Review: Scare Me (2020), a Middling Deconstruction of the Horror Genre

I became a huge fan of Josh Ruben while watching CollegeHumor videos in my dorm room nearly a decade ago. An expert impressionist and all-around great comedic talent, Josh Ruben has all the trappings of an A-list celebrity. In the years since, he has proven to be just as talented behind the camera as he is in front of it. This is why it pains me so much to write this review. I discovered Scare Me (2020) while perusing through horror films to stream on Amazon. I immediately hit play when I saw that Josh Ruben was in it. Sadly, it did not meet my expectations — not by a long shot. While Scare Me further proves his technical talent offscreen, it does little to showcase his other abilities. 

The film begins with Fred (Josh Ruben) departing for a secluded cabin in the snowy woods. His driver, Bettina (Rebecca Drysdale) pesters Fred with a million questions about his work. As it turns out, he is a failed writer and actor who hopes to gain inspiration in his newly-rented cabin. Bettina spends the long drive talking about her own writing aspirations and ideas, only to have Fred give her the cold shoulder. 

While attempting to write a terrifying horror story, Fred finds himself plagued with writer’s block. To help clear his head, he goes for a jog. During his run, Fred meets Fanny (Aya Cash), the celebrated author of a horror novel called Venus. Fanny is staying in a nearby cabin, but she shows little interest in Fred as a writer or a person. Just like Bettina, Fred is readily dismissed by a “superior” writer. 

That evening, a storm knocks out the power in the area. Fanny visits Fred’s cabin and the two have a few drinks together. With nothing to do, Fanny presses Fred to tell her a scary story. Fred reluctantly tells her a story about a werewolf, with ample sound effects and visual cues, but Fanny is unimpressed. Somewhat bitter with her reaction, Fred insists that she tells a scary story as well.

As the night wears on, Fred and Fanny begin collaborating on scary stories together. Much of the initial animosity has waned, but when a pizza delivery guy, Carlo (Chris Redd), arrives and is invited by Fanny to stay, Fred starts getting annoyed again. Fanny and Carlo decide to do cocaine together and reenact the events of her novel, fanning Fred’s jealousy of her success as a writer.

When Carlo departs, Fanny leaves her notebook unattended. Fred takes a look, only to discover that she has written down some of his ideas, as well as notes criticizing his writing abilities. Fueled by anger, jealousy, and alcohol, Fred confronts Fanny about stealing his ideas. As the two argue, the night devolves into real horror that is far more frightening than any of their “scary” stories.

Postmodern storytelling is especially popular in horror films, as the genre relies on established tropes. In Scare Me, Ruben deconstructs the horror genre by ultimately allowing the story to adopt the same tropes it analyzes. While the deconstruction is a bit too on the nose to be very profound or thought-provoking, it is aided by high-quality sound design and cinematography. Ruben finds a way to do a lot with a little — from a technical standpoint — creating new and interesting settings for each scary story without having to leave the cabin.

Unfortunately, Ruben’s technical artistry does little to make up for the script’s shortcomings. Scare Me is a self-reflective horror-comedy; while it’s heavy on self-reflexivity, it’s light on both horror and comedy. Despite Ruben’s natural comedic talent, the jokes fall flat. The script tries to draw humor from Fred’s ill-advised attempts to be funny, scary, or charming, and Fanny’s relative indifference to everything. At the same time, Fred is characterized as an insecure, untalented, bitter, and sexist man-child who simply cannot accept that he’s not a good writer. Alternatively, Fanny shoots Fred down at every chance and has no qualms about boasting, making her come across as arrogant and frustratingly woke. Focusing on these two annoying and morally reprehensible characters makes it difficult to enjoy the film as a “light” horror-comedy.

Carlo and Bettina are the only (arguably) likable or funny characters. However, neither has the kind of screentime they deserve. Thus, we are left with a kind of reimagined “locked-room” scenario with two detestable human beings that are meant to entertain us with scary stories. 

This last part is perhaps the film’s greatest shortcoming. A film called Scare Me should, in theory, have some scary moments. Sadly, the title writes a check that the film can’t cash. Until the finale, nothing even remotely scary happens. Even though the final act offers a little something for horror fans, it’s really nothing special. You have to sit through self-indulgent dialogue and dull horror stories just to get to a mediocre ending.

In fairness to Scare Me, I’m not a fan of “campfire stories” and the like. They’re almost never scary or interesting. So, creating an entire movie around two people telling scary stories just feels like a misfire from the start. Sure, the sound design and lighting are both excellent; all the actors do an adequate job in their respective roles. But Scare Me fails to hit the mark on several different fronts. Scare Me wants to be funny and clever, but it’s not; it wants to be scary and creepy, but it’s not; it wants to work as social commentary, and it does, but in such an overt way that it feels forced and exhausting for the viewer.

I hate that I didn’t like Scare Me. As I’ve already made abundantly clear, Josh Ruben is a highly-talented individual. He can, has, and likely will do better. That said, it’s difficult to look past the obnoxious characters and tedious story of his debut feature film. I’ll still check out anything else that has Josh Ruben’s name tied to it. However, I might temper my expectations in the future.

Scare Me (2020) Movie Rating: ★★ out of 5

If you’d like to watch Scare Me (2020), it is currently available to stream or purchase via Amazon Prime. For more film reviews like this one, be sure to check out the Philosophy in Film Homepage!