Horror Movie Review: The Scary of Sixty-First (2020)

The Scary of Sixty-First is a head-scratching watch that desperately wants to be provocative but ends up being exploitative. It comes from director Dasha Nekrasova, who co-wrote the screenplay with Madeline Quinn. Both star in the film alongside Betsey Brown.

Have you heard of Jeffrey Epstein? In case you’ve been living under a rock, he was a prominent American financier who was indicted in 2019 for sex trafficking minors. He died in custody awaiting his trial, reportedly by suicide. Though a prominent conspiracy theory is that he was murdered due to the elite social circle he moved in wanting to protect their interests.

There’s a lot more to it, but that’s not for here. In fact, you might be wondering why I’m even talking about Epstein in this horror/thriller review. The answer is very simple, and very strange.

Noelle and Addie are looking for a new apartment and end up moving into a place on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It’s not the nicest of places, and there are some off things about it, but they like it, even if Addie starts to have disturbing nightmares.

Things then get stranger when a mysterious girl shows up at the apartment claiming to be a realtor. She uses this to get inside, before revealing that she is investigating Epstein and believes that this apartment was owned by the man. Not only that, she suspects that criminal activity may have taken place inside, including child prostitution and murder. It’s a big claim, and one that Noelle is fascinated by. Against Addie’s wishes, she teams up with the girl, and together, they start to fall down the Epstein rabbit hole.

All that would be a story itself, but not much of a horror, yet The Scary of Sixty-First has more, and it relates to Addie. She also finds herself involved with all this Epstein nonsense, but her side of things comes with a psychological and supernatural spin. One that results in disturbing ‘ageplay’ that she can’t remember afterwards, wandering the streets, behaving like a child, and even masturbating to images of (former) Prince Andrew. You know, one of Epstein’s close pals.

It appears as though Addie is under some form of possession, although the others think it’s CIA mind control experiments. Both sides are obsessed with Epstein, but in different ways, and both sides fail to see how they are being manipulated by outside forces. Very dangerous outside forces.

Something about Satan. I am not joking. This is why I call this film exploitative and not provocative. On the one hand it has Giallo tendencies, pays homage the likes of Eyes Wide Shut, and isn’t afraid to make a statement. But on the other, it’s a mishmash of nonsense conspiracy theories, awkward sexual content, and TV movie style visuals and acting.

The idea of young girls falling down the Epstein rabbit hole and losing themselves to it, becoming paranoid and dangerous, is cool. Not horror film cool, but thriller cool.

Alas, to make it more of a horror, the writing introduces a whole ton of extra stuff that makes the film bloat. Paranormal possession, Satanic cults, and murder, it’s ambitious, but too ambitious in the end. I can’t say I wasn’t paying attention to the film, which means it is at least watchable, but I also can’t say that I enjoyed it either.