Snakes, spiders, and
shocks oh my! Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing.
Just a few years before Mr. Wes Craven reinvented himself to the
world of horror with his brilliant dream bending thriller A
Nightmare On Elm Street, he was in a small state of limbo as
the 1980's began. Having made two of the most violent movies in the
1970's. Last House On The Left, and The
Hills Have Eyes. Keeping busy the last few years with
television work, he made an extremely underrated thriller that often
goes under the radar when one looks over his very impressive career.
This was with 1981's Deadly Blessing.
PLOT
– When
former member of a religious cult dies in a mysterious accident, his
wife now lives alone and close to the cult's church. Fearing for her
life and her friends, strange and deadly events begin to happen...
LOWDOWN
– I've
been a Wes Craven fan for years. I have fond memories of being scared
shitless from A
Nightmare On Elm Street
(In fact I like to think re-watching this movie over and over again
to get over my fear was a huge reason why I ended up loving horror so
much.) I was a huge Scream
nut
growing up, being able to see the last three sequels in theaters. I'm
also a huge fan of his underrated work. Such as Deadly
Friend,
The people
Under The Stairs,
and of course Shocker.
In my eyes this is after Raimi and Carpenter one of the greatest
horror directors of all time. He was able to make gritty brutal rape
revenge movies with Last
House
and Hills,
and then very smartly transformed into the 1980's creating a new
villain that many of us would forever fear and love. I think what
makes Craven such a great director is his underrated work. These are
original works that aren't as hyped up as Elm
Street, Last
House,
and Hills.
These are his works that fell under the radar that many may not even
know about but vaguely remember watching growing up. I can't even
begin with my love for Deadly
Friend and
how I forced many of my friends to watch it over and over and over
again. Same goes with People
Under The Stairs
and Shocker.
These are great pieces of work that made a very insane universe
dealing with terror and fear.
With
Deadly Blessing
I had always heard about it, yet never saw it. It wasn't until the
ever so amazing Scream Factory for seriously releasing some of the
hardest titles to find today, classics that we all grew up loving and
remembering from our childhood. The great thing about Scream Factory
is the fact their releasing movies that have long since been out of
print or were released with bare bones DVDs. These discs are offered
with breathtaking new artwork with reversible slip covers if you want
to display the original artwork. The extras, commentaries,
interviews, and documentaries are out of this world for any hard core
fan. Also the blu-ray transfer is nothing less than stunning.
Yesterday
while looking around my local record store I spotted a copy of Deadly
Blessing
and decided to take the risk in doing a complete blind. I felt that
from the positive things I had heard, and the fact I have been such a
big Wes Craven far, it would be pretty hard to disappoint. But then
again when I finally got my hands on a VHS copy of Invitation
To Hell,
I was less than a little impressed. So finally I sat back and watched
the very creepy and unsettling tale that makes me NEVER wanting to go
to Amish country e-v-e-r.
The
best way I can describe this movie is comparing it to Dark
Night Of The Scarecrow.
Now I know these movies really don't have much in common besides
being set in farm land, but maybe it's the score of the very
unsettling storyline that makes me compare these two. Deadly
Blessing is
a great thriller. It takes it's time with it's pacing, setting along
perfectly the tension and the fact that something is off in this
beautiful countryside.
This
is great pacing/writing at it's finest. Craven created a world where
all is not what it seems and you can't help but feel the building
tension that begins to surround these three women.
With
appearances by a very young and lovely Sharon Stone, Pumpkinhead's
Jeff East, Hills
Have Eyes's
Michael Berrymann, and veteran actor Ernest Borgnine. This is a
solid cast that seriously makes the film.
Another
huge element I think that worked very well was the use of those
fucking spiders and snakes. Now a days this little trick is overused
to the point it's laughable. Back then, Craven knew exactly what he
was doing and even showed a small preview of things to come with his
use of nightmares and dreams. The bathtub snake bit will forever be
burned into my memory...
Another
huge element that worked was of course the score, and the insane
ending. There are like nine twists thrown at once. Without spoiling
things, I'm sure I won't be the only one who was left completely
puzzled and more than a little creeped out at the ending scene. It
seemed like a Tales
From The Darkside
episode on crack.
So
I highly recommend this thriller to anyone who enjoys Craven's early
work, or likes movies that have the feel of back when made for TV
movies were bad ass from the 1980's. In fact I was pretty stunned to
find this wasn't a TV movie. Now this isn't for everyone, but I can't
urge any horror fan enough to check out this movie. It's a great
creepy film with a stunning transfer and more than enough extras to
make for a very interesting after noon.
3
stars!