Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 85 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: James W. Roberson
Cast: James Houghton, Albert Salmi, Lynn Carlin, Larry Pennell, Billy Jacoby
Supernatural-slasher film Superstition begins in a way that rings of a thousand other cheap 80's slasher, with a teen couple is making out in a parked car near an infamous abandoned property. The horny guy is trying his darnedest to get in a young ladies panties when they are interrupted by a cheap fright gag set upon them by a pair of goofy teen pranksters, which sends them fleeing the scene at high speed. We catch up with one of the pranksters who is beyond pleased with how well his fright gag went, going back inside the abandoned house on the property to find his partner in crime. After searching around the spooky house for a bit he finds his friend's decapitated head in an apparently haunted microwave, with it turning on before the head blows-up with a nice cheap gore-gag. Scared witless he attempts to escape through an open window but manages to get stuck in it, then he is gutted by someone unseen and sliced in half, his torso falling out the window to the ground below, his twitching legs falling to the floor of the house.
We come to find out that the house is owned by the local church, but the county hates the place, it being a popular make-out spot for teens, and the pond on the property has claimed the lives of a few skinny-dippers through the years... oh, and it's also the spot where a witch was executed in the 1690s, and there's been a curse on the pace ever since, with all the families who have lived there coming to a grisly end. The cops via Inspector Sturgess (Albert Salmi, Dragonslayer) and his short-lived partner, investigate the murders and suspect the properties simple-minded caretaker Arlen (Josh Cadman, The Sure Thing) who lives on the property in a guest house with his witchy mother Elvira (Jacqueline Hyde, The Dark).
After the most recent murders the county wants to tear the place down, but the ever-optimistic new priest Reverend David Thompson (James Houghton, More American Graffiti) thinks the place just needs a new coat of paint and the place will be as right as rain. The home's new occupants are an alcoholic priest George Leahy (Larry Pennell, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn) and his family; wife Melinda (Lynn Carlin, Deathdream), nice daughter Anne, bitchy daughter Sheryl, and son Justine, played by Billy Jacoby, the evil kid with the hand-cannon in Bloody Birthday (1981)!
It doesn't take long for weird stuff to start happening, or continue happening, beginning with one of the daughters taking a swim in the pond on the property and emerging from the water with a severed arm grasping her ankle. Perhaps the standout bit of business after the cool opening of the film is when during repairs to the home a circular-saw blade is separated from it's mount and skips across the room tearing it's way through the chest of the visiting Reverend Maier (Stacy Keach Sr., Saturday the 14th), it's a grisly death that is both awesome and completely overwrought and silly, which is sort of a thing you can say about this whole film.
The film has some lo-fi spunk about it, a supernatural slasher film with some good gore-gags, from the likes William Munns, David B. Miller among others. It can be a bit cheap-looking at times but it's all in good fun. Evidence of this low-rent approach comes when the demonic-looking witch haunting the house is represented by a shadowy figure, with a voice that sounds uncannily like a deadite from Evil Dead, that is largely unseen except for a pair of black arms with claws. These blackened appendages do most of the killing in the film, most of which largely happens off screen, though we do get a cool-looking stake being driven through the bitchy daughters forehead, and what the film lacks in visceral gore I think is made up for with some good atmosphere throughout the film. Some of thew silliness of the film come when the deaths start happening, you have to wonder why he fudge this family isn't fleeing the house in fright, but this sort of logic-bending weirdness is part and parcel of these sort of films. Lack of logic and gore aside there are some other cool touches that I though were interesting as well, including a creepy blonde girl that sort of shows up randomly throughout the film in a Fulci's The House by The Cemetery sort of way, and some fun colored-lighting choices that give the film a Mario Bava aesthetic, plus seeing Billy Jacoby from Bloody Birthday was pretty cool, even if his death happens in the dark of the basement and you can't really see what happened to him.
The film has a regional horror feel about, bringing to mind The Evil (1978) and The Unnameable (1988) in addition channeling The Amityville Horror (1979), among a few other classics of the genre. It's not original by any means but it has enough cool stuff happening throughout for me to say this is a bit of a minor 80's gem, glad to see it getting a spiffy new release from Scream Factory.
Audio/Video: Superstition (1982) debuts on Blu-ray from Scream Factory benefiting from a 2K scan from original film elements. The source - or sources - used to create the HD master looks solid, with only some minor speckling and scratches throughout. The grain is well-managed, looking natural, with good clarity and colors throughout, with the black levels coming in strong.
Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mix which is clean and strong sounding. The somewhat annoying score from Dave Gibney which seems to cop from The Omen also has some nice life in the mix.
While this is not a branded Scream Factory Collector's Edition we do get two brand new interviews adding up to nearly an hour's wotth of stuff, beginning with actor James Houghton who shows up for a 30-min interview that covers a lot of ground, including his Hollywood family, his father being big-time producer Buck Houghton, growing up in the industry surrounded by big name actors on large Hollywood sets. He comes around to this film speaking highly of the director, saying he thinks it was a wise decision to keep things a bit vague, and his own feelings about the finished film. He also goes into what it was like working with a veteran Hollywood pro like Stacy Keach Sr., and touching on some details about the bloody, buzz-saw death scene.
Director James Roberson appears for a 24-min interview beginning by reflecting on his early career in film, eventually coming around to writing the screenplay for Superstition, going into the special effects from William Munn and his team, and going into the changes made from the original version of the film during the editing process, as well as touching on the film's theatrical release and the cult-status it attained on home video through the years, much to his surprise.
The disc is buttoned-up with a TV and a theatrical trailer for the film. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with reversible sleeve of artwork featuring what I believe are video release artwork options.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan from the original film elements
- NEW That Crazy Witchcraft -an interview with director James Roberson (24 min) HD
- NEW Lake of Fire – an interview with actor James Houghton (30 min) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- TV Spot (1 min)
Superstition (1982) is a gem of an 80's supernatural-slasher film despite it being uneven and far from perfect, it's a title that's been a bit hard to come by on home video for awhile so it's good to see it spiffied up with a great looking Blu-ray with some cool extras that go behind-the-scenes and give some cool insights into the making of it.