Fred (Josh Ruben – who also writes and directs) is a struggling screenwriter. Determined to finally get something off of the ground, he takes a trip to a cabin in the Catskills to escape distractions. Whilst there, he has a chance encounter with Fanny (Aya Cash, recently seen in The Boys), a horror novelist whose most recent book, ‘Venus’, has become a bestseller. After a power cut, the two strangers decide to hang out together to wait out the outage. With no other way to pass the time, they begin trying to scare one another with their most blood-curdling tales.
Scare Me is an anthology film of sorts in the respect that it is a sequence of different stories stitched together. However, rather than cut away from the storyteller to a visual representation of what they’re saying, Ruben opts to stick with them. Fred and Fanny take turns in telling their scary stories, doing their best to reenact them. It’s an interesting move that certainly helps set it apart from the anthology pack, but does put a lot of pressure on the cast’s ability to play pretend.
Fortunately, both Ruben and Cash are exceptionally good at this. They fully embrace the physicality of telling their stories, as well as putting on a variety of silly voices to add that extra layer of detail to the tales that they are telling. Both instil their characters with charm and likeability, although for differing reasons. Fanny is straight-talking, sharp-shooting, hugely sarcastic, and not too dissimilar from Cash’s The Boys persona. Fred is a horror nerd, forever quoting the likes of The Shining, and is endearing in that perpetual loser way. He could be a completely tragic figure were it not for some of his quirky traits, and Ruben injects him with just enough of them to make him rather charming.
As well as the imaginative acting, the tales are brought to life via some truly inventive sound design. Each story is punctuated with audio cues, which help to generate the tension needed to keep the viewer interested. It’s not an easy task to create these other characters given the static environment of the cabin, but the sound effects, when coupled with the performances, work to transport the viewer into the worlds being described to them.
Most of Scare Me dials into a fun, almost whimsical tone; Fred and Fanny transition into big kids doing their best to try and spook the other. There are instances during the stories that genuinely manage to raise the goose-flesh. One such instance that involves a little girl, her Grandfather, and his dog, is especially chilling; but as spooky as the stories are, they all have an element of amusement. Fred and Fanny’s stories require them to play pretend and masquerade as all manner of scary creatures from werewolves to trolls, injecting the piece with a fun energy. It isn’t all fun and games though as Scare Me suddenly pivots and stumbles into some really intense moments. This sudden darker edge lands with a gut-punch as the audience have become so accustomed to the humour of the piece. It shocks the audience out of humour and immediately into scared, which is exactly the response I’m sure the filmmaker’s wanted.
With the limited cast, isolated location, and steady stream of spooky stories, Scare Me genuinely elicits that feeling of being with friends, telling ghost stories. It’s something that most of us have done at some point or another in our life and Ruben captures that eerie atmosphere that typically descends during these occasions. Considering that most of us can’t really get out and socialise at the moment, and Halloween has sadly pretty much been cancelled [sob], Scare Me offers the perfect replacement experience.
Scare Me is released on Shudder on Thursday 1st October 2020.
Scare Me
Summary
A film that engages the viewer’s imagination and encourages them to use it to fully explore the worlds of the stories being told to them, Scare Me offers a great alternative to the traditional anthology story.
