Scared Stiff (1987)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A prologue takes us to 1857 where an evil slave trader named George Masterson (Ramsey) has a curse put on him by his wife and some slaves in the attic of his house. The slaves give the wife a stone that will protect her and her son from the evil George. Jump 130 years and Dr. David Young (Stevens) moves into the same house with his girlfriend Kate (Keller) who at one time was a mental patient of his and her son (Segal). Kate starts having nightmares and hallucinations while David starts becoming abusive and acting like the former owner of the house. This is pretty standard low budget fair for the mid 1980's. There are a lot of nightmares (the Elm Street influence) but some of them are effective at getting a few good scares. Masterson is a good old fashioned monster and his visions and appearance is unsettling and scary. The movie splits in two with Kate and her boy having nightmares and David being possessed by Masterson's spirit. This gives the movie a very uneven feel and would have worked better as a whole if they had chosen one clear path. Still, Director Richard Friedman has some good moments like the ending dream state Kate and her son are in, is quite unpredictable and manages some suspense. Stevens is very wooden in the lead role which doesn't help. Scared Stiff is good as a decent time waster which will deliver a few scares and chills along the way.

Scared Stiff is definitely a film that most B horror fans should venture into seeing. It literally has EVERYTHING. Horrible editing, awful acting, a script that goes nowhere, off the wall gore (at the end), and an incredible silly ending!Kate, David and Kate's son move into and old house. Kate is an actress and David is a therapist. When they move into this house things start going very strange as Kate starts seeing things, along with her son. It turns out that the house they moved into belonged to an evil man that tortured slaves back in the late 1800's. As the family stays in the house lounger, the more possessed David becomes.I have a soft spot for movies like this. Yes, it was a terrible film. No doubt about that. But, did I enjoy this film... I would have to say yes. For fans of a genre long dead this is definitely worth seeing as the story is actually not half bad. It is everything else that brings this movie down. Example: there is a scene in which a man is hanging outside of a window. We get a close up of his face for roughly 15 seconds. At the end of the scene, we see the mans eyes move. Truly poor editing. If you watch this movie you will see many inconsistencies. For me, that is what gives it its charm.Goofy movie that is well worth watching for all of you 80's horror fans. 6/10

Awful film about a family moving into a new house and falling prey to a rubber faced African voodoo monster that possesses Andrew Stevens and forces him to kill his family. The special effects are really that terrible, the entire cast is bland, and the situations that unfold in the film are a laugh riot. Good to watch and make fun of, otherwise avoid this piece of junk masquerading as a horror film. Rated R.

This movie is really that bad. It has no in depth suspense or plot. The characters remain lost and the acting. Huh! Don't get me started. Do not watch this movie under any cost please! There are only about 2 killings and the voodoo story is rubbish. A more than it deserved 1 out of 10. I would have given it nothing!