RATING: B

Atlas Distribution presents a Bald Man Films production in association with Mirror Films and Convoke Media. Written and directed by Paul Boyd. Produced by Eric Barrett and Todd Slater. Cinematography by Steven Poster. Edited by Ed Shiers.

Stars Lin Shaye, Bill Moseley, Olivier Paris, Victoria Konefal, Jade Chynoweth, B.J. Minor, Kurt Deimer, with Lucinda Jenney, and Rae Dawn Chong.  

Two horror icons take center stage with a cast of youngsters and a metal singer in this wild horror-comedy from director Paul Boyd.

Working as a production assistant on the latest film starring legendary horror star Gregory “The Grog” Grogstone, Jasper has aspirations to become a director in his own right. When he takes the initiative and goes scouting for a location for the film, he comes across an abandoned children’s shelter. The building’s owner Felix tells him the story of five orphans who were literally “scared to death” over seven decades ago. Jasper may have found the perfect place, but his motive draws the ire of the film’s director, Max.

Max learns that Jasper has been offered to possibly bring the story of the orphans to life by performing a seance for only $1,000. At first, she refuses, but then when producers and fellow cast and crew are intrigued, she goes along with it. Felix conspires with crew member Chance to make the seance look real. However, when something slowly happens to Max, it becomes the start of something that could be in fact, a real haunt. Jasper, using his camera, must work with the others to discover the story and find a way to stop the haunting before they all end up “scared to death” themselves. 

It is always going to be a good time if you see either Lin Shaye or Bill Moseley in a movie. However, it’s double the fun when they are on the screen together as it proves with this supernatural horror-comedy. Moseley plays the somewhat quirky Felix, the owner of an abandoned children’s shelter who brings his charm in order to lure the cast and crew to a seance at the place as he is a fan of horror star “The Grog”, played by metal singer Kurt Deimer in his film debut. 

As for Shaye, you always love her characters because as she told me years ago, she is a storyteller through her characters. Here, she is Max, the director of Grog’s latest film who is arrogant, no-nonsense and does things her way and her way only. She berates Grog for his boots and then proceeds to go off on Jasper, who only tried to help, because he was late.What happens to her in the film becomes the catalyst for the film’s events. 

The young cast works well here, especially Olivier Paris as Jasper, the PA who wants to one day become a director and uses a camera during the “seance” to document things. Victoria Konefal’s Lena is the starlet of the film who brings a soap opera style energy and that should come to no surprise as she is known for playing Clara Brady on Days of Our Lives. Deimer is fun as The Grog, who soon realizes what he thinks may be staged only shows that the lines have slowly become blurred. Once we learn the story of what happened to the kids, it does prove to be quite a shock and it leads to a jaw-dropping finale. There are also cameos from 80s Hollywood scion Rae Dawn Chong as a producer and Lucinda Jenney as a detective. 

Scared to Death is wild and fun, thanks to the iconic Lin Shaye and Bill Moseley, along with the story’s background into the seance and hauntings that come with it. The finale brings some shock value and I’m gonna say this…we need more Grog!!!

The film will be available on VOD and Digital from Atlas Distribution on May 5, 2026.