Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) (USA)

aka The Secret Beneath the Lake/It Drinks Hippie Blood/What Killed Sam Dorker?

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Six months following a nervous breakdown, Jessica is released from the psychiatric institution where she resided and moves into an old farmhouse in upstate New York with her musician husband and their buddy Woody (he definitely looks like someone who should be named Woody). They plan to restart and live a peaceful existence as apple farmers. Jessica’s recuperation is threatened by several factors; the townies don’t seem all that welcome of the young strangers (in defense of the elderly townsfolk, the trio drive a hearse and are pretty annoying) and there’s talk of a woman who drowned in their backyard lake. A woman who now wanders the countryside as a supposed vampire. This goes along with the mysterious fates of the Bishop family who use to live in their new home. Pretty spooky shit for someone with an already fragile mental state. They also discover a young red-headed woman named Emily squatting in their new home but since they’re hippies, they see a kindred spirit and decide to let her stay. This definitely ties into the local legend because of course it does. Jessica has visions and hears voices but she keeps this to herself and doesn’t tell her husband Duncan because she’s rightfully terrified of going back to the hospital and Duncan seems to be attracted to Emily which is causing further stress. Is Jessica going insane or is the supernatural actually taking root in the peaceful rural farm? Wonderfully eerie horror never feels forced and just plays out like it’s reveling in a natural and highly unsettled corner of the American subconscious. Like all the fears one has about picking up stakes and leaving the hustle and bustle of the city for a calmer countryside environment are justified and so much worse. A taut mixture of sinister sound design (it may be the most off-putting auditorial experience in seventies horror), striking visuals and slightly off-kilter performances piece together something special. A truly amazing independent horror flick from a decade well known for ‘em. Usually inner-monologues bother the hell out of me in films but it works well here and further hammers home just how unreliable a narrator Jessica may be.