Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971) Anybody who remembers seeing this movie back in the day usually uses "creepy' as the primary adjective to describe it.......
Okay, we'll go with that.
Despite the movie's wonderfully lurid title, it's a dedicated attempt to apply genuine artistry to a horror film.......(director John Hancock, aiming high, used "The Haunting" and "The Innocents" as his inspirations.)
So gorehounds take note: this one's not for you.
For the rest of you horror fans who don't necessarily need to see gallons of blood and spilled internal organs, there's a lot worth taking in here.
Primarily, (and sadly) it's the only feature film that offered a leading role to Zorha Lampert, a gifted stage actress with a drowsy, purring voice and a slight dreamy smile she could employ to convey multiple emotions.
Hardcore classic movie buffs would most likely remember her as the farm girl Warren Beatty ends up married to in the final scenes of "Splendor In The Grass". She spent the bulk of her long career in random TV series episodes and small roles in feature films.....a waste of a great talent capable of much better things.
With her innate gentle charm and vulnerability, she holds this strange little scary story together and makes it her very own.
Zohra's the titular Jessica, who with her husband (Barton Heyman) and best friend (Kevin 'O Connor) have moved to a remote Connecticut island to live the life of free-thinking hippie farmers...(hey, it's the early 70's, so they're artistic, semi-rebels......flower power, baby)
Squatting in the ramshackle old house they've moved into is a mysterious, ethereal hippie chick (Marciclare Costello) who quickly becomes part of their unofficial 'family'......
But there's horror stuff afoot! Jessica's recovering from a mental breakdown and the hippie chick's revealed as the island's combination ghost-vampire........who's already put the bite on the surly crowd who hangs out at the island's general store.
Compared to today's crop of in-your-face, aggressively violent horror films, you'll either find what follows too mellow and mild or you'll be completely sucked in by the dread-filled atmosphere and Lampert's ability to ramp up her escalating terror.
If it's the latter, the film will do its job of unnerving and frightening you.......(we watched it with Beloved Daughter, who then went to sleep that night with all the lights on the TV blaring)
And it's definitely worth a viewing to see a one-of-a-kind actress who made the most of the one and only starring role she was able to secure.
For anyone in your household who'd like to enjoy a creepy Halloween movie night without severed limbs and multiple jump scares, by all means sit 'em down to enjoy Jessica getting scared to death.......
You can even finish the night arguing about what the ending means. And that's something we've rarely encountered in modern horror movies. 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2_
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