Rating: 3.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2016 | 43/52 | Slasher
I’ve heard of faith healers, but faith killers??
Isaiah Schmidt is the leader of an isolationist, Amish-adjacent cult called the Hittites, which forbids contact with outsiders
Near them live Jim and Martha on a farm called Our Blessing. Jim is Isaiah’s son and a lapsed member of the Hittites, which helps when tensions brew between the cult members and the family.
One day, a fight erupts between cult member William and Faith Stohler, the daughter of another nearby family. William chases her off, calling her an infidel. Jim intervenes and tells William to go so as not to upset Isaiah.
That night, Jim finds the word “incubus” painted in his barn. He hears his tractor turned on. He goes to investigate, and the tractor kills Jim by crushing him against the wall.
At first, Martha and her friends believe it is William’s doing and fear for their lives. But when they find William hanged, the mystery deepens.
I swear, these boys eat brimstone for dinner.
The film is structured like a slasher but does not kill folks off left and right. I mean, people die, but they also have strange experiences. Also, the atmosphere and unusual setting help this stand out from typical genre fare.
Farms are the scariest setting I can imagine (“Oh yeah, what about hell?” says the contrarian in my head). Farms are disconnected from the outside world and full of cobwebs and nature.
Some aspects of the movie remind me of The Hills Have Eyes, and no, not just Michael Berryman. It’s the way the Hittites stand on the horizon and the way they watch Martha.
Critics were so harsh on Ernest Borgnine. His acting style didn’t translate into the 80s.
Like everything Wes Craven directs, this is too long for its concept. But here, it’s out of character development, not spinning its wheels.
I don’t know, man! This movie is pretty good! That ending is an all-timer.