TV star Mary Page Keller (Pretty Little Liars) appears alongside Andrew Stevens (10 to
Midnight, The Fury) as a couple terrorised by an age-old curse in this late-80s offering from
director Richard Friedman.
Keller plays Kate Christopher, a singer who moves into an old colonial mansion with her son
and psychologist boyfriend David (Stevens). But when they make a strange and gruesome
discovery in the boarded-up attic, it soon becomes clear that the mansion carries with it a
dark and blood-stained past – and one that is about to terrorise them in the present.
The second feature helmed by Richard Friedman, who went on to direct such genre favourites
as Doom Asylum and Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge, Scared Stiff (AKA The
Masterson Curse)
Scared Stiff
Bored stiff.
Also known as the Masterson Curse (possibly to avoid comparisons with a Hong
Kong film released the same year with the same name) neither title really help the
film move along. The film is ponderous, slow moving, has a made for TV feel to it.
Main character Kate Christopher (Mary Paige Keller) wears a new outfit every scene,
either to show us that she’s a successful recording artist, or that she just has a lot of
clothes. Main guy Andrew Stevens plays David (from Fury) looks bored throughout
(and seems to allude to this in the special features)
In fact most of the actors, especially the supporting ones are as cardboard as they
come.
The story revolving around the curse, and these characters inhabiting the cursed
house and therefore getting possessed was based on a script by Mark Frost (of Twin
Peaks fame) but from the special features it sounds like they pretty much ditched the
script and went their own way with it.
It may be borrowing from the Robert E Howard short story Pigeons from Hell with the
images of the pigeons, voodoo curses, potentially lost souls of the black slaves that
put the curse on the colonial house, but this may have just been a coincidence.
Possession scenes, devoid of suspense or scares.
Detective Whitcomb (Jakie Davis) brings some energy to the film but then has
nothing else to do.
A handyman having his ladder nibbled by pigeons and then falling and hanging
himself is followed by a scene with Whitcomb, which I thought was in answer to this
character dying, but no, he’s left to hang there for what seems like days with no one
noticing.
Psych ward sequences seem to be one up from a Carry On Film. Literally walking in
off the street you can watch crazy experiments.
Feels like it’s channeling The Shining.
Last 15 mins makes the film worth watching with some crazy 80’s practical effects
including a giant lampshade whizzing down a corridor towards our protagonists, and
some Evil Dead inspired body horror melting gags, but maybe just fast forward to
that.
Filmmakers seem to be as surprised as us that this has got a bluray release. It looks
gorgeous for a 32 year old film, with maybe one or two soft focus shots, but I imagine
this film has never looked better, and certainly beats any VHS release of the film,
where most people would have first caught this. The filmmakers and all involved
(bar star Stevens) seem to look back on the film fondly in both the retrospective and
the commentary, but are under no illusion that the film is no masterpiece. They
come across as quite affable, and point out what they don’t like about the film now.
Special features inc a retrospective which has interviews with director, producer,
main star, main kid, and VFX artists inc Tyler Smith. Separate interview with the
composer, a gallery, a trailer and a commentary. It seems a miracle that this film has
had any kind of release let alone such a lavish one as this Arrow release.
Didn’t land with me, despite some gooey practical effects on show late on, but there
seems to be a fan base for this film that will go crazy over Scared Stiff.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
• Original uncompressed Stereo audio
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary with director Richard Friedman, producer Dan Bacaner and
film historian Robert Ehlinger
• Mansion of the Doomed: The Making of Scared Stiff – brand new documentary featuring
interviews with Richard Friedman, Dan Bacaner, Robert Ehlinger, actors Andrew Stevens
and Joshua Segal, special effects supervisor Tyler Smith and special effects assistants Jerry
Macaluso and Barry Anderson
• Brand new interview with composer Billy Barber
• Image Gallery
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
Limited edition Slipcase edition, exclusive to arrowfilms.com featuring the original artwork of
Graham Humphreys.
