Lucky Dip Presents: Let's Scare Jessica To Death
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Thu 27 October 2011 // 20:00
(Thu 27th Oct / 8pm / £5/4)
Lucky Dip: Gifts of the Lost and Lesser Known presents a special one-off pre- Halloween screening of this classic understated state-side horror. A cult sleeper hit in the US, creeping insidiously into the minds of a generation of seventies kids over endless late night re-runs throughout that decade, in the UK Jessica simply sank into obscurity after its unassuming cinema release and has never been seen or heard of much since - never once mustering a release on any UK video or DVD format.
Recently released from a psychiatric institution, Jessica, with her husband and a friend, retreats to a Victorian farmhouse in an isolated part of rural Connecticut. Here, the trio encounter an enigmatic hippy named Emily who is squatting in the house, and almost immediately, Jessica's madness resumes. Increasing evidence from Jessica's point of view implies that Emily may be a ghostly vampire figure, and that all those inhabiting the island are effected as well. Are the subsequent events all in Jessica's mind? Or is something sinister truly after her?
Fans of modern, CGI style, short attention span horror need not apply, for Jessica is a slower, wispier beast. Like all the best American seventies horror from this period, it benefits from a slightly dislocated, post hippy world-view that seems to be struggling to anchor itself in a culture ripped up and spat out by the psychedelic revolution of a few years prior. Dreamlike distancing, and a slowly creeping unease are the film’s major tones, and it’s not hard to see why it might have freaked the kids out, as the adult world it represents - of domesticity gone awry - is disquieting enough in itself. And that’s even before the horror kicks in...
‘Lucky Dip: Gifts of the Lost and Lesser Known’ aims to bring you an array of rarely seen, would be cult gems from decades past.
Lucky Dip: Gifts of the Lost and Lesser Known presents a special one-off pre- Halloween screening of this classic understated state-side horror. A cult sleeper hit in the US, creeping insidiously into the minds of a generation of seventies kids over endless late night re-runs throughout that decade, in the UK Jessica simply sank into obscurity after its unassuming cinema release and has never been seen or heard of much since - never once mustering a release on any UK video or DVD format.
Recently released from a psychiatric institution, Jessica, with her husband and a friend, retreats to a Victorian farmhouse in an isolated part of rural Connecticut. Here, the trio encounter an enigmatic hippy named Emily who is squatting in the house, and almost immediately, Jessica's madness resumes. Increasing evidence from Jessica's point of view implies that Emily may be a ghostly vampire figure, and that all those inhabiting the island are effected as well. Are the subsequent events all in Jessica's mind? Or is something sinister truly after her?
Fans of modern, CGI style, short attention span horror need not apply, for Jessica is a slower, wispier beast. Like all the best American seventies horror from this period, it benefits from a slightly dislocated, post hippy world-view that seems to be struggling to anchor itself in a culture ripped up and spat out by the psychedelic revolution of a few years prior. Dreamlike distancing, and a slowly creeping unease are the film’s major tones, and it’s not hard to see why it might have freaked the kids out, as the adult world it represents - of domesticity gone awry - is disquieting enough in itself. And that’s even before the horror kicks in...
‘Lucky Dip: Gifts of the Lost and Lesser Known’ aims to bring you an array of rarely seen, would be cult gems from decades past.