Let's scare Jessica to death!

[Bonniegirl]

I just watched this movie! Really good! Very cool , creepy and chilling ! I had seen it as a little girl many years ago on the movie of the week, scary but I didn't really get it than !

Even still, I very much enjoyed the movie but I guess it is supposed to leave you to your own conclusion what actually happened ? Was Jessica really crazy and imagining things? Or was all that stuff really going on ?

I'd love to hear from you guys who have seen this. What is your take on it? Would love to get a good discussion on this movie started here!

[Torgo]

One of my favorite horror films of the 70s. Think I will give it a re watch soon to refresh my memory on it, plus I want to listen to the commentary with the director and producer that came on the Blu Ray.

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Torgo

One of my favorite horror films of the 70s. Think I will give it a re watch soon to refresh my memory on it, plus I want to listen to the commentary with the director and producer that came on the Blu Ray.

Cool ! That would be great ! I'd love to have a discussion about LSJTD , cause like I said it left the viewer not exactly sure of what went on ? At least this viewer( Me) !,: I kinda remember this movie be brought up before on the Muddle thread and RetroLee had seen it and liked it. Hoping he can join in too on the discussion !

I did find out that the pretty red haired girl in the movie is the same actress ( Mariclare Costello )who played Miss Hunter on The Waltons !

[Torgo]

I totally forgot she was in that. I was thinking of starting a thread in The Waltons about all of the Waltons actors/guest stars that have been in horror movies.

It's a rainy day today, so good excuse to watch movies, and the wife is going to watch it with me while we have lunch.

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Torgo

I totally forgot she was in that. I was thinking of starting a thread in The Waltons about all of the Waltons actors/guest stars that have been in horror movies.

It's a rainy day today, so good excuse to watch movies, and the wife is going to watch it with me while we have lunch.

Very cool ! It's a great rainy day movie ! Yeah, Mariclaire was WAY different in the role she played here and playing a school teacher/ preachers wife in 1930's rural Virginia !

[Torgo]

SPOILERS

I think we're not supposed to know if it happened or all in Jessica's mind, even Jessica herself doesn't know if any of it happened or she had imagined it all. We know that she went away for awhile after her father's death, so this could be a relapse.

Another way to look at it,she actually killed her husband, the friend Woody, and the mute girl, and in her mind she thought it was the red-headed squatter that killed Woody and the mute girl, and Jessica thought her husband was trying to kill her.

[Svenfan1234]

Wow. Seeing this reminded me of how I'd love to see more of the 1970s horror made-for-TV movies like The Night Stalker, Night Strangler, Trilogy of Terror, Killdozer, etc. on Svengoolie. Unfortunately, Svengoolie said that they don't really offer TV movies like those that much (kind of ironic, if you think about it, since they WERE originally made for TV.) I do enjoy the movies like Duel, and somewhat Gargoyles, but the ones like Ants! and Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo were awful. This one sounds like it'd be better than Ants! and Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo, though. It sounds like an interesting one!

[Torgo]

Let's Scare Jessica To Death isn't a TV movie.

[Svenfan1234]

Originally Posted by Torgo

Let's Scare Jessica To Death isn't a TV movie.

Oops! I was mistaken. My bad.

Still would like to see Svengoolie air it someday.

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Svenfan1234

Oops! I was mistaken. My bad.

Still would like to see Svengoolie air it someday.

That's my fault ! I thought it was an old made for TV movie ! They did have cool ones like this on TV back than, I mixed it up with another movie I guess !

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Torgo

SPOILERS

I think we're not supposed to know if it happened or all in Jessica's mind, even Jessica herself doesn't know if any of it happened or she had imagined it all. We know that she went away for awhile after her father's death, so this could be a relapse.

Another way to look at it,she actually killed her husband, the friend Woody, and the mute girl, and in her mind she thought it was the red-headed squatter that killed Woody and the mute girl, and Jessica thought her husband was trying to kill her.

Spoiler Alerts :

The only thing we are really sure of is when she killed her Husband when she was in the row boat ! But as for the other things. IDK was the red haired girl Emily actually an evil spirit? Was she indeed the girl who drowned in the lake all those years ago, come back to haunt and apparently kill? The antique dealer referred to the legend of the girl drowning in the lake as being a vampire! But she was out and about in the day time and showed up in the mirror? So I didn't really understand that ? She did look a lot like the girl in the picture !

And how about the really strange town people? All older men all having cuts on their body ! Was that imagined by Jessica and the men didn't have injuries but I thought her Husband had seen it too? And what about the deaf mute girl? How did she tie into things? At first it really appeared that SHE was a ghost !?

Or as we said, was it ALL Jessica's mental illness imaging this all and killing them?

Really great movie, but like I said I'm confused as heck!

I LOVED the setting, the countryside, the lake, that house !!

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Torgo

I totally forgot she was in that. I was thinking of starting a thread in The Waltons about all of the Waltons actors/guest stars that have been in horror movies.

It's a rainy day today, so good excuse to watch movies, and the wife is going to watch it with me while we have lunch.

Aunt Rose/Peggy Rea was in a horror movie from 1971 " What's the matter with Helen"! I recently purchased it on Ebay! Pretty good along with a movie called "Whoever slew Auntie Roo" ! I posted to you about them on Muddle, but you hadn't come on at the time I posted !

Peggy Rea wasn't in Auntie Roo, but Shelley Winters was in both these movies! Not that Shelley has anything to do with Walton's characters in Horror movies, but she is a great actress esp. in the horror genre!

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by Bonniegirl

Spoiler Alerts :

The only thing we are really sure of is when she killed her Husband when she was in the row boat ! But as for the other things. IDK was the red haired girl Emily actually an evil spirit? Was she indeed the girl who drowned in the lake all those years ago, come back to haunt and apparently kill? The antique dealer referred to the legend of the girl drowning in the lake as being a vampire! But she was out and about in the day time and showed up in the mirror? So I didn't really understand that ? She did look a lot like the girl in the picture !

And how about the really strange town people? All older men all having cuts on their body ! Was that imagined by Jessica and the men didn't have injuries but I thought her Husband had seen it too? And what about the deaf mute girl? How did she tie into things? At first it really appeared that SHE was a ghost !?

Or as we said, was it ALL Jessica's mental illness imaging this all and killing them?

Really great movie, but like I said I'm confused as heck!

I LOVED the setting, the countryside, the lake, that house !!

I still haven't listened to the commentary, I'm curious if the director explains anything.

I guess that's part of the film, not knowing. There's so many unexplained things.
About the vampire thing, the movie could have been using its own rules, Hollywood created/modified the vampire rules that we see in movies today. Before the movies, vampires went out in the daylight, including Dracula, sunlight didn't kill him, he was just more powerful at night.
But still, if the redhead is a vampire, and the people with the scars are her victims, maybe they're under her power? If she's not a vampire, then who are the people in town, and what is the meaning of the scars we see?

Those old men in town were actually creepy, when the husband was getting in the car and one of them smacks him on the back of the head, I don't know why I found that creepy.

And, you are right, the husband did see the scars, he says they looked like Civil War veterans.

Maybe the mute girl was originally in Jessica's situation, maybe she lived in the house prior to Jessica?

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by Bonniegirl

Aunt Rose/Peggy Rea was in a horror movie from 1971 " What's the matter with Helen"! I recently purchased it on Ebay! Pretty good along with a movie called "Whoever slew Auntie Roo" ! I posted to you about them on Muddle, but you hadn't come on at the time I posted !

Peggy Rea wasn't in Auntie Roo, but Shelley Winters was in both these movies! Not that Shelley has anything to do with Walton's characters in Horror movies, but she is a great actress esp. in the horror genre!

I love those movies, I think they call them 'hag horror' along with the one that started them all, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?

Speaking of Shelley Winters in 70s horror, she's in one from 1975 titled Poor Pretty Eddie, check it out if you haven't seen it. It also features Ted Cassidy.
Leslie Uggams plays a singer whose car breaks down at an old lodge, where Winters and her son live. Winters' character used to be an actress and her son idolizes Elvis. Ted Cassidy plays a handyman.

[Svenfan1234]

Originally Posted by Bonniegirl

That's my fault ! I thought it was an old made for TV movie ! They did have cool ones like this on TV back than, I mixed it up with another movie I guess !

It's all good! I remember a while back MeTV posted an article of the 10 scariest 1970s made-for-TV horror movies, and being disappointed that it was before Svengoolie's TV-movie month and none of the "scariest movies" were part of that lineup.