Today in the crypt we take a look at the 2020 Shudder original, Scare Me.

By Adam Holtzapfel

Earlier this month while finding something new to watch for my 31 Days of October, I came across Scare Me.

The film grabbed me because it had Aya Cash in it and I loved the series You’re The Worst that she had starred in.

Written and directed by Josh Ruben, this film is nothing like I expected. It was a breath of fresh air in a genre that sometimes gets stale and too tied up in it’s tropes.

Clocking in at an hour and forty‐four minutes we get the story of two writers, Fred (Ruben), who escapes to a cabin with hopes of writing his new horror novel and Fanny (Cash) who’s the best horror writer in the world hoping to follow up the success of her novel Venus.

We see Fred meet Fanny while they are both out on a run. They trade barbs and Fred sees Fanny to her cabin…end of story, right? Wrong! As Fred is brainstorming the power goes out and Fanny shows up. Here’s where the story really gets going.

The evening takes a turn when Fanny says “Scare Me”. We see the two trade stories, acting out scenes, hands to explain tree branches making a tree branch shadow on the ceiling. All in the name of seeing who the better storyteller is.

The real fun begins though when the pizza man Carlo (Chris Redd) shows up.

With some twists and turns this film wasn’t what I expected which made me enjoy it more. I went in expecting more of an anthology instead of a basically two person show.

What works is the setting, the small cast, and the concept. It also has a nostalgic feel back to being a kid and telling ghost stories with friends or hearing your parents tell them.

Where it may fall flat for some folks is that it is a slow burn with very little scene change.

Overall this gets an A – from me. It shows Shudder is willing to take chances on original content and provide something most fans of mainstream horror will hate.

There’s a lot of goofy references (creepy footsteps, right?) but they work.

Scare Me will be a film heavily in rotation for me, especially during the fall and winter months.

(Image from Google images)