Scared Stiff (1987) User Reviews

Imaginative Low Budget Horror

[tildagravette · 6/10 · 23 May 2019]

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.

Silly Little Film

[CMRKeyboadist · 6/10 · 13 January 2007]

Scared Stiff is definitely a film that most B horror fans should venture into seeing. It literally has EVERYTHING. Horrible editing, awful acting, a script that goes nowhere, off the wall gore (at the end), and an incredible silly ending!

Kate, David and Kate's son move into and old house. Kate is an actress and David is a therapist. When they move into this house things start going very strange as Kate starts seeing things, along with her son. It turns out that the house they moved into belonged to an evil man that tortured slaves back in the late 1800's. As the family stays in the house lounger, the more possessed David becomes.

I have a soft spot for movies like this. Yes, it was a terrible film. No doubt about that. But, did I enjoy this film... I would have to say yes. For fans of a genre long dead this is definitely worth seeing as the story is actually not half bad. It is everything else that brings this movie down. Example: there is a scene in which a man is hanging outside of a window. We get a close up of his face for roughly 15 seconds. At the end of the scene, we see the mans eyes move. Truly poor editing. If you watch this movie you will see many inconsistencies. For me, that is what gives it its charm.

Goofy movie that is well worth watching for all of you 80's horror fans. 6/10

Cinematic junk food

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 21 June 2019]

The fact that Scared Stiff has been given all of the care of a Criterion release is a testament to why Arrow Video is one of the best labels out there in the rapidly dying world of physical media and the fact that there are still movies out there waiting to be discovered.

Kate Christopher (Mary Page Kellar, Pretty Little Liars) is a pop singer who had a nervous breakdown but is now getting it back together thanks to David (Andrew Stevens), her psychologist boyfriend. Together with her son Jason, they move into an old colonial mansion that comes packed with secrets, like a horror-filled diary and a trunk filled with the mummified bodies of a woman and her son.

Scared Stiff started as a Mark Frost script (the second Frost written movie we've covered this week, along with The Believers), but grew into complete lunacy, packed with every single shock tactic possible, from exposed brains to body horror style transformations and pre-CGI digital effects. It was directed by Richard Friedman, who went on to direct Doom Asylum, Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge and the recent Acts of Desperation.

I love that this movie also features MTV-style videos, a ridiculous Native American lamp that grows gigantic, the goopiest of gore, a lynched handyman that doesn't show up again until the perfect time in the film, a hallway filled with fog that sends people back and forth through time, a villain who sells slaves when he isn't choking out little kids and turning into a literal monster, dead babysitters in a fountain and a shock finale that made me laugh out loud in the best of ways. I've said it so many times here, but how do basically forgotten movies from 1987 end up being better than anything released today?

Want to see it for yourself? If you grab a copy from Diabolik DVD, you get an exclusive slipcase! This gets a big recommendation, as it comes complete with Arrow's usual high standards, including a thirty-minute documentary that covers every aspect of the creation of Scared Stiff.

What's that smell?

[FieCrier · 20 August 2002]

Could it be the workman, hanging undiscovered outside a boy's screenless window? He hangs there by his neck for days, perhaps weeks without being found, despite being in clear view from the outside, despite being less than a foot away from the boy's window; shouldn't there be flies? shouldn't the smell be intense?

But no, as you might suspect, it is this movie that stinks - stinks real bad. Whether its Andrew Stevens typical performance as...Andrew Stevens, or the Comic Relief Cop, or the Negroid (!) Slaveowner Werebeast, or the Giant Kitsch Indian Head Lamp, or, or, or...oh man, it's too bad to go on.

Miss it, unless you want to kill some time, and have a few (not many) laughs or groans at this painful wreck.

You won't be.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 20 March 2019]

'80s supernatural horror Scared Stiff is, for the most part, a rather dull affair, but it is lifted somewhat by a final twenty minutes that completely throw logic and sanity out of the window. The lunacy is hinted at in an earlier scene where a young lad's toy cars come to life, engines roaring and wheels spinning, but it's not until the closing act that director Richard Friedman goes all out with the madness, chucking in time travel, a snarling monster, an exploding police car (it's amazing how easy the vehicle blows up), a mouldy corpse smashing through a window (having hung outside for several days unnoticed), a giant floating lampshade in the shape of an Indian, and Ivory Coast natives hurling spears through time and space.

The plot goes something like this: having recovered from a mental breakdown, pop star Kate moves into a new home with her boyfriend (and doctor) David Young (Andrew Stevens), and her seven year old son Jason (Josh Segal), unaware that the place is haunted by the malevolent ghost of a slave merchant. This hokey old set-up is rife with clichés, Friedman's attempts at atmosphere and foreboding fall horribly flat, his cast give uniformly bad performances, and certain scenes are horribly dated (such as the moment when Jason's computer projects a holographic 3D image or when David explains what diskettes are for). If you can, try and stay the distance for the mind-numbingly bonkers ending, which is just about worth the wait, but I wouldn't blame you if you gave up and found something better to do with your time.

2/10, plus a couple more points for the nutty stuff.

'Scared Stiff'. More like 'Bored Stiff'

[The Yeti · 1/10 · 4 November 2001]

This movie is really that bad. It has no in depth suspense or plot. The characters remain lost and the acting. Huh! Don't get me started. Do not watch this movie under any cost please! There are only about 2 killings and the voodoo story is rubbish. A more than it deserved 1 out of 10. I would have given it nothing!

Horrible

[preppy-3 · 1/10 · 6 September 2006]

Dreadful, justly obscure ghost story. Mary Page Keller and Andrew Stevens play a couple who move into a haunted house. Then Stevens is possessed by a ghost and begins to kill people...or something like that. To be honest I had trouble staying awake so the story is kind of vague.

Dumb, by the numbers "horror" film loaded with false scares and stupid sequences. Like a workman, working outside the house, is killed and hung...and supposedly hangs there for days on end with no one noticing. Or Keller has a pointless dream sequence where a co worker slashes her throat...and leads to nothing. It's only in there to throw some cheap gore into our face.

Keller (who can be good) is lousy and Stevens (who has never been good) is even worse. Dull and pointless. Avoid.

ANOTHER TRIP TO THE VIDEO STORE

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 7/10 · 21 May 2019]

Yes once more Arrow saves one of those movies once found on the shelves of video stores that screened on as few big screens as possible and found their way direct to video. That's not always a bad thing though and for many who grew up during that time period the mom and pop video store offered them their first glimpse at horror films. Those folks will love having the chance to revisit those memories but are more than likely to discover the movies weren't as great as they remembered.

SCARED STIFF begins with a slave auction in 1857 where slave master George Masterson is enraged. He travels to his mansion where his wife has given shelter to several slaves who are in the midst of a ceremony creating an amulet to protect her from his rages. Before all is said and done we're swept away to the present year of 1987.

Kate Christopher (Mary Page Keller) is a pop singer who had a nervous breakdown and has moved to a small town with her son into an old colonial house with her boyfriend David Young (Andrew Stevens). Yes this is the same house that Masterson owned years ago. It isn't long before she begins having nightmares and fears she's losing her grip on reality once again.

But then her son starts having nightmares as well. David, who was her psychiatrist before becoming her boyfriend, finds nothing supernatural in what's taking place and has more concerns about a relapse. When she discovers an old diary kept by Masterson's wife and starts seeing him around the house things go from bad to worse.

The movie is well made on a technical level but story wise leaves a lot to be desired. It feels like we've seen this before, enough so that most of the film feels more like a cliché than a new film. But for some there is comfort found in formulaic films so that's a good thing for fans of the genre. The acting is solid enough, the special effects well done and the direction better than one would expect. All in all it's not bad but nothing to spend hours searching for.

And yet in spite of all that Arrow Video has once more proven why they are the go to people when it comes to resurrecting movies that might otherwise have dissolved into the ether. Their release of the film on disc offers the movie in a brand new 2k restoration from original film elements making it even better looking than those old VHS tapes of the film fans still hang on to. And the extras are solid as well. Those include a brand new audio commentary track with director Richard Friedman, producer Dan Bacaner and film historian Robert Ehlinger, MANSION OF THE DOOMED: THE MAKING OF SCARED STIFF a new documentary featuring interviews with Friedman, Stevens and more, a new interview with composer Billy Barber, an image gallery, the original theatrical trailer, a reversible sleeve with 2 original artwork options, a limited edition O-card featuring original artwork by Graham Humphreys and a fully illustrated collector's booklet with new writing on the film by James Oliver.

If you have great memories of scanning the shelves of the local video store for the latest horror film to be released then by all means make a point of picking this one up. The odds of it helping those memories remain fresh are pretty good.

Wrong David Ramsey om IMDb

[dnbrddck · 5/10 · 17 October 2015]

David Ramsey playing white Plantation OWNER David Masterson and husband of wife Elizabeth Masterson, incorrectly displayed on this IMDb cast info! The popular black actor you picture, was a white man when he was in this film 28 years ago ???? I just viewed a recent purchase of this "Tara Terror". "As God as my witness...I will never go scared again!" How could such a glaring mistaken identity occur? The pop stars "Beat of the Heart" is pleasantly 80's. The music video with same song is fun. The plantation owner / song writer tune an interesting twist. The young son Josh reminds one of similar characters in B films like "Cameron' Closet" etc....innocent, gifted children pursued by evil forces. Watch Andrew Stevens tell Josh how to play games on dated computer formats. Fun stuff down South. Respectively Robert in Atlanta

Enjoyable enough but not all that memorable effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 30 April 2019]

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.

Scared..... Stupid.

[ralmcg · 3/10 · 29 August 2021]

This is bad. Really, really bad, even by 80s horror standards. Story?.. Bad , Acting? Mediocre, Direction?.. Terrible... there's not one redeeming feature about this film... at all.

Watch at your own peril, you have been warned. At least I only picked it up on a "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" sale on blu ray. But it would still be nice to have 90 mins ofmy life back...

Strictly for 80's Horror Film Fans !!!

[Moviereeeels12 · 8/10 · 20 July 2019]

If watched in the context of 1980's horror films this is a great little forgotten horror, fits in with films of the era such as 'House' & 'The Gate' movies, has the real film of USA middle budget horror films, it's a little surprise gem of that era .... enjoyable horror flick.

A must see for people who like B Movies...

[rlehlinger · 6/10 · 7 June 2017]

So let's start with the fact that this isn't a well made movie. It isn't written well (Mark Frost of Twin Peaks had a hand in the writing which is odd) it isn't edited well, it wasn't even thought out clearly in advance, but I love it.

It has everything a B Movie gem should have. Terrible Editing, an amazing soundtrack, a story that doesn't quite make sense, and a mind blowing grand finale! The story is about an abusive and evil slave owner in the 1700's who is cursed and now his ghost is haunting the mansion he used to live in. A new family moves into the place in 1987 and is being tormented in each their own way by the "Masterson Curse".

This movie actually has great special effects when you finally get to them and the ending is somewhat of an acid trip like experience. Reasons like this, the rarity, and of course the soundtrack are why I love this long forgotten gem.... that nobody seems to like. If you like finding old school B Movies for a good laugh then this is the movie for you. It is a little slow paced but the scary parts to me are rather creepy. Love what they did here.

* out of 4.

[brandonsites1981 · 12 September 2002]

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.

The movie delivers a few good scares

[loomis78-815-989034 · 6/10 · 30 July 2014]

A prologue takes us to 1857 where an evil slave trader named George Masterson (Ramsey) has a curse put on him by his wife and some slaves in the attic of his house. The slaves give the wife a stone that will protect her and her son from the evil George. Jump 130 years and Dr. David Young (Stevens) moves into the same house with his girlfriend Kate (Keller) who at one time was a mental patient of his and her son (Segal). Kate starts having nightmares and hallucinations while David starts becoming abusive and acting like the former owner of the house. This is pretty standard low budget fair for the mid 1980's. There are a lot of nightmares (the Elm Street influence) but some of them are effective at getting a few good scares. Masterson is a good old fashioned monster and his visions and appearance is unsettling and scary. The movie splits in two with Kate and her boy having nightmares and David being possessed by Masterson's spirit. This gives the movie a very uneven feel and would have worked better as a whole if they had chosen one clear path. Still, Director Richard Friedman has some good moments like the ending dream state Kate and her son are in, is quite unpredictable and manages some suspense. Stevens is very wooden in the lead role which doesn't help. Scared Stiff is good as a decent time waster which will deliver a few scares and chills along the way.

Nightmares do come true

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 18 March 2023]

No pun intended - and I know that it is a saying about dreams coming true ... but I thought I'd go one further and switch it to nightmares ... which is closer to the movie and what it does represent. Arrow Video brought this closer to me or to my attention. I never had heard of it - and considering the budget this one had - who knows in what obscurity bin this would have landed without them.

So thanks to the studios who bring us movies that are a bit different but 100% genre cinema. This is far from perfect (be it the acting, the story and so forth) - but it does give us interesting ideas and quite the funny/good make up/special effects ... you may be able to guess where the movie is going - but it is more about the journey than the destination ... although the destination is also quite fun ... to say the least.

for practical horror effects fans

[jwht2 · 8/10 · 13 February 2020]

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.

Hidden Little Gem from the 80's

[vasilbiga · 7/10 · 12 January 2024]

This is my first review at IMDB. Never done it before, but after reading some of the negative reviews of this film I felt like I had to. I'll start by saying that I've just discovered this movie and it was much better than I expected. Real funny movie, a bit silly sometimes, but charming and imaginative and with all the elements that real 80s movie fans look for and appreciate. Yeah, the acting is not that good, and the special effects may look a bit dated, but that's part of its charming. I would put it in the same league as other movies (these ones superior, needless to say) like "The Gate" and/or more especifically "House", with which it shares some common elements from the plot (the mother and son entering different doors from their house that leads them to different locations with ghosts). Very recommended for 80s movie fans.

laughable and silly WARNING!!!!!!!!!! SPOILERS!!!!

[callanvass · 11 July 2004]

dumb flick is silly and laughable and poor,y made and written and suffers from all kinds of cliches it has boring dialog way too talky first half laughable scenes that are supposed to be suspenseful but turn out to be laughable and the acting is not all that great Andrew Stevens does okay but is in a terrible movie not much ya can do there Mary Page Keller had awful dialog to spurt out and wasn't all that great we also have a child actor that is ugly and gap toothed i have no problems with that but i have a problem with whiny kids they irritate me which is why i won't be having kids when i get married right away anyway back to the review and plus this has done before lots of times and done better at that! also there is a funny moment where those toy cars come to life and start working and another laughable moment when the kid smashes a light bulb on the Stevens head it looked so fake he hardly even hit him! it also has plenty of gore in fact lots of it but it looks laughable and the finale is way to silly for it's own good overall a cheesy bore not worth it! AVOID!!! BOMB out of 5

I wasn't scared stiff but I wasn't disappointed either

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 31 March 2024]

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!

Scared Stiff (1987)

[jonahstewartvaughan · 7/10 · 17 May 2023]

Eighties Horror Retrospective #35

Scared Stiff (1987)

(7/10):By no means good,Scared Stiff is one of those late night browsing through the horror section at your local video store types of films;Eye Catching artwork,Unique Title & an interesting tagline.

It's a humble movie that is just there to entertain, and in its own strange way it does.

Scared Stiff is about a rock star mom moving into an old home with her son and her psychiatrist/lover and they find a connection to the attic from the sons bedroom where they find strange old things that even include two long dead bodies in a crate.

The mother begins to become plagued with nightmares and visions of horrific events and also her psychiatrist briefly turning into a demon monster.

The movie moves along at a bit of a slower pace but manages to be entertaining nonetheless.

The climax lets loose all of its chains and has the demon monster manifest itself and then be destroyed in a really cool way as the monster effects are very cool looking.

Lots of eighties digital effects that simultaneously manage to have age terribly and also not age a day as it just exemplifies everything eighties, anyways lots of them are used in the ending which is definitely not what I expected but I welcome it nonetheless.

I honestly don't even know what to categorize this one as, is it a creature feature? Supernatural? Or something else? It feels strange in that it feels run of the mill but also goes down a completely different route with a run of the mill execution.

It's a bad movie but it's the flaws in the these B-Grade gems that make you love them even more.

One Of My Favourite 80s Horror Movies

[ladymidath · 8/10 · 21 October 2022]

I have a confession to make, I love cheesy 80s and 90s horror movies and The Masterson Curse aka Scared Stiff is definitely one of my favourites. The story is actually quite good and the music really does elevate the movie from being just another silly 80s horror. It's not as atmospheric as The Boogyman. (1980) or The Changeling, but it does have an interesting if somewhat downer ending.

The acting and photography still holds up and these are some solid scares without becoming too gory. The movie didn't do too well when it first came out, but has since found it's audience when it came out on VHS.

This movie is worth a look for those who like 80s horror.

A delight for pre-nineties horror fans.

[j_glentzes · 10/10 · 6 July 2020]

«Scared Stiff» is a hidden gem of eighties' horror. In a sense it is almost like a Lucio Fulci film with all the weird stuff going on and the great set-pieces and practical effects only lacking the dreamlike atmosphere of the best of Fulci's efforts.

The movie delivers in everything. The acting is very good for this type of film, the effects are tremendous (that zipper scene....wow), the set pieces from the house to the asylum are excellent, the ending is surprisingly bleak (in a sense , this isn't the most serious film ever), the monster looks glorious.

Arrow did a fantastic job, as always , so now one can enjoy films like this on his/her huge tv screen, almost like being in the movies.

This really isn't a 10/10 film but I give it this rating because it surely isn't a 4.6/10 film either. True rating ,for me, 8/10.

'Scared Stiff' is guaranteed to give 80s splatter fans a fearsome fright to their member!

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 10 January 2021]

Before bloodily unleashing the gallopingly gruesome, bone saw-slashing SPFX gross-out 'Doom Asylum', director Richard Friedman fearfully formulated his visually gut-punching, reality-spinning, 'Scared Stiff' aka 'The Masterson Curse' (1986). A young couple who have only just recently moved into a rather grand 19th century property, replete with musty, boarded-up secret room, fully furnished with its very own en-suite, 24/7 hyperactively hallucinatory haunting! Scared Stiff breathes fresh fetid life into the historical horror staple of anciently slumbering, aggressively awakened house haunting, Hoodoo-voodoo-bug-a-boo curse.

Not long after handsome Dr. David Young (Andrew Stevens), pretty pop star, Kate Christopher (Mary Page Keller) and her young son, Jason (Josh Segal) settle into their new home when the macabre discoveries unveiled within the cobwebbed attic begin to disturb the sensitive sensibilities of singer Kate. She is adamant that these increasingly threatening, music-spawned manifestations of an ancient evil originate from a demonstrably more malign source than her over fertile imagination!

'Scared Stiff' is sliced n' diced from the very same sinister celluloid as similarly lurid portmanteau shockers of the 70s, featuring some additionally grisly grist from vintage E. C Comics 'Tales from the Crypt'. The plot adheres to an enjoyably pulpy Gothic formula, whereby a great and grievous misfortune shall befall any poor souls that deign to seek solace in the malefic Masterson house! All its inhabitants fated to be relentlessly assailed by psychedelic, supernaturally-inclined monstrosities, no less heinously imagined than those manifested by, Poe or Lovecraft!

'Scared Stiff' is far from being an 80s anachronism, seen today, Friedman's hyperbolically colourful, roller-coaster rapid descent into mind-tripping, spook-raddled delirium has much to recommend it to horror fans. Our two photogenic protagonists gruesomely overwhelmed by a malevolent maelstrom of black magic madness is given fearsome verisimilitude by the compellingly off-kilter, brain-boggling kaleidoscope of vividly eye-stalking special FX make-up by Tyler K. Smith. 'Scared Stiff' is guaranteed to deliver splatter fans a fright to their member!