Bendición mortal

Like great wines, Craven's Deadly Blessing improves with age. When looking over the spectrum of his cinema one can see how this films fits into that particular period in his career when he struggled to finance A Nightmare on Elm Street. Unfortunately that classic would not appear until after Swamp Thing and Hills Have Eyes 2. But here we have a story closer than usual to Wes Cravens's heart, repression, religious conflict and social devision, therefore it comes as quite a surprise that Craven does not regard this as one of his more accomplished efforts.

After the mysterious death of her husband, soon after leaving a strict religious sect known as the Hittites. Martha is left as a lonely widow expecting a child, and inherits the country house. Soon two of her friends Vicky and Lana come to comfort her and hopefully bring her back with them, but she prefers to stay. The local Hittites headed by Isaiah see her as the blame for the death and including one of their own, and claim her to be the incubus. Soon strange things begin to happen, and she gets the feeling it might be the sect behind it, but far more sinister work seems to be abound.

Craven's lost treasure in his film collection just might be his curiously under-seen 1981 cult film "Deadly Blessing". Finally with its DVD release in Australia, I got the chance and really enjoyed this stylishly skin crawling and at times inspired psychological shocker. Everything about Wes Craven's well-mounted set pieces is genuinely haunting and visually striking with its spontaneously unexpected and innovative jolts. Tight, pressure-boiling suspense is atmospherically tailored to the dreamy, offbeat air and Craven's judgement is immensely on song. He paints the surreal mood with great use of tinted colouring, well-lit lighting and an eerily original and alienating rural location choice. Going a long way to making the whole set-up quite effective was James Horner's alarming music score, which ripples with ripe and tight thunderous cues. Glenn M. Benest and Mathew Barr's busily symbolic story builds upon the groundwork to only end up all over the shop with its supernatural and psychological elements that seem too uneven and illogical. Boy does it become out-of-control, and strange leading to the climax. It does throw one surprise after another! However the ambiguously outrageous and tacky shock ending, now that was a real eye opener that totally felt out-of-place within the subtle context. Listen to the amusing DVD commentary to understand the reasoning for its inclusion. Robert Jessup's elegantly scenic cinematography is well observed and swiftly handled. The three beautiful lead females were convincingly accessible; a headstrong Maren Jensen, joyful Susan Buckner and a drop dead gorgeous, but fragile-minded Sharon Stone. Ernest Borgnine's steadfast, godly turn as the sect leader is superbly prominent. Michael Berryman is unforgettable. Lisa Hartman and Lois Nettleton are enjoyably lively, and Jeff East and Kevin Cooney also appear. Also Craven manages to squeeze a neat little reference to his very good TV movie "Summer of Fear".

This was awesome fun! I totally loved it, from beginning to end. I don't see why this got such mixed and/or bad reviews! This was great. Yes, the script could've used another polish, but after I saw it once I figured out what was happening. Maren Jensen, Sharon Stone, and Susan Buckner are bodacious babes living in a farmhouse in the remote countryside, surrounded on all sides by a religious cult known as the Hittites. Soon weird things start happening and people begin to die. Who is responsible? Is it the Hittites? Or something else? This is great! Rent it! Buy it! Cherish it! There are such great scenes, such as the scene in the barn (I swear, this scene had me jumping out of my socks!), the bathtub sequence, the double murder in the car, the peeping tom sequence, and the finale which was awesome! See this one, you won't be disappointed!

A group of Hittites have been terrorizing their non-Hittite neighbours in an attempt to run them off their land, so that they can seize it for themselves.

The Hittites are an extreme religious sect that, "make the Amish look like swingers".

They shun anyone who does not follow their hardline path, calling them serpents, while claiming that all non-Hittite women are incubus.

When one of their own leaves the group to pursue an education in the city, and returns with a beautiful wife to claim his inheritance, and farm the land with modern methods...it is no coincidence that he winds up murdered.

However, the death doesn't stop there.

One of the Hittite boys with developmental disabilities also winds up dead, when he is caught peeping on the women next door.

It seems that something more supernatural may be afoot when doors start being slammed by unseen forces, and the women are tormented by snakes and spiders.

The question now, is, whether a murderer might be running rampant, or if some sort of Hittite golem been unleashed?

Perhaps the answer isn't so simple.

Things are left ambiguous enough to keep you guessing...as people continue to die.

And the culprits may just be the ones you least expect.

The truth is revealed in an obvious case of foreshadowing, but they leave enough room for reasonable doubt to keep you questioning things.

While an unexpected twist is spun in at the end to throw you for a loop.

All in all, it's an entertaining little horror mystery with a lot of twists and turns.

And the women are all total babes.

6.5 out of 10.

When a farmer is killed in his barn, his wife, Martha (Maren Jensen) finds herself up against a local Amish-like group, known as the Hittites. When Martha's friends, Lana and Vicky (Sharon Stone and Susan Buckner) arrive for a visit, horror ensues. It seems that someone is bumping off believers and non-believers alike, making an already bad situation much worse!

Ernest Borgnine is perfectly glum as the stolid Isaiah, leader of the Hittites. This is easily his best role since THE DEVIL'S RAIN.

Director Wes Craven pulls out all the stops here, using spiders, snakes, chickens, religious madness, Sharon Stone in awesome nightwear, and Ernest Borgnine in a beard to incite terror! Sort of a wacky giallo, complete with black-gloved killer, there's much enjoyment to be had!

P.S.- The final conflict in the farmhouse, and the hellish epilogue must be witnessed to be believed!...