First off, make sure you’re watching the correct “Scare Me” movie, as there are two that have been released in 2020, and have the exact same name.
The “Scare Me” I am bringing to your attention is only found on Shudder, at the time of this writing. This one is Directed and Written by Josh Ruben, who also stars as the main character, “Fred”.
The storyline is pretty simple for “Scare Me”. Two horror novel writers, who are complete strangers, are stuck in a cabin during a power outage. To pass the time they decide to tell scary stories to “scare each other” near the fireside. Fred and Fanny duel off with their “campfire” tales, and later Carlo (Chris Redd) appears at the cabin to add a little flare to the movie.
First of all, “Scare Me” is not really a Horror movie. Rather, it is about two people telling horror stories to each other. But done in a comedic dramatic fashion. If you are coming to watch this movie for blood, gore, jump-scares, supernatural events, etc. you will be disappointed, bored, frustrated, and may even throw the remote at the television. Don't do that. It's not recommended!
So, I’m here to help set the mood so you can give this movie a fair chance. “Scare Me” is a clear change of pace from all the other horror movies that you’ll watch during this Halloween season. The movie is a comedy at its core but with dramatized scenes, like a lot of reviews are stating about this movie, like Improv.
“Scare Me” is a very long drawn out crescendo as far as pace is concerned. It starts out slow and does a gradual, almost unnoticeable, build-up to a near frantic psychotic point. The climax at the end is a bit like taking staggering breaths after running a sprint, and then a depressurizing fizzling out to round the movie off. Some people haven’t liked the fizzling out part of this movie. To me, it was okay, but perhaps the weakest link in an otherwise witty creative movie.
Overall, I felt like “Scare Me” was engaging through the character development and each of the stories that Fred and Fanny tell each other. I don’t think I would’ve liked this movie as much if they didn’t add sound effects to accompany the storytelling, because that added some depth and creepiness factor. Examples of this would be the sound of a werewolf lunging up a staircase, or old Grandpa calling over the telephone from the grave. They also added slight visual effects to beef up Fred and Fanny’s tales, like a werewolf hand gripping a wooden ledge. This tactic worked and added another layer of originality to a simple movie.
Touching on the characters themselves: some people have found the stereotypical feminist woman complaining about men, and the struggling jealous white male, to be overdone and preachy. I feel like that was the point of Josh Ruben’s idea when he wrote and directed the movie. This is a comedy after all, so why wouldn’t it be a zinger play on typical characters seen over and over again in movies? If that's the case, Aya Cash and Josh Ruben played their roles perfectly. After all, it is only two people in a cabin through the majority of “Scare Me”. So, the acting had to be spot on.
I loved their reactions and responses to each other as the movie unfolds. I laughed through a lot of the guff they give each other, primarily the crap that Fanny (Aya Cash) gave her counterpart Fred (Josh Ruben) in the movie. She's quite ruthless. And ultimately, her harshness toward Fred, on top of her success as a writer compared to his failures as a writer, is the main reason for the climax at the end of the movie. which I won't spoil.
Once again, if you’re not interested in a “Horror” comedy that isn’t really horror but is about horror, or you get bothered by personal real-life stances/personalities being fed to you during a horror movie, you may want to steer clear of “Scare Me”.
But, I think it was a very original film, which made me laugh, and it performed higher than I expected.
If you’ve seen “Scare Me”, or watch it at some point, let us at The Bloody Reel know what you thought!
Stay Scared and enjoy!
“Scare Me”
Released: 2020
Rating: N/R (surprised there was no rating, I’d give it an R for language and drug use)
Director: Josh Ruben (also plays Fred in the movie)
Writer: Josh Ruben
IMDB Rating: 5.6 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Runtime: 104 minutes
Free Streaming as of this Blog: Shudder
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