Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) – DVD

**½/**** Image B+ Sound B+
starring Zohra Lampert, Barton Heyman, Kevin O'Connor, Gretchen Corbett
screenplay by Norman Jonas and Ralph Rose
directed by John Hancock

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a sort of journeyman-hack remake of Repulsion: the fantasy-into-reality element is there without Polanski's jolting surrealism, while genre trappings are introduced to keep everybody from wondering what the hell they're watching. Strangely, the concoction successfully keeps you doing just that. Anchored by Zohra Lampert's convincing performance in the title role, the film manages to make its modest borrowings seem quaint and pleasant in a campfire-story way. Director John Hancock's craftsmanship prevents the whole thing from collapsing, and the gimmicky script, by Hancock and Lee Kalcheim (both writing under pseudonyms), has enough juicy plums to string you along for the next one. It isn't exactly good, but it's surprisingly watchable–if not always credible.

Essential to the formula is a woman about to fall apart, hence Jessica (Lampert), who's recently suffered a mental breakdown and subsequently moved to rural Connecticut with her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman) and close friend Woody (Kevin O'Connor). Upon arrival at their country house, they discover a transient named Emily (Mariclare Costello) squatting inside; rather improbably, they allow her to stay, despite that Jessica's hearing voices and generally acting tense. Ugliness ensues when a) the townspeople get not-nice with the "hippie" interlopers, b) local antiquarian Sam Dorker (Alan Manson) turns up dead, only to have his body disappear, and c) Emily turns out to bear a remarkable resemblance to the 19^th-century woman who owned the house and drowned on her wedding day. Or is it all in Jess's mind?

The unreliable female protagonist is the strongest link to Polanski's masterpiece, and rest assured she does something terrible at the end just like Catherine Deneuve does. In fact, the most interesting thing about the movie is deciding what its attitude is towards Jess: is the film sympathetic to her plight–whether she's having a supernatural attack or a mental breakdown–or is this simply the picture's way of belittling her for being a hysterical woman and a burden to everyone around her? The tension created by this is the best part of the narrative, which unfortunately doesn't quite progress beyond the old don't-be-silly, you-must-be-dreaming finger-wagging such characters always get. But while the shocks are obvious, there's a certain shopworn charm to them that's intensified by the rustic setting and its gothic trappings.

Still, Let's Scare Jessica to Death might not have much lustre were it not for Zohra Lampert. The movie rests on her shoulders, and she knocks it out of the park with a performance that brilliantly captures her character's vacillation and confusion. Lampert single-handedly transforms what could have been a standard hissy-fit woman into a role with dimensions: one can always see her trying to put on a brave face so as not to give away the voices in her head, and one can always see the pain when her visions aren't believed by the men in the cast. It's a twitchy, barely-contained triumph, and the close-ups that capture her tics are the best and most gripping shots of the movie. One wishes there was a little more meat to her role as well as to Let's Scare Jessica to Death proper, but the residual pleasures of her performance are entrancing.

THE DVD
Paramount brings Let's Scare Jessica to Death to DVD in a 1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that's a little lacking in sharpness and a bit too shrouded in darkness at times; colours are at least lustrous, especially in the sun-dappled shots overlooking a lake. The Dolby 2.0 mono sound is similarly a tad soft, and though comprehension is easy, a certain potency is missing. A bare-bones vault release, the disc has no extras.

88 minutes; PG-13; 1.77:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; English subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Paramount