DEADLY BLESSING (1981)

(Director: Wes Craven. Screenplay by Glenn M. Benest, Matthew Barr and Wes Craven.)

Storyline

A rural woman is menaced by her ultra-religious neighbors after her husband dies under strange circumstances.

 

Review

After her husband (Jim) dies under questionable, horrifying circumstances in their barn, Martha Schmidt (Maren Jensen, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, 1978-9), finds herself targeted by a killer or killers who are also knocking off other people in the small rural community.

Is it one or several of the Hittites, an Amish-like cult, who view her as a devilish modern-day woman sent to steal one of their sons (her husband)? Led by the stern-countenanced Isaiah Schmidt (Ernest Borgnine, THE DEVIL’S RAIN, 1975), Martha’s father-in-law, their fervent hatred of the non-Hittite “succubus” is possibly pushed to the point of violence─it seems that Isaiah, furious at his eldest son’s marital apostasy, wants the land she and Jim owned.

Whoever’s doing the killing, they’re playing no favorites. Hittites and non-Hittites alike are being offed in slasher flick style, shown in suspenseful scenes that effectively provide an atmosphere of paranoia, death, and effectively underscore (and provide release for) DEADLY’s twisty sexual/religious repression themes─that DEADLY succeeds in a distinctive-within-its-subgenre way makes it a surprising high-mark film, further buoyed by its well-written mystery element. You may spot who’s doing the murders, but it could easily be any of the residents of this tense farming community.

Composer James Horner ups DEADLY’s tension with music that weds elements from Harry Manfredini’s FRIDAY THE 13^th (1980) and Jerry Goldsmith’s choral-doomy THE OMEN (1976) soundtracks, heightening DEADLY’s fast-paced build to a shocking, final conclusion; this says a lot, given how over-the-top the film sometimes is.

No doubt fans familiar with the FRIDAY franchise will recognize the influence of the iconic series on DEADLY (it also later provided a major influence on Craven’s 1984 film THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II). Fans of Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) may also appreciate a bathtub scene that is variably mirrored in the later film.

Beside Jensen and Borgnine, there’s other notable actors in the cast. Sharon Stone (COLD CREEK MANOR, 2003) played an excitable Lana Marcus, one of her two visiting friends. Jeff East, also seen in Craven’s SUMMER OF FEAR (1978), played John Schmidt, Martha’s easy-going brother-in-law. Colleen Riley (THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II, 1984) played John’s cousin and arranged marriage fiancée. Michael Berryman (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, 1977) played William Gluntz, a mentally challenged member of the Hittite cult.

If viewed as a modest-budget, entertaining, odd, and overtly piecemeal-influence slasher flick, you might enjoy DEADLY.