Poor Jessica! Talk about needing something like the proverbial hole in the head! Fresh from a six-month stay in a NY mental hospital, she is taken by her husband to their new home in the beautiful, autumnal Connecticut countryside. Too bad that the town is full of strange, bandaged old men, legends of ghosts and vampires, and an unusual woman named Emily who moves into their house and starts to put the moves on Jess' husband. Before long, Jessica is straddling that thin line between sanity and...the other side, and, to the film's great credit, the viewer is left uncertain whether poor Jess is indeed "losing it" or not. But this viewer, for one, never doubted Jessica's true mental state for one minute. Anyway, "Let's Scare Jessica To Death" (1971) is a real sleeper of a horror film, and not the slasher movie or cheap-scare schlock you might be expecting. Through the use of eerie music, subliminal voices and strange sound FX, the picture truly does create a suspenseful and menacing aura. Two scenes in particular--that beckoning girl on the hillside, and Emily walking out of the lake--will certainly send shivers coursing down most viewers' backs. Zohra Lampert, a very attractive although not exactly beautiful actress, with a wonderfully naturalistic acting style, totally convinces as Jessica, a sweet young woman whose already shaky grip on reality is here given several huge shoves that would send the most balanced of us over the edge. She is terrific in the lead; what a pity that she didn't appear in more starring roles! This film, nicely presented on this crisp-looking DVD, may just suit the bill for those looking for a different kind of spine tingler. I highly recommend it.
Review of Let's Scare Jessica to Death
