Deadly blessingPosted by Buck Noer on June 8th, 2021 The young director Wes Craven had already earned a considerable reputation as a horror filmmaker with his first films. The underground strips "Mondo brutale" ("The Last House On The Left", 1972) and Hills of the Bloody Eyes ("The Hills Have Eyes", 1977) hit fan circles like a bomb, as did the TV thriller "Night Kill "(" Stranger In Our House ", 1978) with Exorcist star Linda Blair was convincing. This is how producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber came up with the idea of having Craven shoot his first film within the studio system - the southern horror "Deadly Blessing". Craven liked the idea of a killer working in the ranks of an Amish-like sect. However, the director and producer had completely opposite ideas about how to approach such a topic. The arguments led, among other things, to a completely new ending that Craven still does not like to this day. But at the most important points the filmmaker was able to assert himself against his sponsors and so, despite obstacles, “Tödlicher Blessing” has become an extremely effective, tightly staged slasher. The pregnant farmer Martha (Maren Jensen) becomes a widow on her first wedding anniversary. Her husband Jim (Douglas Barr, the Howie from the cult TV series "A Colt just in case") is run over by his own tractor. It's not clear whether Jim's death was really an accident. In any case, the neighboring Christian fundamentalist denomination seems to have something to do with the matter. Martha's best friends Lana (Sharon Stone) and Vicky (Susan Buckner, Grease) come from town to help the mourners during this difficult time. The neighbor Louisa (Lois Nettleton) and her painting daughter Faith (Lisa Hartman) are very accommodating. But then William (genre cult star Michael Berryman, The Devil's Rejects), a mentally retarded member of the sect, is found murdered. There is a killer among the believers. Or has your supervisor Isaiah (Ernest Borgnine, the mechanic from the helicopter series "Air Wolf") even made a pact with the devil? Although it was only his fourth film, Wes Craven already demonstrated that talent for dramaturgically mature slasher scenes in "Tödlicher Blessing", which also in later works such as Nightmare - Murderous Dreams, "Shocker", Scream and Scream 2 Bear came. Especially the economical but effective use of the subjective camera and the scene in the red sports car with the steamed up windows are great slasher art. As far as the staging of the horror sequences is concerned, the film clearly belongs to the stronger ones of its time. Nevertheless, there was watch any movie online with the producers. They absolutely wanted the religious community to ultimately turn out to be a devil sect - in other words: absolutely evil. For Craven, however, this view was too flat. For him the believers were a group of frightened people hiding from the outside world behind a wall of fundamentalist commandments. On this point, Craven was finally able to prevail - and that's a good thing! The psychological, exposing approach is much more interesting than just beating the cult like most other horror films with a similar theme like to do.
Elsewhere, Craven wasn't quite as lucky. In contrast to his financiers, he wanted a completely rational resolution - just as was always the case later with his "Scream" trilogy. But Peters and Gruber didn't ask for a thriller for their money, they wanted a real horror film. And at least half of them prevailed with their ideas. Spoiler! The neighbor's daughter Faith turns out to be the murderer. In truth, Faith is not a girl at all, but a hermaphrodite who cannot cope with being different. In addition, Faith has fallen in love with Martha without having the opportunity to confess these feelings to her. This is the ending as Craven wanted it to be. But the financiers showed no mercy and forced their director to do a contractually guaranteed re-shoot. This is how the last sequence of the film was created, in which Martha is dragged into hell by a demon suddenly rising from the ground. Of course, Craven's ending is better. The way he plays with the expectations of the audience, who necessarily expect a religious background and the sect's involvement in the murders, is simply brilliant. However, the “second end” doesn't really bother either. The demonic finale is strongly staged, offers additional eye candy and looks so obviously attached that it hardly affects the previous film negatively.
Conclusion: "Deadly Blessing" is extremely effective
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