Scare Me (2020) from writer/director and co-star Josh Ruben is a low budget thriller now available on Shudder. The script is simple enough, the atmosphere is ominous and appropriately foreboding.
The Plot: 2 horror writers randomly meet while out for a jog and come together after the power goes out in their separate cabins. Franny is a successful author and Fred is frustrated with writers block. Franny suggests they take turns telling scary stories, each story trying to out do the other.
Josh Rubens script is beautifully simplistic, no 3rd act twist, no out of nowhere character change. It lets actors do what they do. Scare Me isn’t going to scare anybody but it’s not meant to, it’s about the gradual escalation from frustration into murderous rage.
Josh Ruben does a good job playing the unsympathetic frustrated Fred. We watch him gradually transition from passive aggressive into aggressive aggressive. Chris Redd pops up in the 3rd act as comic relief. He’s got good timing and is quickly and easily likeable. Unfortunately his character isn’t needed, in fact it undermines and derails all the built up tension the movie acquired up to that point. The real standout and star is Aya Cash.
Aya Cash starred on Fx’s You’re the Worst and is currently stealing the show on Prime Video’s The Boys season 2. Like a lot of Aya’s roles, Franny is acerbic, dry witted, complex and charming. With each story Franny tells, Aya flawlessly moves from character to character each with their own identity. I don’t think there’s too many actors who can pull off the things Aya can, she’s a generational talent.
Overall Scare Me won’t scare you but it is worth watching to see what everyone is talking about, Aya Cash. 6.5 / 10
