Deadly Blessing

• Directed by Wes Craven
• August 14, 1981

An ominous figure is committing murders not far from a reclusive religious community.

Some films have a weird appeal that makes them watchable even if they themselves might not be stellar stories. Deadly Blessing is one such oddball guilty pleasure of a film with a unique cast that could only come together in 1981. Nowhere else could you see the likes of Maren “Battlestar Galactica” Jensen as Martha Schmidt, Sharon Stone as Lana Marcus, Jeff “Young Clark Kent” East as John Schmidt, Lisa Hartman as Faith Stohler, Ernest Borgnine as Isaiah Schmidt, and Michael Berryman as William Gluntz.

The story involves an Amish-like cult and begins when a former member (Douglas Barr) who lives near the cult’s settlement is killed. His wife (Maren Jensen) who he met from the outside has her friends come over to comfort her and things go from dark to weird quickly after that. Strangely despite the setup and the era there is no trashy nudity. It was practically reflexive for an 80s film!

This movie dived headfirst into the strange-and that goes beyond Ernest Borgnine as a fire and brimstone preacher incorrectly using “incubus” in reference to Martha. Faith as played by Lisa Hartman is actually a man pretending to be a woman because of mommy. I laughed at that reveal. Not because of the reveal, but because Hartman basically has a sleeveless shirt on underneath meant to look like a chest. They did one of these weird hair clusters of the top of the nipples just below the neck. It looks laughably bad like Shatner’s 80s toupee was nesting there.

There is also a poorly crafted shower scene. This is one of those things that sticks in my craw (whatever that is) when filmmakers do it. Martha is taking a shower, and it is one of those showers where a fogbank that causes ships to anchor in the harbor rolls into the bathroom. Was the water boiling and hitting ice as it came out? I know it may be petty, but it is so unrealistic and bothers me each time it gets used in anything.

But that doesn’t mean the movie is bad. It’s certainly not a high-quality film by any stretch. It’s plenty of weird and plenty of questionable logic. The acting isn’t great. Even Ernest Borgnine who is probably the most talented member of the cast is putting in minimal effort. But it is well directed and adequately executed. You will never rave about this but like a frozen burrito after a night of heavy drinking you will do it again. Wes Craven was a good director. He knew how to get the most out of his concepts-whatever they were. And he wrings every ounce possible from this evil Amish sorta supernatural slasher story.

As slashers go, Deadly Blessing has little in the way of kills. And when you look back at it, it’s clear there are two killers. One is a bit of a slasher, while the other gets more creative with using spiders and snakes and drugs. It effectively confuses things without the reveal feeling forced because you CAN look back and tell it was obvious. You the viewer were just missing that key bit of info.

The gore you get is pretty light. In fact, I can’t even think of any heavy gore off the top my head. Even the snake that gets killed in the bathtub really isn’t anything special. There’s a little bit of blood spatter seen as the tail slides gently into the ever increasingly red tub of bathwater. Craven was never big on guts as I recall.

What we got for the finale felt a touch out of leftfield. Jim’s ghost shows up to warn Martha about the incubus. That’s fine but right after the incubus pops up out of the floor and drags Martha off to Hell for reasons. Good job Jim! Better never than late in this case.

I must say that the slow reversal of the floor explosion worked. In a day and age of CGI I think this was a much more effective shot than what would most likely be attempted today. Yes, it’s a simple reversal, but how it is handled between the lighting and a rate of speed that does not lag drives home an otherworldly nature.

As horror films go Deadly Blessing is much more of a Cult Classic than it is an actual classic. It’s trashy and kind of bad but at the same time very enjoyable for the eclectic cast and just general execution. I highly recommend it for the general horror fan but the movie connoisseur might not be so into this.