alexanderdavies-99382
There is no denying that "Deadly Blessing" has some effective scenes and that Wes Craven provides some inspired direction. The photography is great and the setting of the rural countryside is ideal. Casting Ernest Borgnine was certainly a feather in the capital of the film.
However, I found the story quite hard to follow and a lack of incident. The climax was good though and also the build up to it. Michael Berryman is underused in "Deadly Blessing" and should have been given much more to do.
Throughout the movie, there is an eerie feeling of awaiting some kind of supernatural phenomenon and this does happen after a while.
A local farmer is suddenly murdered in his barn one night and this is followed by more violent deaths amongst the local community. Suspicion falls upon an Amish family who are rather set in their religious ways. Their harsh and uncompromising look on every day life could almost make them qualify as villains.
Wes Craven was reported to have disliked the ending in the way it attempted to explain all that had happened. Personally, I enjoyed it.
Not a bad horror film but it pales in comparison with "The Hills Have Eyes" and "A Nightmare On Elm Street."
Rainey Dawn
For a long time, I've remembered a film where someone was asleep with their mouth wide-opened and a spider goes from the ceiling into their mouth... this is that film! Now I know which film I was trying to remember. -- Warning if spiders and snakes bother you in a film then you might want to pass this one up!! This isn't a bad film... rather fun to watch. There is a group of Hittites (Amish like-community) that live near the modern people. Some of the moderns are afraid of the Hittites - especially when the Hittites call some of them an Incubus and refuse to let their kin speak to them. People end up with strange deaths. The questions: Is it the Hittites? Is it the strange Christian family? Is it some of the other moderns? Or is it an Incubus? There is great casting this film. Suspenseful, scary at times and a lot of fun to watch.8/10
Woodyanders
After her husband gets killed in a mysterious farming accident, Martha (a solid and sympathetic performance by the striking Maren Jensen) begins to fear for her life as well as the well being of her visiting friends Vicky (Susan Buckner, very perky and appealing) and Lana (a positively ravishing Sharon Stone right before she hit it big) due to the fact that her husband was a former member of a strict religious cult led by the fanatical Isaiah Schmidt (Ernest Borgnine in fine forceful'n'fearsome form).Acclaimed horror maven Wes Craven, who also co-wrote the offbeat and intriguing script with Matthew Barr and Glenn M. Benest, ably crafts a genuinely tense and creepy atmosphere, provides a flavorsome evocation of the peaceful rural region setting, offers an interesting exploration of the danger and damage wrought by both long kept secrets and deep-seated repression, and expertly stages a few bravura shock set pieces (Lana gets terrorized in a barn, a spider drops in Lana's mouth, a snake in Martha's bathtub that's unnervingly phallic and Freudian in its implications). The sturdy cast helps a lot: Jeff East as amiable farmboy John, Colleen Riley as the neurotic Melissa, Lois Nettleton as the flaky and overprotective Louisa Stohler, Michael Berryman as loopy man-child William Gluntz, and Lisa Hartman as Louisa's peculiar daughter Faith. Both Robert C. Jessup's sharp cinematography and James Horner's supremely spooky score are on the money effective and impressive.However, the story really falls apart with an unfortunate array of gross lapses in logic and glaring implausibilities in the last third, with an annoyingly abrupt and absurd "Carrie"-inspired stinger surprise appearance by an incubus tossing in an from out of left field supernatural element that's seriously at odds with the more reality-based events that occur before it. Moreover, said ending feels cheap and tacked-on, which reportedly it was. Close, but no cigar.
Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW)
Though I was too young for horror movies at that time, I always wanted to see that movie when I got older. In "Deadly Blessing", it was worth it for me. Here you have a very religious community known as the "Hitte". That community make the Amish look like swingers. A couple,(Maren Jensen, "Battlestar Galactica" & Douglas Barr, "The Fall Guy") are about to start a family. But on one night, someone messes around the barn, and is killed by an unknown figure. Friends from college,(Sharon Stone, her debut & Susan Buckner) visits Martha(Jensen) for moral support. The weird son, William(Michael Berryman) loses a shoe when he sneaks around the barn one night. When he tries to get it back, he sneaks around the widow's house, and he too is killed by the unknown killer. When all three friends stay in the house, many frightening things start to occur. Martha takes a bath, and a snake slither its way, but meets its end to a fire poker. Lana (Stone) has the craziest dream to unravel. A pair of hands are placed on her head. And she is asked to "open her mouth". Hoping to be pleasurable, instead a spider comes sliding down to her mouth! A heart attack in the works. Wes Craven is known for his intensity, this movie is great. A true gem. 4 out of 5 stars.
AD
