Review: Scared to Death (1980)

(aka The Aberdeen Experiment, Scared to Death: Syngenor)
Directed by: William Malone
Starring: John Stinson, Diana Davidson, David Moses
Written by: William Malone, Robert Short
Music by: Thomas Chase, Dell Hake
IMDb

The VHS art for William Malone’s debut horror feature film haunted my itty bitty kid nightmares for years — so much so that I could never bring myself to actually rent it. If only I had known how mild it is! Malone jumped into making a horror movie knowing it was easy to get away with a low budget, especially if you had a great monster— and he happened to be an experienced costume designer. And that basically summarizes Scared to Death: a low-budget horror movie with a great monster, and not a ton else. Although Malone tends to write the screenplays for his movies, he’s not the most disciplined writer in the world. Particularly here, his characters meander, engage in a lot of inane conversations, and generally wander casually through events. The first couple of times I saw this movie, his lackadaisical approach to plot grated on me. But I’ve come around on some of the diversion. Hero Ted and his love interest, Jennifer, have a breezy and somewhat convincing relationship, and Ted’s friendship with an ex-colleague also resembles authenticity. I think the reason these things work is partially because of Malone’s refusal to keep the dialog entirely functional — sometimes his characters are just shooting the shit. But it also means this movie can crawl along at times. There aren’t many kills, though the few are suspenseful enough. As mentioned, the “syngenor” (short for “synthesized genetic organism”) is pretty cool. Its design is very inspired by H.R. Giger, and even seems like a progenitor to Sil from the Species franchise. It’s also kind of a fun idea that it feeds on spinal fluid, although we never see it in the act, which would probably make for something nice and grisly. In another nod to Giger/Alien, the syngenor’s sewer lair is pretty icky and cocoony. But, ultimately, this movie’s slow pace and slightly bloated runtime, along with a deflated third act that introduces a terrible scientist named Sherry who helpfully but completely unauthoritatively explains everything, dull the impact I wish it would have. Still, I have kind of a soft spot for this movie and every time I watch it, I like it just a wee bit more. Maybe by watch 165, it’ll be a masterpiece!

Rating: 6 out of 10