Blood Capsule #249

SCARED STIFF (1987)

As long as I can keep finding mid-level horrors stuck in the nether-realms of obscurity, I'll keep reviewing them.  And I'll be a happy dude.  Some might say that Scared Stiff had a low budget, but those people haven't seen the films that I have.  This is downright cushy entertainment.  As for why it's obscure, I would just put the blame on oversaturation.  This isn't a bad movie per se.  At first, you think you're slinking into a traditional scare pic, as it operates within a well-trodden "haunted house" framework.  A pop star (named Kate, I think) moves into a new abode with her son and her psychiatrist boyfriend.  Naturally, the place has a cryptic, blood-freezing past.  The former tenant was a wicked slave owner.  He was so wicked, in fact, that his slaves conjured up a confusing hex involving amulets and old-fashioned thaumaturgy.  Could the house itself be cursed?  That would explain the bones in the attic.  You didn't know about the bones in the attic, did you?

Scared Stiff is a tale of two halves.  For a good 45 minutes, it does the thing where one person reports having seen supernatural activity and no one believes them.  That...that was annoying.  But then the rubber meets the road (or whatever).  In this case, the rubber is a latex monster mask that literally comes to life.  Director Richard Friedman has fun with inventive dream sequences, and astonishingly, manages to capture a few creepy images.  Kudos to child actor Josh Segal.  I believed that he was traumatized (at least I hope he was acting).  The music video angle is a tad silly, but it was 1987.  The soundtrack has its fans.  I know this because I have an Internet connection.  Scared Stiff isn't going to blow anyone away, but it does enough to warrant a weekend recommendation.  If it premiered on Shudder today, it would be hailed as a "masterclass in folk horror."  So there's that.