''Superstition'' is a 1982 American
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
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 James W. Roberson and starring James Houghton, ]Albert Salmi
Albert Salmi (March 11, 1928 – April 22, 1990) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Best known for his work as a character actor, he appeared in over 150 film and television productions.
Early life
Salmi was born and raised ...
, and Lynn Carlin
Mary Lynn Carlin (née Reynolds) is an American former actress. She is best known for her debut role in the film ''Faces'' (1968), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.
Life and career
She was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of so ...
. The plot follows a family who move into a house that was once the site of a witch's execution. Though shot in 1981, ''Superstition'' was not released in US before 1985.
In the United Kingdom, the film was banned during the "video nasty
Video nasty is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that ...
" panic, though it would subsequently be released uncut under the title ''The Witch''.[
]
Plot
Two young men are brutally murdered by an unseen force in an abandoned house after playing a prank on a young couple outside in their car. A short time later, Inspector Sturgess and his partner Hollister visit Reverend David Thompson, a new clergyman assigned to the local parish who is assuming the role of an elderly minister, Reverend Maier. The abandoned house being on church's property, Sturgess voices concern about the house being a local dumping ground, and cites the recent murders of the two teenage boys, which he believes are occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
-driven, as well as the drownings that have occurred in the pond next to the home.
David, Maier, Sturgess and Hollister visit the property. They meet Arlen, the mute caretaker, who appears to be mentally ill. Elvira, Arlen's aging mother, resides in an adjacent bungalow. Sturgess suspects Arlen of the recent murders. While standing on the pond's dock after chasing Arlen, Hollister is dragged into the water by an unseen assailant. Enraged after hearing of David's plans to have the pond drained, Arlen eludes the police and disappears. Sturgess and Maier interview Elvira, but she tells them only that Arlen is obeying some mysterious "mistress."
In the house, David meets Mary, a friendly young girl who claims to have once lived there. Maier blesses the building, but is killed by the blade from a table saw
A table saw (also known as a sawbench or bench saw in England) is a woodworking tool, consisting of a circular saw blade, mounted on an arbor, that is driven by an electric motor (either directly, by belt, or by gears). The blade protrudes t ...
in a freak accident. Shortly after, the alcoholic Reverend George, his wife Melinda, and their adolescent children Ann, Sheryl, and Justin move into the house as guests of the church. On their move-in date, a renovator is killed by a clawed figure who hangs him to death in an elevator shaft inside the home. While the children go swimming in the pond, Ann discovers a severed human hand, later determined to be that of Hollister. The event results in Ann having a psychological breakdown.
In the house's basement, Justin is attacked and murdered by the claw-handed figure. Sturgess and other police mount a search for Justin in and around the house. Meanwhile, Ann has nightmares of her family being slaughtered. David unearths an antique crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
from the pond, which Elvira claims has kept a witch
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...
, executed on the property centuries ago, dormant. David subsequently unearths a book in the church archives documenting a local inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
that occurred in 1692, during which Elondra Sharack, a woman accused of murdering a nine-year-old girl named Mary, was executed in the pond by drowning. At the moment of her death, the church erupted in flames.
While searching the house, Sturgess discovers Arlen hiding in a secret room in the basement, and also uncover the body of the renovator. Arlen is arrested, while Sturgess remains at the house to further investigate. In the secret room, he is killed by the witch. Melinda attempts to venture downstairs, but discovers Justin's body hanging in the doorway. She is then attacked by the witch, who corner her into the kitchen where she beats her brutally. Upstairs, Ann and Sheryl are startled by the commotion. George attempts to intervene, and David subsequently arrives at the house, bearing the crucifix. George barricades himself in his bedroom, and discovers Melinda's bloodied body in their bed. The witch appears in the window and causes a mirror in the room to explode, the shards of it slashing George to death.
David attempts to save Ann and Sheryl, but Sheryl flees into the attic to hide, where the witch kills her by driving a stake through her head. David instructs Ann to go outside and wait in his van, and is attacked by the witch moments later, but she vanishes before she is able to kill him. David exits the house, and finds Ann's dead body inside his van. Despondent, he takes cans of gasoline to the pond, pours them in it, and lights it on fire. Mary appears to him and reveals herself as another form of the witch; David drives the crucifix through her heart and she falls backwards into the pond. The disturbance seems over, but before David can leave, Elondra's hand erupts from the pond and drags him under water, drowning him.
Cast
Production
''Superstition'' was an independent production filmed in 1981 in Silver Lake, Los Angeles
Silver Lake is a residential and commercial neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Originally home to a small community called Ivanhoe in honor of Sir Walter Scott. In 1907, the Los Angeles Water Department built the ...
under the title ''The Witch'' but was shelved until four years later.
Release
''Superstition'' was released theatrically in Italy in 1982.
Frank Moreno, the president of Almi Pictures, promoted the film similarly to how he promoted Almi Pictures release of ''House by the Cemetery
''The House by the Cemetery'' ( it, Quella villa accanto al cimitero) is a 1981 Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci. The film stars Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina and Dagmar Lassander. Its ...
''. This included giving the film a trailer with what he described as "a sense of humor" and having " Brother Theodore do the voice over in order to attract a secondary audience.
''Superstition'' received a brief release theatrically on the West coast of the United States before being released directly to home video in January 1985.[
]
Critical response
In a review published by the ''New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'', ''Superstition'' was negatively compared to ''The Amityville Horror
''The Amityville Horror'' is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, b ...
'' (1979), and it was noted: "Like many contemporary fright films, ''Superstition'' substitutes escalating gore for suspense. It's also a victim of the bloated running time required to justify its single feature. Had tbeen cut as effectively as its characters, sliced to say, 70 minutes... it might have attained, despite its weak script, the lofty level of watchable." Lou Cedrone of ''The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'' panned the film, writing: "There isn't much mystery to ''Superstition''... There is much pain, boredom and violence—but mysterious it, is not." Cedrone also criticized the film for its featuring the murder of a thirteen-year-old boy.[ '']The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
''s Jay Carr deemed it a "how-much-can-you-take? splatflick," adding that director Roberson "invests its low-grade guignol with more urgency than it deserves and I hope he gets a shot at something better."
''The Hackensack Record''s Lou Lumenick similarly criticized the film's violent content, describing it as a "schlocky slasher film... incorporating elements of ''Poltergeist
In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descr ...
'', represented by an orgy of modestly spooky special effects in the final reel." Critic Joe Bob Briggs
John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), known by the stage name Joe Bob Briggs, is an American syndicated film critic, writer, actor, and comic performer. He is known for having hosted ''Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater'' on The Movie Channel fro ...
alternately praised the film for its gore effects, awarding it three out of four stars.
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 ...
described the film as a "Flamboyant, giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
-style gore effects are the only highlight of this otherwise pedestrian supernatural horror film"
Home media
''Superstition'' was released on 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 kind ...
by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television ser ...
in 2006. On April 16, 2019, Scream 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 the film for the first time 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 ...
.
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, tt0084739, Superstition
1980s slasher films
1982 horror films
1982 films
American haunted house films
American supernatural horror films
American independent films
American slasher films
Films about witchcraft
Films shot in California
Films shot in Los Angeles
Supernatural slasher films
1980s American films