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May 11, 2024
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Superstition (1982 film)
Universidad del Caribe (RD)
Student: Flynn Hancock
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James W. Roberson directed the 1982 American supernatural slasher film Superstition, which starred Lynn Carlin, Albert Salmi, and James Houghton. A family that moves into a home that was formerly the location of a witch's execution is the focus of the story. Superstition was filmed in 1981, but it wasn't released in the US until 1985.
During the "video nasty" hysteria in the UK, the movie was prohibited; nonetheless, it was later distributed uncut under the title The Witch.
Plot ==
After pulling a practical joke on a young couple outside in their car, two young guys are brutally killed in an abandoned house by an invisible entity. A short while later, Reverend David Thompson, a new clergyman appointed to the local parish taking on the role of Reverend Maier, an elderly preacher, is visited by Inspector Sturgess and his partner Hollister. Sturgess expresses concern about the abandoned house being a neighborhood dumping site and mentions the recent killings of the two adolescent lads, which he believes were motivated by occultism, as well as the drownings that have happened in the pond close to the house. The abandoned house is located on church land.
Hollister, Maier, David, and Sturgess pay a visit to the property. They encounter the quiet caregiver, Arlen, who seems to be suffering from mental illness. Arlen's elderly mother Elvira lives in a cottage next door. Arlen is suspected by Sturgess of the latest killings. After pursuing Arlen, Hollister is dragged into the water by an unseen attacker while standing on the dock of the pond. Hearing that David intended to drain the pond infuriates Arlen, who runs away from the cops and vanishes. Elvira is interviewed by Sturgess and Maier, but all she says is that Arlen is following some enigmatic "mistress."
David encounters Mary, a gregarious little girl who says she used to reside in the house. Maier blesses the structure, but in a strange accident, she is slain by a table saw blade. A little while later, the house is occupied by the church's guests, the alcoholic Reverend George, his wife Melinda, and their teenage children Ann, Sheryl, and Justin. A renovator is hanged to death in the home's elevator shaft by a clawed figure on the day they move in. While the kids play in the pond, Ann finds a severed human hand—later identified as Hollister's—in the water. Ann experiences a mental collapse as a result of the incident.
The claw-handed figure attacks and kills Justin in the basement of the house. Justin is searched inside and outside the home by Sturgess and other law enforcement officers. Ann, meanwhile, is having nightmares about her family being killed. David finds an old crucifix in the pond that Elvira says has been keeping a witch who was executed on the land centuries ago dormant. Later, David finds a book in the church records that details a 1692 local inquisition in which Elondra Sharack, a woman charged with the death of a nine-year-old child named Mary, was drowned in the pond. Flames shot out of the church as she passed away.
Sturgess finds the renovator's body while inspecting the house and finds Arlen hidden in a hidden room in the basement. Sturgess stays at the residence to conduct more investigation as Arlen is taken into custody. The witch murders him in the hidden chamber. When Melinda goes downstairs, she finds Justin's body dangling in the doorway. The witch then 2
attacks her, trapping her in the kitchen where she is severely beaten. The noise upstairs startles Ann and Sheryl. David then shows up to the house with the crucifix when George tries to step in. After locking himself in his bedroom, George finds Melinda's bloody corpse lying in their bed. The witch materializes in the window, blowing up the room's mirror and killing George with its shards.
Although Sheryl runs into the attic to hide, the witch drives a stake in her head and kills her.
David tries to save Ann and Sheryl. Ann is told by David to go outside and wait in his van. A few moments later, the witch attacks David, but she disappears before she can murder him. After leaving the house, David discovers Ann's lifeless body inside his van. Feeling hopeless, he brings gas cans to the pond, fills them up, and sets it on fire. When David puts the crucifix
through Mary's heart, she tumbles backward into the pond. Mary then makes her appearance to him and shows herself to be another form of the witch. Although it appears that the disruption is finished, Elondra's hand emerges from the pond and pulls David underneath, whereupon he drowns.
== Cast ==
== Manufacturing ==
Superstition was an indie film that was postponed until four years later, having been filmed near Silver Lake, Los Angeles in 1981 under the title The Witch.
== Publication ==
In 1982, Superstition made its theatrical debut in Italy.
Almi Pictures president Frank Moreno advertised the movie in a manner akin to that of his promotion of the studio's release of Home by the Grave. This included having Brother Theodore perform the voiceover in order to draw in a second audience and giving the movie a trailer that had what he called "a sense of comedy."
Before being released straight to home video in January 1985, Superstition had a limited theatrical run on the US West Coast.
Following its unedited theatrical release in the UK under the title "The Witch," the video release, titled "Superstition," became somewhat entangled in the frenzy surrounding the so-
called "Video Nasties." Although it was never thought of as a title that might be prosecuted for obscenity, it was listed on the "Section 3" list with titles like Scanners and The Thing, among others, as a title that might be seized and shops could forfeit stock for. Yet the video version of the title was republished in 1987, uncut, and certified BBFC '18'.
Critical analysis ===
Superstition was compared unfavorably to The Amityville Horror (1979) in a review that appeared in the New York Daily News. It was observed that, similar to many modern fright 3
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films, Superstition substitutes increasing gore for tension. It also suffers from the excessive running length necessary to support its one function. Even with a shoddy writing, it could have managed to reach the impressive status of being entertaining if it had been trimmed down to, perhaps, 70 minutes, just like its characters." The film was poorly received by Lou Cedrone of The Baltimore Sun, who wrote: "Superstition lacks much intrigue. There is a lot of suffering, monotony, and violence, but it is not strange." Cedrone also took issue with the movie's depiction of a thirteen-year-old boy's murder. It's a "how much can you take? splatflick," according to Jay Carr of the Boston Globe. Director Roberson "invests its low-
grade guignol with more intensity than it deserves and I hope he gets a shot at something better," Carr continued.
Similar criticism of the movie's graphic material came from Lou Lumenick of The Hackensack Record, who called it a "schlocky slasher flick... combining aspects of Poltergeist, portrayed by an orgy of reasonably creepy special effects in the last reel." Reviewer Joe Bob Briggs gave the movie three out of four stars and alternately lauded it for its gory effects.
"Flamboyant, giallo-style gore effects are the lone highlight of this otherwise average supernatural horror picture," stated AllMovie of the movie.
[== Household media]
Anchor Bay Entertainment released Superstition on DVD in 2006. Scream Factory originally released the movie on Blu-ray on April 16, 2019.
== Citations ==
== External links ==
Superstition at IMDb
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