Movie Review: 'Deadly Blessing' (1981)

By Ryan Clark

No, not the one with that goofy robot and reanimated Kristy Swanson throwing a basketball at Anne Ramsey's head.  That's Deadly Friend.  I'm talking about Deadly Blessing, the 1981 thriller about three girls living in a house near a Hittite community that thinks the girls have a direct line to Satan because they drive cars and wear negligees.  What exactly are Hittites?  Well, it's a group that once existed in the Bronze Age, but in the movie they are basically portrayed as Amish people, except they're really, really mean.

I seriously don't understand the lack of love for this movie.  Through the years, all I've read are mediocre-to-poor reviews, but Deadly Blessing is far better than people give it credit for.  Sure, some of the goings-on don't exactly make sense, and it looks like a TV movie, and the middle portion drags a bit, but Ernest Borgnine and Lois Nettleton are awesome in peripheral, sort-of-important-but-not-really roles, and the scares are effective because the filmmakers weren't afraid to get surreal with the imagery.  There's a memorable bathtub scene that rivals the one in Cronenberg's Shivers and foreshadows the more famous one in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

"Wes, can I close my legs now?"

One also gets the sense that, despite the fact that this obscure movie must not be one of Wes Craven's favorites, the depiction of family battles among the Hittite community in Deadly Blessing is a reflection of Craven's relationship with his own mother, who was a strict Baptist and kept her son from watching movies until he went off to college.  As told by Jason Zinoman in the excellent new book "Shock Value", Craven rebelled by doing things his mother would not approve of, including directing porn films and The Last House on the Left, which was successful enough to allow him to continue making horror films (and just so happened to revolutionize the genre at the same time).  His mother refused to see any of the films her son made until his first and only non-horror movie, Music of the Heart, in 1999.  I'm not saying that Deadly Blessing is a deeply personal film or anything -- in fact, I'm pretty sure the producers just wanted to make another slasher film (they were awfully popular in 1981), but it turned out to be more interesting than I think anyone anticipated.

"You shall not associate with Patti Simcox.  Rizzo said so."

I've seen a lot of horror films, so if I tell you this film has scenes that made my eyes bug out, that really means something.  There's the aforementioned snake-in-the-bathtub scene, and there's a scene where a spider drops into Sharon Stone's open mouth (apparently they used a real spider – ew!).  The ending, which you can tell was tacked on by producers, is completely awesome in a random sort of way.  And, perhaps most disturbing of all, I realized that one of the male leads looks like Jack Lemmon; I was convinced they must be related, but there seems to be no connection.

That face does not belong on a young body!

A lot of people shit on Deadly Blessing, but it's actually one of Wes Craven's best movies, so just see it.  If you can.  'Cause, you know, it's not on DVD in the U.S.  I have no idea why Deadly Friend got a DVD release years ago, but Deadly Blessing has not.  The world is more fucked up than I thought.

"I can't wait to be famous!"

If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things.

Today I created a Facebook fan page for a book about the making of Brian De Palma's Carrie.  Now, you may be asking yourself why I've created a fan page for a book that doesn't exist yet, and probably won't exist for quite some time.  There are several reasons – first of all, I'm convinced that Facebook can be an excellent tool to generate interest if you use it correctly.  I can't say I'm highly experienced at this, but I'm certainly going to try.  Having a group of people who want this book to be published will motivate me to keep going until I am able to finish it.  It could also help when I'm trying to get a book deal, and I like the idea of allowing fans of the film to sound off on what they would like to read and see in such a book.

I've waxed rhapsodic about Carrie several times on this blog, and I want to put my enthusiasm to work in documenting the production.  Carrie was made 35 years ago, and not having been present on the set (nor even being born at that time) poses a great difficulty in reconstructing what went on behind-the-scenes, but I will form a story through interviews with most of the people involved.  I already have a couple of people who are interested in being interviewed, so I'm on my way!

If anyone reading this has any leads as to how to get in touch with anyone involved in the making of Carrie, please contact me through the fan page or through my regular Facebook page.  Many of the bit players and crew members seem to have vanished off the face of the earth (or at least the Net), so I'll need all the help I can get.  The support of the horror community is extremely important to me.

Book Review: 'Shock Value' by Jason Zinoman

By Ryan Clark

Finally, we have a book that gives major consideration to the horror genre without regurgitating the same old stories behind the making of these classic films. There’s the expected overlap, because the context of the films must be explained to readers who aren’t overly familiar with them, but Zinoman has a fresh point of view. He examines these films as the products of a close-knit group of radical directors – the Martin Scorseses and Francis Ford Coppolas of horror, if you will.

While focusing on the ground-breaking early films of Carpenter, Craven, Romero, and Hooper is a no-brainer, what I appreciate most about Shock Value is that Zinoman gives equal weight to the work of two extremely undervalued filmmakers, Dan O’Bannon (who co-wrote the original screenplay that became Alien and directed The Return of the Living Dead) and Brian De Palma (Carrie, Dressed to Kill).  He dishes out juicy tidbits concerning their private lives and the making of their most famous horror films, and refuses to shy away from exposing the personal flaws of each of the people discussed in the book, giving their stories a very human edge rather than propping them up on a pedestal.

My only complaint about Shock Value is that it jumps around a lot, which can be slightly disorienting. There are also a couple of easy-to-spot errors, but that’s forgivable considering the overall quality of the book. Shock Value is part behind-the-scenes narrative, part cinema study, and part cultural analysis. Readers looking for any, or all, of the above will be pleased, and even the most experienced horror connoisseur will be enlightened.

Buy it at Amazon.

Sorry I haven't been updating lately!  My lack of inspiration is startling.  The only thing getting me up off my ass at this point is the fact that I have a Traumafession posted over at the wonderful website Kindertrauma.  Check it out!