Critics did n’t quite have it away what to make ofLet ’s Scare Jessica to Deathwhen it premiered in the summertime of 1971.The New York Timespraisedthe sort - of vampire moving picture for its visuals , performances , and ambition but branded it a disappointment for its ambiguity . Meanwhile , theLos Angeles Timescalledit an “ challenging , realistic psychological drama ” but pan the book ’s supernatural underpinnings . But it ’s that shiftiness that has helped makeLet ’s Scare Jessica to Deatha small-scale cult classic in the half - century since its sack on August 27 , 1971 .
Themovie ’s plot centers on Jessica ( Zohra Lampert ) , a vernal char recently discharged from a snake pit , whose married man Duncan ( Barton Heyman ) ferry her to the countryside for a wise start . When the couple arrives at the rural farmhouse they ’ve bought , they encounter it already occupied by Emily ( Mariclare Costello ) , a apparently harmless hippie who , they ’ll finally larn , bears a striking resemblance to a long - bushed drowning victim who supposedly stalks the nearby town as a vampiric trace . After an ill - advise séance ( is there any other variety ? ) , Jessica is plagued by phantasmal voice and a serial of terrifying face-off . The motion-picture show , which boast a powerhouse performance by Lampert as the title character , leaves us with as many questions as solution . And we ’re never quite sure if the tragic events that unfold onscreen are real or mathematical product of Jessica ’s fracture mind .
Despite a 1984 VHS release , the film faded into abstruseness after a successful theatrical rivulet and was difficult to discover until it made it onto videodisk in 2006 and then Blu - ray of light in 2019 . Over the long time it has steadily acquire a rage follow , thanks in part to being championed by several genre picture . The Twilight Zonecreator Rod Serling enthusiasticallyrecommendedthe film when he spoke on college campus ; source and film historiographer Kim Newman has frequentlysung its praises ; andStephen Kinghasreportedly listedit as one of his favoritehorror movies .
Whether you ’re a farseeing - time lover or recent convert , here are some things you might now bed aboutLet ’s Scare Jessica to Death . ( If you ’re in the latter family , spoilers lie in ahead . )
1.Let’s Scare Jessica To Deathbegan as a comedy titledIt Drinks Hippie Blood.
The disingenuous and elegiacLet ’s Scare Jessica to Deathwas originallyconceivedby author Lee Kalcheim as an over - the - top horror - comedy calledIt Drinks Hippie Blood , about a lake monster that preys on counterculture younker and meets its end on the sharpened point of a terminal have an American iris . Kalcheim had been commissioned by afather - and - boy teamwho possess a string of New York movie theaters and wanted to break into movie output . A immature filmmaker cite John Hancock was hire to direct the film on the strength ofan Oscar - name shorthe had made with a grant from the American Film Institute . Hancock agreed to take the problem , but only if he could rewrite the playscript . The aspire producers give Hancock free rein to do whatever he wanted , allow he consecrate them a revulsion movie that contain certain , oddly specific element they thought would play well for their target area hearing , such as a séance and a spectral woman in white .
2.Let’s Scare Jessica To Death’s Mariclare Costello hid in a car when it came time to film one scene.
One of the standout execution inLet ’s Scare Jessica to Deathis redeem by Mariclare Costello as Emily , the mayhap vampiric fair sex who terrorise the film ’s heroine , seemingly pop her companions , and hit the mole Jessica finds in the local memorial park and brings domicile to keep as a dearie . According to a2011 interviewwith the internet site Terror Trap , that last bit inspire one of Costello ’s most pictorial memories of the yield . When a crew member told her she ’d be offing the animal on photographic camera , the actress understandably refused , obscure in a nearby car until the conductor found her and implored her to come out .
Incidentally , the flyspeck clay that Jessica discovers in the movie is that of a bailiwick computer mouse , not a mole . ( While the filmmakers have been guileful about how the mouse met its remnant , animal buff can reside assured that the critter was not assassinate on photographic camera . ) The seawall that had been procured for the role died of born causes during the shoot , call for its replacing with the nigh available gnawer . Hancock was not told of the creature ’s end — when he asked how it was doing , he was first tell the mole was sleep , then that it was credibly hibernating . ( Moles , Hancock would subsequently learn , do not hole up . )
3. One ofLet’s Scare Jessica To Death’s most famous—and unnerving—visuals was created in a motel swimming pool.
With a 26 - solar day shoot and a budget of only $ 250,000 , Hancock and his crew did n’t have the lavishness of elaborated special effects . In a 2016 interview , the filmmakertoldRue Morguemagazine that when it came time to stage one of the movie ’s polar scare — a spectral shape glimpse go beneath the surface of a lake — he and producer Charlie Moss rigged the effect in their motel swimming consortium the morning before they pip the scene , using a dummy weighted with concrete blocks and pull wires with a simple pulley block organization . The hurriedly concocted effect would go on to become one of the film ’s most memorable image .
4.Let’s Scare Jessica To Deathwas one of the first horror movies to prominently feature synth music in its score.
While composers such as John Carpenter , Alan Howarth , and Italian prog - rocker Goblin would make synthesizer scores a staple fiber ofhorror cinemain the late ’ 70s and ’ fourscore , electronic euphony was a rarity in the music genre when Orville Stoeber was scoringLet ’s Scare Jessica to Death . Hancock and Stoeber were looking for ways to punctuate Stoeber ’s mournful pianissimo and guitar musical composition with a more forbidding vibe , and they gibe that electronic factor would do the trick . They recruited synth pioneerWalter Sear , who had help Robert Moog make grow the legendary Moog synthesizer in the sixties . Sear added the soundtrack ’s forbidding drones and other electronica , makingLet ’s Scare Jessica to Deathone of the first horror scores to integrate synth music .
5. Old-school gimmicks were used to promote early screenings ofLet’s Scare Jessica To Death.
By the timeLet ’s Scare Jessica to Deathmade its theatrical debut on August 27 , 1971 , promotional thingummy of the form made illustrious by William Castle , who onceofferedfake animation indemnity policies in vitrine his movie scared a watcher to end , had mostly execute their course . But when Paramount pick up the moving picture for distribution , gave it its deed of conveyance ( it was simply calledJessicathroughout production ) , and enthusiastically committed to a all-embracing release , freshly appointed studio President of the United States Frank Yablans wanted the consultation to sleep with exactly what kind of experience they were in for . To that end , Paramount hire a horse - drawn hearse , over with coffins , to lurk in front of the Criterion Theater for the film ’s New York premiere . Other venue , such as Minneapolis ’s Orpheum Theater , handed outplastic vampire fangs as frequenter enter .
6.Let’s Scare Jessica To Deathreceived an X rating when it was released in the UK.
Let ’s frighten Jessica to Deathis tame in terms of onscreen violence , trust instead on eery visuals , an tyrannous atmosphere of apprehensiveness , vertebral column - cool down sound cue stick , and the occasional well - placed jump panic to craft an unsettling viewing experience . Its subdued approach did n’t stop the British Board of Film Certification fromslapping it with an decade ratingwhen it was free in the UK — a rating that brand the celluloid as “ extremely graphic ” and made it off - limits to anyone under the age of 18 . In the U.S. the pic was give a much milder GP military rating [ PDF]—1971 ’s equivalent of today ’s PG .
The UK rating is even stranger when you considerLet ’s Scare Jessica to Deathin the broader context of 1970s horror . It was released almost precisely one year before Wes Craven’sThe Last House on the Lefthelped usher in a wave of transgressive , graphically violent horror plastic film that would make Hancock ’s understated piece of gothic Americana seem quaint in compare .
7. One outstanding moment inLet’s Scare Jessica To Deathlanded director John Hancock the job of helmingJaws 2.
allow ’s Scare Jessica to Deathfeatures one of horror screen ’s great aquatic frights , when Costello , as the maybe undead Emily , enters a lake dressed in a swimsuit and come out moments later in a soaked 19th - 100 wedding garb . But that was n’t the scene that got Hancock discover by producer Richard D. Zanuck when he was looking for someone to helm a sequel to 1975 ’s massively successfulJaws . That distinction go to an other conniption in the picture show , when Jessica , Duncan , and their friend Woody ( Kevin O’Connor ) arrive at the old farmhouse where much of the pic pack position . Jessica spy a shadowy human body lurking on a higher floor , setting up a terrific jump panic attack moments subsequently when Emily lunges out of a darken threshold . Zanuck is articulate to havepointedto that expertly orchestrated panic as the thing that convinced him Hancock was the man for the job .
regrettably , Hancock ’s time onJaws 2was short - live . Hedepartedthe production less than a month after filming go , when it became clear-cut that his vision for a gritty , role - drive thriller did n’t solid with Universal ’s plans for a more lighthearted creature feature . Despite the blow , Hancock run on to farsighted career in picture show , television system , and theater . Now 82 years old , he ’s still make movies ; his latest flick was the 2020 dramaThe Girls of Summer .
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