Scare Me is something of a hangout horror comedy, one that has a premise that sounds about as noncommercial as you could get, yet manages to be incredibly entertaining. Written and directed by Josh Ruben, the film follows Fred (Josh Ruben), a guy who works in advertising, who is also kind of an actor, who is also kind of a writer, at least he’s trying to be, which is why he is going out to a cabin to work on his first novel. While there, he meets Fanny (Aya Cash), a bestselling novelist who is working on a new project at another cabin nearby.
A power outage occurs one night, leading the two to meet up and hunker down while they wait for the power to come back. As they get to know each other, Fred gets a case of writer envy, creating some tension between the two. As a way to pass the time, Fanny comes up with the idea for the two of them to tell stories to one another with the goal of scaring each other. Naturally, Fred can barely muster up the kind of imagination that Fanny has, but it doesn’t stop them from continuing their battle of wits.
And that’s the movie, it is basically watching these two writers trying to one-up each other. If that sounds absolutely insufferable to you, well…you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong if this was a real scenario, the film itself actually comes together quite well. Largely because the two central characters are fairly well drawn, and Ruben and Cash inhabit those characters like a well fitting sweater, and they bounce off each other beautifully, capturing the humor, the uneasiness, and the awkwardness that informs their dynamic together.
Fred takes center stage when it comes to the film’s thematic fascinations. The idea of masculine insecurity runs throughout the narrative, tapping into the way Fred’s lack of skill and talent, especially compared to Fanny, who makes no bones about pointing out gender dynamics, makes him come off defensive, angry, and petty. At one point, Carlo (Chris Redd), a pizza delivery guy joins the fun, and during a conversation, he laughs and points at Fred, saying “you emasculated, look at you, you’re emasculated.” It isn’t subtle, but I think it does a good job at showing how that kind of emotional immaturity and insecurity can poison the mind.
On top of that, the film is an ode to the power of horror storytelling. The film is basically wall-to-wall dialogue, and it does a wonderful job at keeping things engaging. In a way that’s meta, but not too meta, it touches on a lot of the tropes and motifs of horror storytelling as Fred and Fanny try to out-do one another, and even help one another in crafting a story, commenting on whether their plot and character ideas are good, interesting, or hackneyed. It’s a ton of fun to watch these stories unfold and morph based on how the conversations go.
Apart from his acting credits, Josh Ruben is someone you’d probably recognize from his work on the College Humor videos, and Scare Me serves as his feature debut. What struck me while watching the film was how well constructed it is on a technical level. The work put in by him, cinematographer Brendan H. Banks, and composers Chris Maxwell and Phil Hernandez, give the film a strong visual dynamic that draws on a lot of the visual language of a horror film, making it so that the film itself is in on the joke. And I loved the way they incorporated sound effects during the stories themselves. For something as small and simple as it is, it’s a slick and clever production.
Scare Me is a great example of how much is possible with very little. With not a lot more than a single cabin and a whole lot of talking, Josh Ruben has crafted a really unique horror comedy that has a lot more in its mind than initially one would initially expect. At its best, it captures the feeling of hanging out with your friends, trying to scare each other in the middle of the night. It offers a fantastic showcase for its performers. Ruben, Cash, Redd, and Rebecca Dryadale – who has a brief role as the driver who brought Fred to the cabin – all get to relish in the material, feasting on every word from the script, and adding to the campfire atmosphere. Cash in particular is a born movie star, she is effortlessly charismatic. The only drawback I can think of is the ending, which I don’t feel totally satisfies, especially as a conclusion to the themes the film has been digging into. However, despite that, I really had a blast with this. Josh Ruben shows promise as a filmmaker, and it really sets the perfect mood as we enter October and the Halloween season proper.
Scare Me will hit Shudder on October 1st.