El talismán del terror

I'm not going to sit here and say that Scared Stiff is some sort of lost classic of the genre. It's not. It has pacing problems and you're never quite sure if it's a haunted house movie, a "she's losing her mind" movie, or an installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but when it gets something right, it really gets it right.

A single mother pop star moves into a spooky antebellum mansion with her child and boyfriend and not only begins to unravel the house's gruesome history, but starts to believe that she's actually seeing the previous owners in her day to day life.

Scared Stiff starts out as a typical haunted house film. The lead character is plagued with visions and dreams of the wicked slave owner who used to live there and she thinks she's losing her mind. All of a sudden, it seems as if her doctor boyfriend can't be trusted either and it turns into one of those "is she crazy or being gaslit?" movies, before pulling out all the stops in a genuinely imaginative and nightmarish final act.

It's not as if Scared Stiff is brilliant, but it's competent and the final act is incredibly memorable, creepy, and downbeat.

Scared Stiff should have been a better movie and it probably would have been with a bigger budget. I can see where they were going and they didn't have the proper sets and equipment to make it work.

It is rare that I watch a horror flick and am like aw dang I totally get this and would be into it if this weren't so bargain basement and slapped together by some low paid amateurs.

I also feel like there wasn't enough done with the connection between the slaves introduced in the beginning and the magical powers in the voodoo charm. Some things could have been improved by a more thoughtful execution with what they had, which is why I am still only giving this middling 80s mess five stars.

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.

Moving into her boyfriends' new house, a former psychiatric patient and her son continue to experience strange events and visions caused by the ruthless former owner of the house and realizing that the haunting has affected him as well they try to discover a way of stopping it from consuming him.

This one wasn't that bad of an effort. One of it's best elements is the fact that the backstory used to set up the haunting manages to work itself out rather well. With the idea of the house being haunted by the ghosts of the past who are looking to settle the score for the treatment inflicted upon them by the cruel slave-owner in the past, which is a fine and worthwhile showing for these kinds of films in order to set up a potential haunting. That the early setups inside the house bring about their early introduction into the supernatural happenings in the house, from finding the secret room filled with pigeons to the discovery of the diary and the strange key on the grounds which all signal the start of the creepy action. That also leads to the film's rather decent and enjoyable haunting scenes. With the first hauntings occurring through her nightmares to the discovery of the bones locked in the attic and then the children's toys coming to life and playing on their own, this builds up rather nicely with a nice series of visions and sequences that further fuel her mental anguish. Since the attacks and visions are based more on her being the main witness to the action and her backstory being his patient as well as the backstory with the house, these come together rather nicely to deliver some pretty fun cheesy moments that move the hauntings into possession that matches the activity in the backstory. Featuring some solid action in this part of the film and really having a lot to like in the finale, these here hold this one up for the most part. There are a few problems here. The main issue is the absolutely troublesome beginning to this one to get the film going as it takes a while to get the storyline setup. The exploits of the doctor at the asylum working with his patients isn't all that interesting, as making his rounds or showing how he cares for the more psychotic inmates doesn't really serve any kind of interesting activities going on, especially with the plotless reasons for staying there as often as we do. That this is countered by the boring scenes of them packing up to move into the house just makes for an overlong and boring setup that takes forever to get going as the lack of horror scenes early on due to this issue is quite noticeable. The other big problem with this one is the absolutely bizarre and chaotic final half that makes no sense whatsoever. The film throws the characters through several alternate timelines and periods of history with various figures from her past thrown together into one random series of hallucinations to torment her and yet none of it makes any sense since nothing comes of these scenes. There's no greater sense of understanding the events of the past or using them to have the upper hand in the big confrontation, and it just ends up going through its scenes in such a random manner as chaotically as it does here just makes for a confusing time that lowers this one significantly. These here are the biggest problems to be had with this one.

Rated R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

This movie has a wild variety of practical and early computer effects. It is certainly over the top at times, and some probably laugh at it as a result, but I found it a pleasure to watch. The opening in the slave market sets the tone that we are in for something different. Yes, the male lead is bland as hell but the mom and kid do a pretty good job for a movie of this budget. The final 30 minutes really ramps up and I kept saying "whoa!" out loud as things got wackier and wilder by the minute. I've seen so many crappy movies getting reissued these last few years that it's always refreshing to actually see something that people put a lot of effort into.