Synopsis
Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.
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Cast
- Zohra LampertJessica
- Barton HeymanDuncan
- Kevin O'ConnorWoody
- Gretchen CorbettThe Girl
- Alan MansonSam Dorker
- Mariclare CostelloEmily
Recommendations
- 80
The Observer (UK)
Regular horror ingredients are all mixed up into something truly terrifying. [17 Dec 2006, p.8] - 75
Paste Magazine
The result is a ’70s vampire flick that has distinctly gothic imagery—the immortal temptress leering out from a century-old portrait, creeping up on the unwary in the form of a waterlogged corpse, surrounded by her leering thralls—even as it uses psychological horror techniques and roots its terror in the gaslighting of a vulnerable woman. - 75
Polygon
Director John Hancock and lead actress Zohra Lampert collaborate to produce something stranger and vaguer than the film’s countless contemporaries, giving the heroine far greater agency. - 75
The A.V. Club
It's a classic B-movie move of making much out of little, and while Let's Scare Jessica To Death isn't quite a top-rank B-movie classic, it at least offers further proof that all the teen-idol stars and CGI effects—or a logical plot, for that matter—mean nothing if they don't make you scared to turn out the lights. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
This was the feature debut of director John Hancock (who would go on to BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY and WEEDS), and he does a fairly effective job of pulling good shocks out of this somewhat familiar material. The script doesn't help his cause: it's badly underdeveloped and contains some confusing inconsistencies. - 60
Village Voice
If for nothing else, Jessica is worth seeing for the presence of Zohra Lampert, and intelligent actress whose talent has somehow never been sufficiently appreciated. [14 Oct 1971, p.75] - 50
The New York Times
Although a disappointment generally, there are several things going for it; among them, the pleasantly aggressive title, which has, as is proper, only the most casual relation to the movie. - 40
Time
With the exception of Zohra Lampert's subtle and knowledgeable performance, no one in the cast has enough substance even to be considered humanoid. And after the first reel, the vampires seem to have lost their bite.
