Festival Select: Let's Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971)

Join the Society and Recreation department of the North York Central Library in Rm. 101 for monthly screenings of fiction and non-fiction films that push the boundaries of the medium. This month we are showing John D. Hancock's Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971).

Synopsis (Vinegar Syndrome): Recently released from a mental institution, Jessica, along with her husband Duncan and friend Woody, have decided to move into an isolated farmhouse in search of a fresh start. When they arrive there, however, they discover a young woman squatting on the property. With the group deciding to let their unexpected guest, Emily, stay with them, Jessica soon discovers that their new companion bears a striking resemblance to a girl who drowned in the nearby lake many years ago and who, as local rumor has it, now haunts the area as a vampire. At the same time, Jessica begins to experience strange and frightening visions - is she once again losing her grip on reality, or is something even more strange and sinister afoot?

Heavily inspired by the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw and Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963), John D. Hancock’s (Bang the Drum Slowly) LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH is a somber, dreamlike, and, at times, utterly bone-chilling classic of early ’70s terror.

Host or Publisher At Toronto Public Library by Parks Canada/Rouge National Urban Park