Scared To Death—
2006, DVD-video with surround sound, 14:20 minutes
Intrigued by accounts of several past murders in a house in her South Philadelphia neighborhood, Hironaka creates a fictionalized account of the horrific events using the cinematic language of horror and suspense films.
In her telling of the story Hironaka reverses the gender roles of the typical horror film and of the rumored account. Scared to Death references the classic horror film femme fatale, often characterized by a split personality where she is both the heroine and the antiheroine.
In Scared to Death, Hironaka looks to the mirror and sees both selves, the “me” and “her.” These two reveal themselves, one as an object of desire and one of horror. What lies between fear and fantasy is ultimately a thin, small crack.
