The self-explanatory Scared to Death which has nothing to do with William Malone’s 1980 creature feature is a new offering to grasp audience’s attention featuring the horror within the making of a horror film. A Cat in the Brain, House of Seven Corpses, Darkness Reigns and One Cut of the Dead are only a few examples of the trend’s widespread appeal. That trend does not seem to change in the near future.
Jasper (Olivier Paris, The Wrong Teacher, The Wrong Mr. Right) is working as a production assistant in the film Dead House, which is probably the most junior level of all roles in filmmaking. But like a lot of Pas, he goes places, and in the beginning of the film we are introduced to him scouting, The Stern Orphanage. The orphanage has been closed off to the public for nearly 70 years, ever since five children died, terrified. As Champ (Jade Chynoweth, The Last Ship, Max Winslow and the House of Secrets) puts it, perfect horror movie setting.
When Felix (Bill Moseley, Hayride to Hell, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), the realtor who shows directions to the property, speaks about performing sessions and being willing to perform at a large discount to meet Dead House star the Grog (Kurt Deimer Trading Paint, Halloween) Jasper gets an epiphany, all he has to do is to persuades the film’s director Max (Lin Shaye, Room for Rent, Insidious: The Red Door)–never call her, ever, Maxine, to be in favor of the plot. He can’t, but when Lena (Victoria Konefal, Days of Our Lives, Circus Kane), one of the film’s stars, says that she would want to go to a séance before filming just for the purposes of ‘getting into’ the character, Max isn’t shy to take Jasper’s idea and run with it.
Writer/director Paul Boyd (I, Challenger, We Are Gathered Here Today) brings together two well-trodden narratives but sensibly avoids treating either of them too seriously which is a wise choice given context of the show. That is not to say that Scared to Death is also a spoof, it is not. However, it does not shy away from ridiculing numerous horror clichés like fake séance at which the dead do end up contacting the audience, as it attempts to terrify its audience through its sequences.
Scared to Death, up until the point when they come together for that seance, is basically a dramedy of musical entertainment which is adrift around the normal cast of interesting people who make up the cast and crew. Those who pay attention might catch Rae Dawn Chong (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Commando) who briefly plays Ruth, the producer of Dead House. Once they reach the house however, the whole movie changes up, and they quickly discover they are unable to escape, or at least escape in one piece.
And from there, we have creepy children, creepy dolls and effects by Legacy FX whose other works include 2012, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the pending Alien: Romulus. I don’t know how they stretched the budget to afford them, but their scene work here was commendable. It’s pretty basic for the most part, but it has a couple of really strong sequences. It was worth laud, Elo and his crew complemented the cinematography of Steven Poster (Donnie Darko, Strange Brew), giving Scared to Death a level of production quality that is adolescent compared to its aspirations.
All in all, Scared to Death is an entertaining 90-minute experience but don’t rush out the door as there are posters for The Grog’s numerous movies after the credits. It’s not exactly what one would call revolutionary material and in all likelihood, you’ll have completely forgotten about it in six months time, but it is certainly the type of movie that you’d put on with friends over a couple of beers on a Saturday evening.
This is the movie’s world premiere at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival and it’s going to be looking for distribution so it will be going to various other film festivals on this topic. If you can see it at one of those screenings, do so, this kind of movie is the type that should be seen in a theater.
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