Creeptober Day 15: Let’s Scare Jessica to Death

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death will get under your skin, but only if you let it.

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Check the Creeptober announcement article to find out where to stream Let’s Scare Jessica to Death.

Following yesterday’s journey into the mind of an unreliable narrator, today’s selection is another film that forces viewers to question what they’re seeing. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is a moody horror movie with psychological elements that become more or less apparent depending on the perspective of the viewer, and it’s a fanatic choice for day fifteen of our Creeptober marathon!

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Read on for our thoughts on Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) as well as a recap of the movie, and join the conversation on our Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram!

Reacting to Let’s Scare Jessica to Death

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death gives viewers a lot to think about.

I might sound like a broken record, but Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is another movie in the Creeptober marathon that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Long enough to where I had vague memories of enjoying but, but even more vague recollections of the story. It’s also another movie that I have a newfound respect for after this most recent rewatch. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is amazing, and I cannot stop thinking about it.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Many of the ideas in Let’s Scare Jessica to Death are debatable. What’s not up for discussion is the fact that Zohra Lampert is amazing in the lead role as Jessica.

Before I get into my thoughts about the movie, I would be doing everyone a disservice if I didn’t mention that Creepy Catalog already has an excellent analysis of it. Chrissy Stockton wrote an article a while back that takes a look at the different themes and perspectives of Let’s Scare Jessica to Death. It’s a great read, and you should check it out now. Plus, since she covered the movie so well, in this Creeptober reaction I can focus solely on what I think is happening in the film.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
My favorite moment is probably when Jessica sees herself in a mirror, moves the mirror, then is spooked when she sees her refection again in a different mirror. It’s a nice little scare, and it is rich in meaning if you choose to dive into the metaphors in the movie.

The thing I love the most about the movie is that it can be watched and enjoyed in multiple different ways. If you want to take all of the events that occur in Let’s Scare Jessica to Death at face value, you can. That would mean Emily is a unique type of vampire, and she has supernatural powers. Her powers allow her to live an abnormally long time, she can control men’s minds, and she has various other powers (like being able to quick-change her clothes while underwater). That also means everything Jessica sees is real, and Emily is tormenting her the entire time. That’s not the way I choose to see the movie though.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Many shots throughout the movie are hauntingly beautiful.

To me, almost nothing we see in Let’s Scare Jessica to Death actually happens. The only thing potentially real in the entire film is the opening of the movie. We see Jessica sitting in a rowboat, floating in what looks like a cove. Jessica’s narration tells us that she can’t discern between dreams and nightmare, madness or sanity. Then the story flashes back to a few days earlier, eventually connecting back to the opening few seconds. Since the majority of the movie can be seen as a flashback told from Jessica’s perspective, nothing can be trusted as accurate (especially in scenes where Jessica isn’t present). The tragic part of this theory is that it makes the viewer complicit in the way of thinking that led to Jessica’s state of mind in the first place.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
It is a common trope in horror to have someone (usually a woman) see something, and then have someone else (usually a man) not believe that person if they don’t immediately see it for themselves. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death plays with this trope in various ways, sometimes negating it, and sometimes twisting it into something far more sinister than it initially appears.

It’s quickly made clear near the beginning of the movie that Jessica is conditioned to not tell anyone about the things she experiences. She expects her husband Duncan to think she’s crazy if she says anything that he doesn’t think is right, and she has accepted this fact as a part of her life. She internalizes it. Her fears are proven correct when, midway through the movie, Duncan says he can’t deal with her anymore and she should go back to her doctor. So, her husband doesn’t believe her, and, with the flashback setup, the movie itself sets the viewer up to not believe her even when we see exactly what Jessica sees. This is a very damning metaphor for the way society treats women.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Even when Jessica is being directly attacked by Emily, she backs away and says “that’s all right.” Jessica’s conditioning from the people in her life has led to her continually apologizing for herself and for things that are out of her control.

But here’s an even more radical way to view the movie. This theory is still in the early stages of development in my head, but what if… Jessica is dead. What if everything we see in the movie is actually a series of metaphors that make up a representation of a kind of purgatory state? Not a literal purgatory, but rather a representation of Jessica’s life which isn’t supposed to be taken literally in any way. Kind of like her life flashing before her eyes, but as more of a dream rather than as actual memories. What we witness is actually a dreamlike interpretation of Jessica’s transition from life to whatever awaits beyond.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Jessica’s interest in headstones can be seen as coinciding with her recurring thoughts of death. But what if it’s more than that?

Think about it. We first see Jessica in a boat, alone. It’s been said that, in a sense, everyone dies alone. The screen then transitions, and what is the first thing we see when we flash back in time? It’s Duncan and Woody loading a large black case into the back of a hearse. It’s Duncan’s double-bass case, but we don’t know that at the time. Next, the hearse pulls up to a cemetery. The very first time we see Jessica’s face is when she exits out of the back of the hearse and runs into the graveyard to take imprints from headstones. Then, when the main story reaches its finale, we are back to Jessica floating alone in the rowboat. The shot continues past what we saw before. Jessica slumps over as the credits come to an end, and the boat begins its exit off the right side of the screen. A boat as a vessel for carrying the dead into the afterlife is a common archetype.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Jessica tacks her three headstone imprints on the walls of her bedroom. When she locks herself in her room, she leans up against the wall precisely where a fourth headstone would fit.

This theory gets incredibly dark when you think about it, especially considering that the town’s ferryman (a possible allusion to the mythological Charon) refuses to take Jessica away. Instead, she has to row a boat herself. It makes an already sad movie even more devastating. But this is why I think Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is so fantastic. Not because it’s sad, but because it can be interpreted in multiple ways, and the majority of the interpretations lead to startling revelations about life, society, and psychological horrors that really exist. You can watch it as a movie about a vampire too, but that’s only a small part of it. Go watch the movie again while trying to see it from an entirely different perspective. It’s a rewarding process. While you do that, I’ll keep thinking about this “death” theory and get back to you with a full report later. Probably.

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death – A Recap

Jessica and Duncan ride as Woody drives a hearse to their new home.

Jessica, her husband Duncan, and their friend Woody ride in a hearse as they travel to the sleepy rural town of Brookfield. Their destination is an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town. The trio recently left New York City where Jessica spent time in a psychiatric hospital and Duncan made a living as a musician. Jessica’s husband hopes that taking Jessica away from the big city will help ease her troubled mental state.

Emily plays a song and sings. It’s as if she is enchanting both Woody and Duncan with her music.

As they arrive, Jessica sees someone on the porch of the house. She doesn’t tell Duncan or Woody what she has seen because she is sure that they won’t believe her. However, once inside, Duncan sees the person as well. They find Emily, a woman who says she’s been staying in the house because she thought it was abandoned. Emily seems friendly, so Jessica invites her to stay the night. She also notices an attraction between Duncan and Emily.

Jessica holds her arms out towards Duncan, and a portrait of the Bishop family hangs behind her.

The next day, Jessica has Duncan invite Emily to stay indefinitely. Then, while trying to sell some of the items from the house to an antique dealer, Duncan and Jessica learn about the history of their house. A young woman named Abigail Bishop drowned in the cove behind the house in 1880, but her body was never found. A local legend says that Abigail is a vampire and still roams the countryside.

Jessica saw the silent woman before. She was in the cemetery where Jessica was inspecting headstones before arriving at her new home.

The same day, Duncan finds a “mole” (it’s really a mouse) in a graveyard. Jessica wants to keep it as a pet, so Duncan heads back to the house. While alone in a graveyard, Jessica sees a woman beckoning her to follow. The woman leads Jessica to a waterfall where she sees the dead body of the antique dealer. The body is gone when Duncan arrives, but he does catch the mysterious woman. Jessica tries to get the woman to say something about the body, but she can’t speak (and there is a bandage around her neck). When Emily arrives, the silent woman runs away.

Jessica thinks about reaching out towards Duncan, but she stops herself.

While in bed that night, Duncan tells Jessica that he thinks she should return to her doctor in New York. He also says that he “can’t take it anymore.” Jessica wonders why Duncan doesn’t just leave her. Duncan leaves to sleep in another room. Meanwhile, an unknown person kills Jessica’s mole with a knife. The same night, Emily and Duncan have a tryst in a downstairs room while Jessica sleeps upstairs.

Emily reveals what Jessica already suspected.

The next morning, Duncan leaves to head into town while Woody works in the fields. Emily finds Jessica in the attic looking at the picture of the Bishop family that she and Duncan previously sold to the antique dealer. Jessica notes an uncanny resemblance between Emily and Abigail Bishop, but Emily shrugs it off. Emily then convinces Jessica to go swimming with her. Jessica doesn’t want to swim, but while at the cove, Emily pushes Jessica into the water. When Jessica gets out of the water, she turns back and sees Emily slowly coming out of the water as well, dressed in Abigail Bishop’s wedding dress.

Jessica flees the house.

Jessica locks herself in her room, waiting for Duncan to come home. Hours pass, and Jessica decides to escape into town. While she is away from the house, Emily seduces Woody. In town, Jessica can’t find Duncan. She notices that all the men in town have distinct wounds, including the antique dealer whom she thought was dead. Jessica runs away and passes out in the woods.

Emily/Abigail turns and walks away after seeing Jessica in the rowboat.

Duncan finds Jessica and takes her home. They go to bed, but as they embrace, Emily slowly approaches with a knife in her hand. Men from the town are also there. Jessica flees, and she finds the silent woman dead inside Duncan’s double-bass case. She also discovers Woody dead on his tractor, his throat cut open. Jessica tries to take the ferry across the cove, but the ferry operator, who has a conspicuous wound like the other men, refuses to take her. Jessica ends up getting into a rowboat and floating out into the cove. Someone tries to get into the boat from the water, so Jessica attacks them with a boat hook. Looking down, she sees Duncan, dead, floating in the water amid a growing pool of blood. Jessica sits quietly in the boat while Emily and a few men from town watch from the shore.

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Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.