I’m working myself through the less talked about films of Wes Craven, because even if I love them I’m pretty tired of hearing of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. The man did other things to, wattya say about that? I wonder if Craven (and his agent) tried to find himself in that big wacky world called Hollywood during the early eighties, trying out non-horror projects like the fun Swamp Thing or mainstream stuff like Invitation to Hell and today’s film, Deadly Blessing. I’ve seen it once, around 1000 years ago - so you can guess my memories of if are vague. I bough the DVD years ago, but never watched it - until now when I got the Arrow Films blu-ray. I mean, if I’m gonna watch it I wanna watch in the best way possible.
The thing is that I have problem with stories set in religious communities. I was myself raised in one, and that seriously fucked-up my life for years after. Even today as you can see, I have problem with it. It’s just too many emotions coming up when I’m watching the totalitarian ways of controlling a bunch of confused human sheeps. In Deadly Blessing we meet the Hittites, which is a badly disguised Amish community. The leader Isaiah Schmidt (Ernest Borgnine) has lost one of his sons to the sinful world outside their farm, marrying an outside woman and using machinery and just living a nice, good life compared to the tragic, pathetic life of the Amish...eh, Hittites. Isaiah calls Martha (Maren Jensen), the woman his former son has chosen to love, for an Incubus - and soon people start to die around them, killed by an entity in black…
So Deadly Blessing is a slasher, a whodunit set in a farm community. More or less. Kinda. Yeah, it is, but still feels both a lot more serious, a little bit TV-movie and in the end just fucking nuts. I still haven’t decided if I like it or not, but it once again proves what a skilled director Craven was (and still is). The suspense scenes are top-notch and you can see how he later used some these tricks in the Scream franchise (especially from the scenes in the barn) and of course A Nightmare On Elm Street - the bathtub scene is more or less exactly the same, but instead of Freddy there’s a dangerous snake slithering around, knocking on the heroine’s submerged bearded oyster. Surprisingly there’s not enough graphic violence to entertain us. It’s not completely dry of course, there’s a few stabbings and so on, but compared to what he later did it’s quite a family friendly (well, maybe not…) slasher.
Oh, now we’re back to the slasher-word again. Is it a slasher? Well, every other movie released in 1981 was a slasher, but this maybe feels more like something more traditional. Dare I say giallo? No, I don’t , so fuck that. With the bizarre twist ending this proudly goes from being a slasher to a possession movie and here some problems arise. Isaiah is a bad guy. He’s a terrible human being, a religious wacko, a wife-beater and tyrant. But with this new ending, probably something the studio demanded, makes him kinda… not the hero, but someone you can trust and respect. Which is totally wrong and just doesn’t belong in the story. It also leaves a bad taste when the credits roll.
On the good side, Ernest Borgnine is fantastic - and completely, seriously and realistically dangerous as Isaiah. You WILL hate him. Michael Berryman is always cool and Sharon Stone shows up doing some fun over-acting (I’ve always liked her, sorry). Lois Nettleton as the slightly unstable neighbor Louisa is the female highlight of the show, playing all the cords of a crazy woman, but weirdly enough someone you would like to hang out with a little bit. Just a little bit. Nothing more. Maybe for 20-30 minutes or something. That’s it.
Deadly Blessing is a deeply flawed but also quite effective chiller. Not sure about that ending, but Craven knows how to deliver tension and stylish suspense. That alone makes it worth watching.
"I’m working myself through the less talked about films of Wes Craven, because even if I love them I’m pretty tired of hearing of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. The man did other things to, wattya say about that?"
Nothing....he sure did some other interesting stuff.
"trying out non-horror projects like the fun Swamp Thing"
Why isn´t Swamp Thing (1982) getting some sort of reboot/remake?
SFX would certainly be better......
"and today’s film, Deadly Blessing. I’ve seen it once, around 1000 years ago - so you can guess my memories of if are vague."
I think I´ve seen this one on VHS.......2000 YEARS AGO!!!!
hahhaahahhahhaahhah.....yeah....my memory is even more vague.....
"the bathtub scene is more or less exactly the same, but instead of Freddy there’s a dangerous snake slithering around, knocking on the heroine’s submerged bearded oyster."
Yummy!
hahhahhahahh...wasn´t there a scene with a naked Sharon Stone and a spider?
"On the good side, Ernest Borgnine is fantastic - and completely, seriously and realistically dangerous as Isaiah. You WILL hate him."
No, no, and no.......can´t hate Borgnine.....I loved him as a Weregoat(yeah I´, stealing that from you!) in The Devil's Rain (1975)......won´t hate him in anything else.
Maybe in From Here to Eternity (1953)......Borgine, is evil there....poor Clift.
"and Sharon Stone shows up doing some fun over-acting (I’ve always liked her, sorry)."
I love her too.......give Lovelace (2013) a chance, a bit bland but great performances by Stone, Seyfried & co.
I would love a review of The Specialist (1994)......come on, do it!
"Deadly Blessing is a deeply flawed but also quite effective chiller. Not sure about that ending, but Craven knows how to deliver tension and stylish suspense. That alone makes it worth watching"
Maybe time for a rewatch.....good review Fred.
Posted by: Megatron | June 01, 2014 at 23:58