Deadly Blessing (1981)

This movie is available on Tubi right now. That's where I saw it.

It's an early-ish Wes Craven movie, and, um.... well, it's complicated. It's hard to know exactly what to say about it.

You can tell from the background music, the way everybody dresses, and their hair, that this movie comes out of the late 70s. It might have laid some of the groundwork for Children of the Corn, but it just has major 70s vibes throughout. One of the main characters, played by babe Maren Jensen, reminds me a LOT of Amy Irving in The Fury.

It's basically a story about a young couple who live in a farmhouse, mostly surrounded by neighbors who belong to some kind of religious sect called the Hittites. (The real Hittites were an ancient civilization in what we call Turkey today. I think maybe Wes Craven wanted to have the sect be Hutterites, but he didn't want to get sued, so he just changed the name a little). Anyway, the sect is a lot like the Amish or Mennonites. If that's what you expect to see, your expectations will be about right.

They are led by their stern, intolerant pastor, played by Ernest Borgnine. Throughout the movie, he comes across as an antagonist, and generally an unsympathetic bad guy. But, don't get too judgy, because... well, just don't.

The sect is always talking about something called the Incubus, which is some kind of demon that they think is threatening everybody's souls.

Maren Jensen has some sort of past history from the world outside of the rural farming area where the story is set. Early in the film, a couple of her old friends come to visit. One of them is played by Sharon Stone! It's her first movie where she talks. She looks so young. Anyway, they show up to visit, shortly after Maren J's character's husband, who is a former Hittite, gets mysteriously killed in a tractor accident.

There are other characters in the movie, people who aren't in the Hittite sect. Various people seem to really hate each other, so you might get the feeling there could be some violence and murder in this movie. And, well, yah, you shouldn't rule that out.

So, what can I say without wrecking it. Well, for me, it was a little too complicated, and it didn't quite come together enough to really make sense. I suspect that Wes Craven had a solid master plan, but somehow it was interfered with... maybe he ran out of money halfway through, or an important cast member got sick or injured, or studio higher-ups got involved and made him film things in some way that veered away from his master plan. It must be something like that, some random thing that messed with his plan. I just don't think Wes C would make a movie that makes this little sense.

It does have scary moments. Also, it is kind of worth seeing just to see a movie that co-stars Ernest
Borgnine, Sharon Stone, and Michael Berryman... that sounds so strange, to think of them together in one movie. It also has hints of a Rosemary's Baby or The Omen -ish type of plot or subplot, possibly left over from an early draft of the script. Or maybe that was Wes C's intention, from the beginning, to film a sort of Amish Omen movie, but for whatever reason he had to veer away from his plan.

Anyway, it could be worth seeing if you feel like speculating about what might have gone wrong filming it, or if you are in the mood to see some babes. But, I can't really give it two thumbs up.

There you have it.

Infinity Pool

I really liked this sci-fi horror. Dark, creepy and surprisingly unpredictable.

Superbowl Trailers

Because let's face it, that's the most interesting part about the superbowl to those who don't give a shit about sports, so what have we gotten out of it so far?

Indy 5 looks all right. It looks like Karen Allen is coming back, and Indy is still fighting Nazis. What more do you need? He's still got it.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 looks all right. Trying to take on a dramatic angle with the hint that it'll be a downer ending, which I'm all for. Plus, it was great to hear that Rainbow song "Since You Been Gone".

But the most interesting is a DC movie. The Flash looks pretty good. Very vivid with its special effects, but damn, it's good to see Keaton again. And with all this timeline fuckery, we're getting some Batfleck and even some General Zod? They said this movie had some great early reviews, so one can only hope they wrap up the Synderverse stuff accordingly. I'm probably wrong here, but he wants to save a specific universe because his mom lives there, but was it Keaton's universe that doesn't have the metahumans? Or is this an alternate universe from Keaton's Batman that merely features a Keaton Batman? So many questions...


There's supposed to be a Scream 6 trailer too. I bet they give the whole movie away in that one.

Stop, drop, and roll!

I have seen thousands of people in movies catch on fire. But you know what I've never seen? One of these flaming motherfuckers stop, drop, and roll! Holy shit! This is basic stuff, people! I remember this information being pounded into my skull practically every day all throughout grade school. If you ever catch on fire, what do you do? STOP, DROP, AND FUCKING ROLL! They said it so much that I believed it was an inevitable part of life that I would one day catch on fire.

And here I am, totally prepared, but with nothing to show for it. But every single person I have ever seen catch on fire in a movie just runs around flailing their arms. WTF?! That's the LAST thing you're supposed to do! Sometimes they're even right next to a body of water! And do they ever jump in? FUCK NO! I can only figure fire safety is a completely unheard of concept in the movie world.

John Lennon was almost in WarGames (1983)

Holy cow. Is this well known? I don't think I had ever heard about this before. That would have been incredibly cool. He was killed when the script was still at an early stage of development. It's mentioned here, just a little above the Filming section.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames#Development

Baltimore power station plotting guy

OK, this is a hard post to classify. I'm gonna post it in the Television forum because I saw a story about it on television. Why not.

I posted something about this once before, either here or on IMDB. It made me sit up and pay attention, partly because of how insane it is, and partly because it has a local connection for me. One of the people in the story grew up in the town next door to where I grew up, and I'm pretty sure we knew some of the same people. So, yikes.

ANYWAY, here's the story. Maybe you saw in the news today that a couple of maniacs were planning to blow up a power station in Baltimore, and just massively fuck with the whole power grid around there. One of the maniacs is a young lady named Sarah Clendaniel, and the other is a guy named Brandon Russell.

Brandon Russell was in the news back in 2017... I guess it was a few months after the IMDB message boards were taken down, but it had nothing to do with that. Here, if you want an account of why he was in the news in 2017, watch this video. If you just focus on the part of the video from 2:22 to 2:51 or so, you'll get the gist. But, this guy telling the story is pretty entertaining, so I recommend watching the whole six minutes if you have time.




Hey, he has a Wikipedia entry. Here is Brandon Russell's Wikiedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Russell


Anyway, Jeremy Himmelman is mentioned at about 0:57 in the video I posted, and he grew up in the town next door to where I grew up. He was a lot younger than me, but both towns are small and they have some common events, organizations, shopping centers, restaurants, etc. I am sure that I know some of the same people he did, soooooo that's really, really, really relaxing.... I'm pretty sure I have posted photos here of the town where he (Jeremy Himmelman) was from, because it has some old houses that remind me of the Morningside funeral home from Phantasm.

So, this whole story is a bit complicated, but just remember that Brandon Russell was the roommate in that house who didn't kill anyone, but just happened to be stockpiling shitloads of explosives, including radioactive material, in hopes of making the biggest explosion he possibly could.

Anyway, I am tired, I'm sure I'm rambling. I just thought this was a pretty scary story that we might find alarming, and just consider it one more (one more of MANY, of course) warning(s) that our whole existence is fragile as hell, and could all fall apart instantly with no warning at all.

In Search of All American Massacre - 2022 doc

You know, that spin-off from TCM2 about Chop-Top in prison? It was an on-again/off-again project by Tobe Hooper's son featuring the triumphant return of Bill Moseley, featuring Buckethead as Leatherface, and scoring the movie.

Want to know more about it? Tough luck. Consider yourself as informed as you'll ever get. Info on this is rare, so this doc will give you the most intel you'll ever have about this lost film.
Basically no relevant cast or crew members are willing to be interviewed for this, except for the actor who played grandpa. He gives us plenty of info on his involvement, but his involvement is a relatively small part it seems.

The goal of this doc is to stir the pot and see if it generates enough of a buzz. Apparently, not a lot of people know this was a thing? I knew because I was big on Cornbugs for a while there, and I finally got a bit of backstory on that dynamic.

Also, for some reason, Felissa Rose is in here to talk about stuff. It's never too late for Return to Return to Sleepaway Camp...


There's also a documentary out there about TCM4. Now that is a doc I want to see!

Finish the Quote

Would you like some making fuck?

The Acid King - 2021 true crime doc

The doc covers the early 80s satanic panic around a dysfunctional teen drug dealer Ricky Kasso who killed one of his fellow teenagers in 1984. A few points of interest:


- Features Jim Van Bebber. No, he wasn't involved, but someone probably offered him some weed and so he made the whole thing more entertaining. I'm pretty sure I saw him light up there once. Find out what his religion is here.

- The happenings occur in Suffolk County, New York. This is the same place as the Amityville Horror, even drawing a brief connection to it.

- The weirdo outcast angle is the basis for a song I very much enjoyed from the early 2000s.



Currently on Tubi.

2023 Documentary challenge

Anyone in the mood for a spot of learning for the month of February, can make your spot below.

1 point for every minute watched of any documentary (minimum duration of 30 minutes).

Add 10 points for a documentary about a dark subject matter (serial killers, war, etc.).

Add 20 points for a documentary about the horror genre or a specific horror movie.

Get an extra 25 bonus points for a FTV (including per episode of a series).

DVD and Blu-ray commentaries and mockumentaries/pseudo-documentaries will not be permitted. It's strictly for learning, well, whilst being entertained by the subject matter of course.

No YouTube videos.

The Documentary Challenge will begin Wednesday 1st February at 00:00 hrs and end on Tuesday 28th at 23:59.

Please post any questions in the shoutbox.

Have fun... learning... and stuff... 😦