Premise: A woman, recently released from a mental hospital, moves out to the country with her husband where she starts to experience unsettling events.
I feel like there was a portion of the 70s when no one had any idea what horror was. There was obviously the satanic throughline of Rosemary’s Baby to The Exorcist to The Omen, but then there was this low budget side that was more scattered. I think it peaked with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre then Halloween, which gave cheap horror more of a repeatable formula. But there was a period where we got movies like Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, which only barely make sense.
I’m still not entirely sure what this movie is about. I’m ok with that. It actually adds to the movie. Similar to how I think Suspiria only barely holds together as a story yet I love it. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is more of a mood horror movie, right down to the title. “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death” isn’t all that accurate for the movie, but it is evocative. It’s an id of a title. I love how often horror is just a couple sickos doing what they think would be cool then figuring out if it works as a movie later. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is like that: a bunch of incomplete thoughts that work well together in the end.
I like the part about Jessica recently leaving a mental hospital. They don’t make too big of a point of it, but it colors how much I trust her POV the whole time. The voice she keeps hearing is nice and haunting. Everything about the town and Emily is off just enough to be unsettling. I really love when horror isn’t following an obvious formula, and this was an era when it didn’t feel like there was a playbook that all horror was adhering to.
It’s not the scariest movie in the world. The acting leaves something to be desired. It’s pretty restrained for a lot of the run. I liked it though. Horror before there were too many rules.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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