Sometimes, that small-town charm is an outright lie. Recently returned from a stay in a mental institution, Jessica and her husband Duncan move from the hustle and bustle of New York City to a small community in Connecticut. But everyone from the ferry boat captain to the old dudes hanging out on the main drag are frostily intimidating. Are these traditional, conservative folks reacting regressively to a bunch of alternative types rolling through in a hearse with ‘LOVE’ and a peace symbol painted on the side? Or is something more sinister at work? The farmhouse Jessica and Duncan bought has a sordid past, with death and a possible vampire on the premises. And the young woman discovered slumming it on the property bears a striking resemblance to that old family portrait… The film takes an interesting tack in rooting the experiences firmly with Jessica, which adds an air of uncertainty to everything that happens. Some experiences are shared with others—the discovery of a blonde, mute woman, for one—but as things start to get out of control, the questions only mount. Leering intruders, suspicious wounds on necks and forearms, and the increasingly sinister countenance of Emily all make for an overwhelming glimpse at a rehoming gone very wrong, or perhaps into the mind of a troubled woman.

If the film remains agnostic to Jessica’s sanity, the score certainly doesn’t. Setting aside the folky strains of an opening jam session between Emily and Duncan, this opts for a psychotronic synth breakdown any time Jessica is in peril. It’s harsh and abrasive, striking at the ear with its distorted energy.

Setting this in rural Connecticut during the autumn lends a striking atmosphere to this film, even before the horrific occurrences begin. This is a landscape of winding country roads and ruddy gold leaves, a time when a dip in the lake is still a pleasing prospect. But as Jessica’s collection of gravestone rubbings can attest, this is an area that has seen its fair share of history and therefore death. She reads from the parting sentiments of those who came and went before, be they poetic musings about the fleeting nature of existence or an attestation about the accomplishments of a former slave. But unlike Jessica’s current guest, those dead people stayed where they were, and ceased to bother the living.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'believe'.

Voiceover inner monologue begins.

A noise sting accompanies a scare.

BIG DRINK

Someone vanishes.

Creepy townie antics.