In some unnamed stretch of
rural America, the Hittites are a closeted religious community, working
the land and shunning the sinful temptations
of modern life. They’re basically the Amish in every conceivable
way, though the movie goes to great lengths to establish that they are
not actually the Amish, presumably in case they somehow got their hands
on a VCR, rented this and decided to sue.
Rugged farming type Jim Schmidt used to be a Hittite, indeed his father
Isaiah (Ernest Borgnine) is the big cheese patriarch of their community,
but he turned his back on the old ways when he went away to college,
met a girl called Martha, fell in love and got married. Luckily, he inherited
his Dad’s farm just before being cast out of the clan for his wanton
ways, and the happy couple retreat there to live the simple life. Trouble
is, Jim’s loonpot of a father and his creepy brethren are still
living right next door on the Hittite compound, and they don’t
take too kindly to outsiders.
Two other neighbours know this only too well – Louisa Stohler and
her daughter Faith have been living alone on their old farm since Daddy
Stohler legged it, and the Hittites aren’t too keen on them either.
In fact, in the opening scene Faith is chased home by William, a simple-minded
Hittite manchild (played by regular horror face Michael Berryman) who
keeps screaming that she’s an incubus, a demon that possesses the
minds of men while they sleep.
Students of mythology can take a pause here to point out that, yes, the
incubus of legend is actually male. If William wanted to be culturally
correct, he’d call Faith a succubus. He is a mentally subnormal
Hittite manchild though, so we’ll cut him some slack.
Anyway, one morning Martha tells Jim that they’re expecting their
first child – and from that moment on, we know he’s doomed.
They enjoy an evening of photo albums and hot married sex, but in the
middle of the night Jim awakes to hear a noise in the barn. Heading down
to investigate, he’s squashed by his own tractor under mysterious
circumstances.
Widowed and faced with an angry Hittite community that blames her for
Jim’s fall from grace, Martha summons her two college buddies to
make the trip from LA to provide sisterly support. Enter Vicky, an irritatingly
upbeat hussy, and Lana, a downbeat depressive played by 23-year-old Sharon
Stone in her first starring role. Of course, mixing these two flesh-exposing
ladies into the pot does little to placate hardline God botherer Isaiah – especially
when Vicky starts flirting with his other son, the understandably-tempted
John.
Almost as soon as she arrives, Lana sinks into a gloomy sulk, endlessly
complaining of cold spots in her bedroom and plagued by nightmares about
a strange
man and spiders. Her pregnant best friend’s husband has just been
crushed to death, after all, so it’s nice to know she’s got
her priorities straight.
Weird things begin to happen. Lana is trapped inside the barn by an unseen
someone – or something – and discovers William’s stabbed
corpse hanging from the rafters. A snake is released into Martha’s
bathwater. Vicky finally seduces John, but a cloaked figure stabs him
and burns her to death in the car.
It’s the Hittites, right? Got to be. Nope, the culprit (and click
away now if you don’t want this epic twist spoiled) is Faith,
the daughter of neighbourly Louisa. Except she’s not her daughter.
She’s her son, dressed and treated as a girl since birth, and he/she
is now in love with Martha – hence the bumping off of anyone who
might get in the way of his/her passion.
Well, anyone except Vicky. She was actually killed by Melissa, John’s
cousin (and bride-to-be, those crazy Hittites!) for the relatively simple
sin of romping with her fella. Still following along? Just for good measure,
the psychotic Melissa then kills the psychotic Faith before he/she can
kill confused Martha. Pretty obvious, eh? And just when you think it’s
finally all over, and that the eerie goings-on have been vaguely explained
by good old fashioned human nuttiness rather than the supernatural power
of the incubus, the ghost of Jim appears to Martha and just manages to
gasp a warning before a large and utterly inexplicable monster bursts
through the floorboards and drags her into the ground.
Apart from the gobsmackingly random ending, Deadly Blessing is often
a sporadically entertaining little horror thriller, directed by a pre-Elm
Street Wes Craven. While the story drags, he stages a few solid scare
scenes – most notably the young Sharon Stone’s ordeal in
the barn, her nightmares and Martha’s encounter with the snake
in her bath. The latter scene is especially intriguing, as Craven lifted
it almost shot-for-shot and used it again in the first Elm Street movie
(see: Johnny Depp), replacing the wandering serpent with Freddy’s
bladed fingers.
Stone plays little more than a morose damsel in distress, but it is interesting
to see her cast as a quiet mousey recluse rather than the voracious sex
bomb of her more famous later work.
Need to know: The cast of Deadly Blessing provides a veritable feast
of obscure amusement for the eagle-eyed TV and movie trivia geek. The
lead role of Martha was played by Maren Jensen, better known as Athena
from Battlestar Galactica, while her doomed husband, Jim, was played
by Doug Barr, who spent most of the Eighties following Lee Majors around
as Howie in The Fall Guy. And if John, the hunky young Hittite led astray
by Vicky, looks strangely familiar, that’s probably because he
was played by Jeff East, the teenage Clark Kent from Superman: The Movie.
Availability: Deadly Blessing is available on US DVD.
