What do Stevie Nicks, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Lionel Richie, and Tina Turner have in common? They have all produced music videos with director Paul Boyd. After making a name for himself in the music industry, Boyd has turned his attention to feature films with his latest offering, Scared To Death, delighting and frightening attendees at FrightFest Glasgow for its international premiere.
The horror-comedy starring genre legends Lin Shaye and Bill Moseley, Scared To Death follows Jasper (Olivier Paris), an up-and-coming filmmaker desperate to climb the Hollywood ladder. He has landed a production assistant job on the horror flick Dead House working for cantankerous director Max (Shaye) and alongside genre icon The Grog (Kurt Deimer), leading lady Lena (Victoria Konefal), actor Johnny (B.J. Minor), and technical assistant Champ (Jade Chynoweth). He brokers a deal with Felix (Moseley), the owner of an abandoned orphanage, to host a seance for the cast and crew for research, with Felix offering to host the seance for a cut price in order to meet his idol, The Grog. But things begin to go seriously wrong when the motley crew become trapped inside the house, which just so happens to be where five children died under mysterious circumstances.
An opulently decorated haunted house, spooky children, and a rag-tag bunch of mismatched people – from the get-go, Scared To Death has the makings of a trope-laden, run-of-the-mill genre film that fades from memory as quickly as it arrives. While it does play on our expectations of jump scares and classic horror iconography, Scared To Death twists these expectations to keep the audience on their toes. It's slowly winding narrative works on building the characters that carry much of the frights and the lore of the children's home before all hell breaks loose in its chaotic final act. While it doesn't redefine the genre, Scared To Death manages to delight in ways you may not expect.
With Insidious stalwart Shaye and Firefly trilogy star Moseley at the helm, it would similarly be easy to assume Scared To Death revolves around its biggest stars and those around them simply fall to the sidelines. But the film focuses firmly on Jasper and his striving for greatness and the group trying to put their paranoia aside to work out whether Felix is playing a ghastly prank on them, or if something supernatural really is threatening their lives. The character building is in-depth and relies very little on the stereotypes of those in the film industry and acting world, creating fully-rounded protagonists you care about and want to see survive the night. Of course, this is a horror film, and we know that won't be the case, opening the floor for some blood-curdling frights sure to catch some viewers off guard.
Scared To Death is a fun-filled screamfest that doesn't solely rely on the star power of its cast. Boyd's masterful tension and world-building create the perfect vehicle for its strong performances, laugh-out-loud comedic moments, and genuinely spooky sequences that, while never amounting to something truly terrifying, provide a solid, fun watch for fans of the supernatural.
Scared To Death had its international premiere at FrightFest Glasgow on March 8
Podcast
