Scared to Death (1980)

Film Title: Scared to Death

Also Known As: The Aberdeen Experiment, Scared to Death: Syngenor
Released: November 1980 (Paris Festival of Fantastic Films)
Directed by: William Malone
Written by: William Malone & Robert Short
Starring: John Stinson

Plot: A killer is littering the streets of Los Angeles with dead bodies. An ex-cop turned novelist gets dragged into the investigation and discovers that the killer is actually the syngenor, the SYNthesized GENetic ORganism, that survives on human spinal fluid!

IMDb Score: 4.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: No score
My Score: 1/5

Scared to Death is a low budget sci-fi/horror film from the early 1980's and writer/director William Malone's debut film. With the exception of John Stinson (who's only passable as alcoholic [but only when it suits the scene] ex-cop turned hack novelist) the rest of the cast are some of the worst actors I've ever seen, most of whom did little or nothing else after this film. The worst, in my opinion, is Toni Jannotta, playing a former lab assistant for the scientist who created the creature. A weak script, terribly murky photography and horrific acting add up to...well, you guessed it, a really bad movie. And not in a good, fun way, either. According the film's Wikipedia page, musician/actor Rick Springfield was going to star as the lead but called Malone the night before shooting was to start and backed out of the project. Apparently he would miss too many acting classes if he took the role. A sequel titled Syngenor was released in 1990 and Syngenor was used as an added subtitle to the Scared to Death DVD release to make the connection between the two films. It won a Saturn Award for Best Low-Budget film and a Fantafestival Award for Best Special Effects. Watch the trailer below or the full film here.