I'm not going to sit here and say that Scared Stiff is some sort of lost classic of the genre. It's not. It has pacing problems and you're never quite sure if it's a haunted house movie, a "she's losing her mind" movie, or an installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but when it gets something right, it really gets it right.
A single mother pop star moves into a spooky antebellum mansion with her child and boyfriend and not only begins to unravel the house's gruesome history, but starts to believe that she's actually seeing the previous owners in her day to day life.
Scared Stiff starts out as a typical haunted house film. The lead character is plagued with visions and dreams of the wicked slave owner who used to live there and she thinks she's losing her mind. All of a sudden, it seems as if her doctor boyfriend can't be trusted either and it turns into one of those "is she crazy or being gaslit?" movies, before pulling out all the stops in a genuinely imaginative and nightmarish final act.
It's not as if Scared Stiff is brilliant, but it's competent and the final act is incredibly memorable, creepy, and downbeat.
A single mother pop star moves into a spooky antebellum mansion with her child and boyfriend and not only begins to unravel the house's gruesome history, but starts to believe that she's actually seeing the previous owners in her day to day life.
Scared Stiff starts out as a typical haunted house film. The lead character is plagued with visions and dreams of the wicked slave owner who used to live there and she thinks she's losing her mind. All of a sudden, it seems as if her doctor boyfriend can't be trusted either and it turns into one of those "is she crazy or being gaslit?" movies, before pulling out all the stops in a genuinely imaginative and nightmarish final act.
It's not as if Scared Stiff is brilliant, but it's competent and the final act is incredibly memorable, creepy, and downbeat.