''Deadly Blessing'' is a 1981 American
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
directed by
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural imp ...
. The film tells the story of a strange figure committing murder in a contemporary community that is not far from another community that believes in ancient evil and curses. It stars
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...
,
Maren Jensen
Maren Kawehilani Jensen (born September 23, 1956) is an American former model and actress, best known for portraying Lieutenant Athena in the 1978–79 television series ''Battlestar Galactica''. Jensen also made guest appearances in several US ...
,
Susan Buckner
Susan Buckner is an American former actress. Prior to her acting career she was crowned Miss Washington in 1971 and in September went on to become a top ten finalist in the Miss America 1972 pageant (she tied for first in the swimsuit preliminar ...
(both women making their last feature film screen appearances), and
Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...
in an early role.
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
comments that the film "finds director Wes Craven in a transitional phase between his hard-hitting early work and his later commercial successes."
Plot
Martha and Jim Schmidt live on an isolated farm named "Our Blessing." Most of their neighbors are "Hittites", an austere religious community led by Isaiah Schmidt who forbids any interaction with non-Hittites. After breaking up a fight between one Hittite member, William Gluntz and another, more artistically minded neighbor, Faith Stohler, Jim finds "incubus" scrawled on the wall of his barn. Later that night, Jim is killed when his tractor suddenly starts up and crushes him against the wall. Isaiah and other Hittites observe Jim's funeral, as he was a lapsed member of their community; they consider Martha to be an
incubus
An incubus is a demon in male form in folklore that seeks to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women; the corresponding spirit in female form is called a succubus. In medieval Europe, union with an incubus was supposed by some to result in t ...
for having lured him away from their religion.
Martha's friends Lana Marcus and Vicky Anderson visit the farm, hoping to persuade her to return to Los Angeles. While creeping around Our Blessing at night, William is stabbed in the back by a black-dressed figure. The following day, while looking for William, Isaiah, who was Jim's father, offers to buy the farm from Martha, but she angrily refuses. Lana is nearly trapped in the barn by the black-dressed figure. As she escapes, she finds William's corpse hanging from a rope. The Sheriff advises the three friends to leave town, as someone may be after them. However, they decide to stay. When Isaiah finds out that Jim's brother John has been seeing Vicky, he beats then exiles him. John meets Vicky outside the cinema and she lets John drive her car, giving him a sense of freedom. They stop at the side of a road and begin to make out but they are killed by the black-clothed figure.
Lana, overwhelmed by disturbing dreams, begins to believe that death is pursuing her. Martha discovers that Jim's grave has been dug up and the casket filled with chickens from the Stohlers' farm. In their barn, she finds Jim's body and an altar to her. John's estranged fiancée Melissa arrives reciting a ritual of exorcism but is attacked by Faith's mother, Louisa. Faith and Louisa, who hate the Hittites, have been the black-clad figures murdering them. Martha struggles with them and tears open Faith's shirt, revealing her to be a man who has been in love with Martha. They pursue Martha to Our Blessing. There, Lana kills Louisa and a late-arriving Melissa stabs Faith to death. In a religious fervor, Melissa threatens Martha next, but an even-more-late-arriving Isaiah assures her that the messenger of the incubus has already been killed.
The day after, Lana returns to LA. Though Jim's ghost tries to warn her, the incubus bursts through the floor and drags Martha to hell.
Cast
*
Maren Jensen
Maren Kawehilani Jensen (born September 23, 1956) is an American former model and actress, best known for portraying Lieutenant Athena in the 1978–79 television series ''Battlestar Galactica''. Jensen also made guest appearances in several US ...
as Martha Schmidt
*
Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...
as Lana Marcus
*
Susan Buckner
Susan Buckner is an American former actress. Prior to her acting career she was crowned Miss Washington in 1971 and in September went on to become a top ten finalist in the Miss America 1972 pageant (she tied for first in the swimsuit preliminar ...
as Vicky Anderson
*
Jeff East
Jeffrey Franklin East (born October 27, 1957) is an American actor. Beginning his professional acting career at the age of fourteen, East is known for his portrayal of Huckleberry Finn in the United Artists feature films ''Tom Sawyer'' (1973) an ...
as John Schmidt
* Colleen Riley as Melissa
*
Douglas Barr
Douglas Barr (born May 1, 1949), also credited as Doug Barr, is an American actor, writer, and director. He has starred in movies and on television.
Barr was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His big role came in the American Broadcasting Company, ...
as Jim Schmidt
*
Lisa Hartman
Lisa Hartman Black is an American actress and singer.
Career
After some minor television appearances, Hartman starred on the short-lived ''Bewitched'' spin-off, ''Tabitha'' during 1977–78. She subsequently appeared frequently on television in ...
as Faith Stohler
*
Lois Nettleton
Lois June Nettleton (August 16, 1927 – January 18, 2008) was an American film, stage, radio, and television actress. She received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won two Daytime Emmy Awards.
Early life
Lois Nettleton was born on Au ...
as Louisa Stohler
*
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...
as Isaiah Schmidt
*
Michael Berryman
Michael John Berryman (born September 4, 1948) is an American character actor. Berryman was born with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, a rare condition characterized by the absence of sweat glands, hair, and fingernails; his unusual physical ...
as William Gluntz
*
Kevin Cooney Kevin Cooney may refer to:
* Kevin Cooney (actor), American actor
* Kevin Cooney (baseball)
Kevin Cooney (born August 12, 1950) is an American former college baseball coach who was the head coach at Montclair State from 1984–1987 and Florida ...
as Sheriff
Production
The film was shot
on location in
Waxahachie
Waxahachie ( ) is the county seat, seat of government of Ellis County, Texas, Ellis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 41,140 in 2020.
Etymology
Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. Actor
Michael Berryman
Michael John Berryman (born September 4, 1948) is an American character actor. Berryman was born with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, a rare condition characterized by the absence of sweat glands, hair, and fingernails; his unusual physical ...
had previously worked with Craven on ''
The Hills Have Eyes
''The Hills Have Eyes'' is an American horror franchise that consists of four horror films, as well as a graphic novel and merchandise. The first film was released in 1977, '' The Hills Have Eyes''; the series was rebooted in a 2006 remake. T ...
'' playing a similar character.
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
, the primary distributor for
PolyGram
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...
-produced films at the time, chose not to pick up the finished project; it was instead released in theatres by
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
and was the final United Artists film to be owned by
Transamerica Corporation
The Transamerica Corporation is an American holding company for various life insurance companies and investment firms operating primarily in the United States, offering life and supplemental health insurance, investments, and retirement services. ...
after being acquired by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
on July 28, 1981.
Reception
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-winner
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...
was nominated for a
Razzie award
The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
for "Worst Supporting Actor" for this film.
''Deadly Blessing'' has been poorly received by critics. It currently holds a 33% approval rating on
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 9 reviews with an average rating of 4.70/10. AllMovie called the film ultimately disappointing, but wrote that it has "enough eccentricities and stylish flourishes to make it worthwhile for fans of vintage horror."
Time Out
Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to:
Time
* Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team
* Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken
* Timeout (computing), an enginee ...
wrote, "''Deadly Blessing'' isn't a very good movie, but it holds out distinct promise that Craven will soon be in the front rank of horror filmmakers", calling it "an excellent example of a mundane project elevated into quite a palatable genre movie by its director."
Home media
On January 22, 2013,
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...
released a Collector's Edition of the film on
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
and
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
under license from
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Wes Craven
1981 horror films
1981 films
1980s slasher films
Films directed by Wes Craven
American slasher films
American supernatural horror films
American independent films
Religious horror films
1980s English-language films
Films set on farms
Films shot in Ohio
Films shot in Texas
Films scored by James Horner
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films
1980s American films
Films with screenplays by Wes Craven
Cross-dressing in American films