Search - Scared to Death on DVD

Poor Quality!

Todd L. Burley | Hamilton, Ontario Canada | 03/17/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I,ve had this film in my VHS collection for years and enjoyed it. This is the precursor film to SYNGENOR. I thought that maybe with the advent of DVD I would get a clearer, crisper, cleaner image... I was wrong. The transfer quality is really bad.It is unbeleavably grainy, gritty, and dark. My God is it dark!! You can,t see any night scenes and even the day scenes are poor.Don,t waste your money."

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Big Scary | Florida | 01/31/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"LETS GET RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER HERE. THIS MOVIE IS REALLY REALLY GRAINY. THE TRANSFER LOOKS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. EVERY SCRATCH AND CRACK IS SEEN IN INTENSE DETAIL HERE. AND ANY SCENE IN THE DARK IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE WITHOUT TURNING UP THE BRIGHTNES ON THE TELEVISION. BUT, ON THE POSITIVE SIDE THIS MOVIE HAS BEEN OUT OF PRINT FOR SOME TIME AND ANY TRUE FAN OF THE HORROR GENRE WILL WANT A COPY ON DVD NO MATTER WHAT. THE ACTING IS ACTUALLY QUITE GOOD AND THE PLOT ALTHOUGH THIN ISNT THAT BAD OF AN IDEA. IT WRAPS UP RATHER QUICKLY BUT STILL SEEMS REASONABLY FEASABLE. CONSIDERING THE PRICE ITS VERY EASY TO OVERLOOK THE VISUAL FAULTS. ITS STILL WATCHABLE AND IS STILL ONE OF THE BETTER HORROR/MONSTER FLICKS FROM THE 80'S, EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS 10 YEARS OLDER."

Before Syngenor, there was...

A. Snyder | 05/06/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"...Scared to Death. Yes many people today do not know that the better known monster romp Syngenor (out now by Synapse films) is actually a sequel to this film made 9 years before in 1981.

The plot is simple. Scared to Death has a Syngenor creature on the loose in a city killing people. It's low budget yet entertaining in a B-movie way. Director William Malone (House on Haunted Hill, Feardotcom) does what he can with the story and his creature design (as he is also a gifted artist) is phenomenal for the budget. If enjoy watching obscure, B-movie romps from the 70's and 80's then you should find enjoyment in this.

Other than the awful new cover-art which makes looks like a modern direct-to-video/made-for-Sci Fi Channel drek (The world Syngenor was added to the cover to make a connection to it's sequel) , this DVD is tops. A nice 16x9 widescreen transfer and an interview with director William Malone."

Pretty standard monster-on-the-loose shenanigans.

Steve V. Kooten | Manchester, Iowa | 04/06/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The debut feature for William Malone (the House on Haunted Hill, Parasomnia)is a moderately entertaining monster movie with one Hell of a creature. The syngenor is a memorable creation and it's about the only thing that stands out in a fairly slow paced horror movie.

Harkening back to the regional horror movies of the 60s and 70s, SCARED TO DEATH has a simple plot that is constantly interrupted by random fits of day players getting mauled by our resident toothy critter (Syngenor is definately in need of some upper dental work). The most ridiculous vignette here is a group of kids rollerskating in an abandoned warehouse (!!?).

It's too bad because there's a lot to like here. Malone's direction is rough and, at times, clumsy; however, he does manage some very atmospheric moments here and there. The script is weak in the knees, though the characters bring some life to the situation and there's some unintentional hilarity to be had.

The biggest error is giving our monster next to nothing to do, so much so that the movie has to grind to a hault so that it can randomly show up and do stuff. There aren't too many monster scenes that are necessary to the plot after the first fifteen minutes or so.

Retromedia's DVD is a mixed bag; the movie's transfer is sufficient and the packaging is nice, but the only extra is a pithy interview with director Malone. This is the only DVD for the movie in Region 1 (that's legal) and it makes a fun Saturday night viewing. Check it out."