Scared Stiff (1987)

July 27, 2021 2:28 PM

Kate is a rock star who is recovering from mental illness. David, her bf, used to be her psychiatrist. Now, David and Kate, along with Kate's son, all move into a huge old house together.

They soon discover bodies in the attic, the diary of a sadistic slave owner, and a mysterious piece of carved stone. Kate begins having visions of the prior residents and their grim fate. Is she relapsing due to mental strain or is something more malevolent at play?

Directed by Richard Friedman (Tales from the Darkside and Baywatch Nights)
Screenplay by Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues, Twin Peaks, and the Believers), Daniel Bacaner, and Richard Friedman
Starring Andrew Stevens (Dallas; Murder, She Wrote; The Love Boat) and Mary Page Keller (Pretty Little Liars, Bosch, and NYPD Blue)

posted by miss-lapin (1 comment total)

This is just a glorious mess of an 80s B movie. It's a bit like Amityville, with a southern plantation thrown into the mix. Very little of the script makes any sense at all. For example, early on a housepainter slips on a ladder and inadvertently strangles himself. (The malevolent pigeons had a hand in this.) When asked about the painter, Kate says he vanished but left his tools so he must be coming back. I thought those malicious pigeons hid the body.NOPE. Several days later, the body comes crashing through the window. So there was a body hanging by the house decomposing and no one noticed.

No one.

And that's just one example.

It ends with a completely over the top climax, which includes a mental patient unzipping their skull and revealing their pulsating brains.

In short, I absolutely loved it. It's just so perfectly ridiculous.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:35 PM on July 27, 2021 [1 favorite]