Scared to Death - FrightFest Glasgow International Premiere
Director: Paul Boyd
Starring: Lin Shaye, Bill Moseley, Olivier Paris, Victoria Konefal, Kurt Deimer
Written by: Paul Boyd
Produced by: Eric Barrett, Todd Slater
Cinematography by: Steven Poster
Original Score by: Misha Segal
Synopsis:
A group of filmmakers attend a seance at an abandoned children's orphanage in order to do research for a movie...that's their first mistake.
Thoughts:
With a horror film, locations are everything. Be it a haunted mansion, a cabin in the woods or a derelict spaceship, they are so embedded within the genre that it is hard to find originality within them anymore so filmmakers have to really think outside of the box in search of something unique. 'Scared to Death' revolves around the idea of finding the perfect location to shoot a horror film, which provides so much opportunity for meta based humour to flourish whilst being underpinned by a creepy atmosphere from the setting. When done right it can draw laughs and scares in equal measure but when they are done wrong they can result in a tired film that is a chore to watch.
The film follows a film PA called Jasper (Olivier Paris) who is working on a movie called 'Scared to Death'. He finds the perfect location for the shoot at an abandoned orphanage called Sterns where five children were said to have died but he finds himself butting heads with the abrasive director Max (Lin Shaye) over it. On the request of the cast they decide to host a seance there to get in the mood for the shoot under the guidance of a medium called Felix (Bill Moseley) and as you can guess things don't go according to plan taking a turn for the worse.
Two of the hardest things a filmmaker can do is to scare an audience or make them laugh. With 'Scared to Death' Writer/Director Paul Boyd achieves neither. The whole film feels flat from the script to how it is realised visually with no real energy or propulsion to what is happening. It is the definition of going through the motions and dragging your audience along with you with its deathly slow pace. None of the humour lands as a lot of the time it feels forced with almost every other line of dialogue ending with some kind of quip or remark that fails to raise so much as a grin. Whilst the opening act hints at some sort of satirical undertone that is going to run throughout the film it is dropped completely in the second act as the film becomes a bog standard possession romp that lacks originality.
In terms of the horror, it is almost absent entirely, with a distinct lack of atmosphere that is regularly interrupted by jump scares that are signposted a mile away. Even the by the numbers score overwhelms to the point of distraction leaving it all feeling somewhat imbalanced. One of the shining lights though are some of the special effects used throughout with a highlight being a sentient disembodied head that works really well.
In terms of the cast Olivier Paris is an unremarkable lead as the ambitious PA caught in the middle of a supernatural night of hell. To be fair there is not much he can draw from his one dimensional character's clunky dialogue. Lin Shaye revels playing the nasty director Max but inconsistencies in the script lead to an inconsistent performance as her mood changes from scene to scene are baffling. Bill Moseley feels miscast as the medium with some tricks up his sleeve. He does his best with the little he is given but when you see Kurt Deimer's charisma sapping performance as horror movie icon The Grog you feel that he could have done more with that kind of role. The rest of the cast is rounded out with typical tropes and cliches like the stoner friend and the flamboyant actor who are there to utter awful sex and drugs jokes.
'Scared to Death' is a major disappointment that falls at the first hurdle with a weak script that pulls the entire film down. Whilst watching it you get the feeling that everyone involved just wants to get it over and done with. A lifeless horror/comedy that elicits only feelings of boredom, the only worthwhile aspect of the film are its visual effects as they feel like the only element of the film that has put in an effort but that is not enough to save the film.
Verdict: ⭐️
-Joseph McElroy
'Scared to Death' received it's International Premiere at FrightFest Glasgow on March 8th
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