Deadly Blessing(1981)

Deadly Blessing is an early offering from Wes Craven and it is not a well-known movie. It stars a young Sharon Stone and Michael Berryman who was in The Hills Have Eyes(1977) which I reviewed here.

The movie is about a sect called the 'Hittites' whose leader is Isaiah Schmidt(Ernest Borgnine). They are similar to the Amish in that they live in their own community and they don't take kindly to outsiders. Martha (Maren Jensen) has married Jim, who is Isaiah's son, but who doesn't share their beliefs. Jim is mysteriously killed by his own tractor. Martha's two friends come to stay with her. They are Lana Marcus(Sharon Stone) and Vicky Anderson(Susan Buckner). They try to comfort the grieving widow.

Martha is visited by her neighbours and she tries to deal with her grief. Jim's brother, John, takes a fancy to Vicky despite the disapproval of his father Isaiah. Strange things start to happen and the Hittites think that it is the work of an incubus/demon which is living with the three women.One of the cult members is killed and Isaiah is hell-bent on getting rid of the demon.He offers to buy Martha and Jim's house. Martha turns him down and he is not happy. Lana is having nightmares about spiders. She gets locked in the barn and she sees the spider from her dream.She falls down and it crawls on her neck(ugh!). Martha is in the bath when a large snake slides in with her!

John decides to leave the cult and his father tells him that he is dead to him. He meets Vicki and they chat. Lana has a horrible dream about the spider dropping into her mouth. She and Martha are home alone and they are scared. John and Vicki are kissing in her car. She hears a noise and he gets out to investigate only to be met by his former fiancee,Melissa(Coleen Riley) who stabs him and then sets fire to the car with Vicki in it. Lots of things happen together and culminates in the ending which is strange and confusing. I won't ruin it by telling you what happens.
Not a bad film, but certainly not one of Wes Craven's best. I would not rate this as one of my favourites but it is worth seeing. Give it a try if you haven't already seen it. I would give this movie a 6/10.