Deadly Spoilers
DEADLY BLESSING is amazing mix of incongruous horror and non-horror elements which amounts next to nothing. Here's a quick run-down of what kooky things you'll find in this interesting failure.
- The film starts and ends with some narration that adds absolutely nothing to the film.
- DEADLY BLESSING starts with one of the biggest clichés in horror: get rid of the men, then add some beautiful women to the story who will be tormented for the next 2 hours for our viewing pleasure. In this case, the husband is unceremoniously killed at the beginning of the movie, leaving Maren Jensen to cope with her sudden loss with her two beautiful female friends, played by a very young Sharon Stone and Susan Buckner (whatever happened to her anyway?).
- You'll hear Omen-like music. Why? Dunno.
- The superfast "love" story between Susan Buckner and Jeff East. Come on!
- When Jeff East is stabbed several times when he's in the car, there's no blood on the knife.
- When Susan Buckner's car is dosed with gasoline, she tries to drive away only to die when the car blows up. Why didn't she just step out of the car?
- The retributive killings or the general tone of the film. Women are evil.
- INCUBUS, INCUBUS, INCUBUS!
- The gun pratice scene, with the paint can exploding in slow motion. And what was the point of that scene?
- Blood in milk carton (?!?!)
- Lots of scenes of someone watching Jensen undressing in her bedroom from the outside. I guess she never heard of curtains.
- Jeff East's wife walking around like a zombie because she has psychic powers.
- Lisa Hartman's secret. Arf!
- The Hitites (a representation of the director's views?).
- A snake in a bathtub, where we see Jensen wearing the bottom part of a bikini swimsuit.
- The scarecrow prank.
- The whole barn scene with Sharon Stone, which doesn't make any sense. There's a killer in the barn but Sharon is more terrified of the very HUGE spiders in the barn. Then she comes face to face with a dead Michael Berryman popping out of nowhere and hanging from a rope.
- Sharon Stone's nightmare sequence. This is the best scene in the movie. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with the rest of the film.
- The psycho neighbor who hates men.
- Chickens popping out of a burial ground.
- Inane dialogue, like when Jensen says defiantly "You want me to run because you can't find the killer!" Well, yeah.
- Giallo-like killer, with gloved hands and a knife. How fashionable for hicks!
- Lisa Hartman's paintings!
- Sharon Stone stoned.
- Sharon Stone's acting.
- Sharon Stone's wardrobe.
- The ending, which is totally inexplicable.
Anyway, there's much more wacky stuff I could write about but the list would be too long! DEADLY BLESSING doesn't know what it wants to be. A giallo movie, with someone killing people? A supernatural thriller? A "Modern folks vs Old-Fashion folks" drama? There's a moment in the film when all those elements come together and it's an unbelievable train-wreck. The 5 minute long part of the film starts when Maren and Sharon try to leave the house, only to have someone on the other side of the door trying to get in. From this point on, the film is totally insane. Maren hits Sharon (a must see for those who can't stand Sharon). Then not one, not two but THREE women try to kill Jensen in a matter of minutes. First, it's a butch Lisa Hartman, then it's Lisa's insane mother and after one of the funniest stretch of action ever committed to film, it's now Jeff East's wife who wants to kill Jensen. I've never seen anything like it. Wes Craven must have something against women because that scene makes every women look positively insane (including Jensen, who smacks Sharon for no reason at all). In the end, the whole moment of everyone trying to kill Jensen is so over-the-top crazy/camp that John Waters couldn't have come up with something this brilliantly whacked!
I actually saw DEADLY BLESSING twice on the big screen and saw it again recently and I have to say that the whole movie doesn't make much sense. To describe this flick as confused is an understatement. But as messed up as it is, DEADLY BLESSING is still fascinating to watch mainly because, first, I believe Wes Craven had to make this movie in order to come up with his next project, the uber successful A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Second, there are some excellent moments of creepiness here and there, and third, because one can only wonder what the folks behind the cameras were thinking when they agreed to make this movie. It's probably this reason alone why I saw it twice. I was positively fascinated by the train-wreck on the big screen.
