The independently made homegrown sleeper horror flick from 1971, the one and only LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH, gets a much welcomed (and often requested) Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory. I can still recall vividly when this played on primetime TV on ABC’s “Friday Night Movie” around 1976, with a kid at school warning me not to watch it, making it clear how scary it was. That kid was damn right! JESSICA, with its slow but intense build-up, peculiar cast of characters and a baker’s dozen of disturbing images left an impression on the cult film lovers who witnessed it early on, or caught up with it in later years.

Soon after being released from a mental institution, Jessica (Zohra Lampert, THE EXORCIST III) and her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman, THE EXORCIST) make their way from the city to the country, moving into a large old farm home which they’ve spent every last dime on. Along for the ride is their good friend Woody (Kevin O’Connor, SPECIAL EFFECTS), who plans on helping them fix the place up and staying on for a while. As they make their entrance, the trio find a strange but seemingly friendly girl named Emily (Mariclare Costello, ORDINARY PEOPLE) squatting on the property. They befriend her, letting her stay in the house, and she later causes sexual tensions between both men, grows weirder by the minute and nearly drowns Jessica in the lake at one point. As Jessica hears strange voices in her head, repeatedly sees the image of a ghost-like girl (Gretchen Corbett, JAWS OF SATAN) and discovers a murdered corpse under a waterfall which suddenly disappears, her belief that Emily is the menacing spirit of Abigail Bishop — a bride who had drowned in the lake in 1880 — is not taken seriously by her companions, and might just all be part of a fresh mental breakdown.

Owing (if not intentionally) to films like CARNIVAL OF SOULS and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH’s script (written by director Hancock and Lee Kalcheim) tends to toss logic out the window, but at least its imaginative and creates two very intense and indifferent female characters, and the film never piles up the would-be clichés, despite embracing themes of vampirism, ghosts, zombies and haunted houses. The sense of decay and isolation, set in an otherwise rural and appetizingly peaceful Connecticut, creates one of the most haunting backdrops for a film of this sort, as does the farm house which need do nothing more than look crumbled and antique to provide a feeling of unease. Add such subtle touches as our protagonists entering the town in a used hearse, a community inhabited by grumpy old men bearing bandages on various parts of their bodies, an understated but undeniably creepy score by Orville Stoeber with bizarre electronic noises by Walter E. Sear and some inventive shocks enhanced by moody cinematography, and you have to wonder why Hancock (BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY, WEEDS) never revisited the genre again.

An accomplished New York-born stage and screen actress, Zohra Lampert (probably best known to the general public as a onetime Goya TV spokeswoman) gives an exceptional performance as Jessica, the kind not found in your typical horror film. She portrays a fragile, vulnerable character obsessed with death (her hobby is etching old tombstones), who is constantly out to prove to herself (and others around her) that she is sane, or is seen overcoming obstacles to bring out her inner happiness, and the expressiveness that Lampert brings to Jess is further amplified as she constantly talks to herself, as well as narrates the story in flashback. As the mysterious Emily, Mariclare Costello plays the character as a sort of hippy chick who fits in perfectly with the bohemian sensibilities of her friendly but naive hosts. She's a pale-skinned yet fiery redhead who’s attractively offbeat enough to allure men in timeless vamp fashion. The image of an undead Emily rising from a lake is one that will linger in your consciousness for years to come.

Previously available on barebones DVD from Paramount Home Video (with a cover that might lead you to believe it’s the latest thriller from M. Night Shyamalan), LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH now arrives on Blu-ray as a Paramount-licensed Scream Factory release. The film is offered in a 1080p HD transfer in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and the framing looks good throughout. Textures and color reproduction look terrific, and the print source is very clean. Detail is properly crisp and grain levels are also appropriate. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is well rendered, with perfectly clear dialogue, and there are optional English subtitles provided.

There’s a new audio commentary with director John Hancock and producer Bill Badalato, remembering many details of making the film almost 50 years later. They talk much about the locations, the cast, the storyline, the shooting techniques, as well as share various anecdotes about the props (such as the little mole seen in the film). Hancock mentions JESSICA was inspired by THE HAUNTING and TURN OF THE SCREW (as well as the style of Alfred Hitchcock, and there's even a bit inspired by Polanski’s REPULSION), and also admits he wanted to do away with the ghost-like character because he didn’t think she added much to the proceedings.