Review by Stephanie Scaife
Deadly Blessing was a weird one for me because, despite being directed by Wes Craven and starring Sharon Stone (in her first speaking role no less), I’d never heard of it before sitting down to watch this new DVD release from our good friends at Arrow Video. Turns out there was good reason for me never having seen or heard of this film, being that it is entirely forgettable to the point where I didn’t have the time to do the review immediately after watching it the first time and ended up having to go back and re-watch it again a couple of weeks later due to the fact that I honestly couldn’t really remember what had happened. It’s one of those horror films that you come across with depressing frequency: it is neither good enough to like nor bad enough to hate, it merely exists.
Sandwiched in-between The Hills Have Eyes and Swamp Thing, Deadly Blessing is a strange but lacklustre film that becomes increasingly befuddled as it plods along to its ending. The plot centres around a religious cult known as the Hittites led by Isaiah Schmidt, played with relish and a complete lack of subtlety by Ernest Borgnine, who was actually nominated for the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor for this role (unfortunately losing out to Steve Forrest for his role in Mommie Dearest). We’re told fairly early on in the film that the Hittites “make the Amish look like Swingers,” just to let you know just how damned uptight and crazy these people are.
Jim Schmidt was born into the Hitties but has apparently been shunned after marrying city girl Martha and getting himself a tractor, yet he still lives right next door so they are able hurl abuse at him and call Martha an “incubus” at every given opportunity. Then after Jim’s mysterious death two of Martha’s friends, Lana (Sharon Stone) and Vicky (Susan Buckner), come to stay with her to help her through her grieving process and attempt to talk her into moving away from the crazy religious weirdos, who increasingly step up their harassment of Martha and her friends after an incident involving Michael Berryman turning up dead in Martha’s “forbidden place”, or barn as it’s more commonly known. Even after the unexplained deaths, the fact that snakes are dropped into bath tubs, spiders are dropped into mouths and there are even what I think to be zombie chickens (!), Martha resolutely refuses to move. Her friends decide to stick around too, because they must be having so much fun after all. Vicky even develops a relationship with Jim’s brother John (Jeff East), a practising Hittite who seems more than a little keen to be lured over to the dark side by this pretty blonde who insists on jogging bra-less, despite already being betrothed to Melissa (Colleen Riley).
There’s also something weird going on with Martha’s other neighbours; a young artist named Faith (Lisa Hartman) and her Spooky mother Louisa (Lois Nettleton). Faith brings Martha a lot eggs and is also the brunt of just as much “incubus” abuse against her by the Hittites, most of the time it’s not really clear why, but I guess that’s irrelevant especially by the time we get to the bonkers yet surprisingly unsurprising ending. This is due to its constant and heavy sign posting throughout the entire movie. To say more would be a major plot spoiler, and it really is a bizarre choice on behalf of the writers, but it was also the only real part of the film that I hadn’t forgotten, which says something I guess. So at least Deadly Blessings can lay claim to an unforgettable ending along with its creative use of Rod Stewart on the soundtrack, which was honestly more terrifying than any of the set pieces, which are actually decidedly quite mild and unscary. Bringing me to the main flaw in Deadly Blessing – it isn’t scary. Not at all.
Another slightly odd choice from Arrow Video, as it’s far from a cult classic despite its credentials and daft ending, and not a film I’d be in a rush to recommend. However there is some fun to be had here, primarily in the shape of Ernest Borgnine and a scare scene involving chickens, but really the entire thing is sort of just incoherent and forgettable. Even the usual Arrow Package of extras and fun stuff is lacking here as the disc includes an interview and introduction by Michael Berryman, an interview with one of the screenwriters, Glenn M. Benest and a trailer.
Arrow’s Region 0 DVD of Deadly Blessing is in original 1.78:1 Anamorphic Aspect Ration with original mono 1.0 audio and is released in the UK on November 28th.