Review of Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) by Devon B — 08 Apr 2013

Made just two years after the Charles Manson murders, "Let's Scare Jessica To Death" has a weird hippy vibe to it, eerie with it's elements of communalism and counter-culture ostracization. Jessica is a timid sort of house wife, moving with her husband and a friend to a house out in the country. In town, they meet a group of locals who don't want them around. Arriving at the farm house, they're greeted by a squatter named Emily. In true hippy fashion, they invite Emily to stay with them. But Jessica, who was recently released from a mental institution, starts to have odd hallucinations. But are they hallucinations?

For such an obviously low budget, Let's Scare Jessica To Death manages create some fairly jarring, frightening images. The film is more disturbing than horrific, it makes us question who the crazy people are: Jessica (and us, as we observe through her eyes) or the people messing with Jessica, if they indeed are. It's a disturbing film, in the tradition of something like "Carnival of Souls". There are no clear answers and the whole thing doesn't make a lot of sense, which is probably the best way to go about creating this atmosphere of tension. In this manner, it succeeds.