In the 19th Century some slaves put a curse on cruel slave trader George Masterson (David Ramsey). Move forward to the mid-1980's and pop singer Kate (Mary Page Keller, complete with mullet) moves into Masterson's Southern mansion, along with young son Jason and boyfriend Dr David Young. Needless to say strange and spooky things start to happen, eventually becoming more and more horrific. Back in the 1980's and 90's I was visiting video shops most weeks and I did have a poster for the UK VHS release of this movie yet strangely I don't think that I had actually watched it until last night. I recently acquired the Arrow blu-ray and a fine release it is too. Scared Stiff is very typical of the B movies that found themselves more or less straight to VHS, and that is certainly no bad thing as that period was awash with such films and it was a great time to be a horror fan. This one reminds me of "House" (1986) but with less humour plus it's not as good. The movie had a low budget but the acting is fine though the practical special effects (so much better than horrible CGI) are the real stars of the show. I have seen better quality but they are good enough. I clearly remember this for its wonderful Graham Humphrey's VHS poster artwork but can find very little mention of it in my horror movie books. Sad really, it's no classic but does deserve to be better known. For a late night movie, lights off and a few beers it's a pretty entertaining watch. And after the end credits have rolled don't be surprised if you have the song "Beat of the Heart" going around and around in your head, ha ha!
Review of Scared Stiff
