Deadly Blessing Blu-ray Review (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)

Deadly Blessing is an early slasher offering from director Wes Craven, following up his 1977 hit The Hills Have Eyes with another film about an ostracized group of people that are used as a scapegoat for violence. Here he tackles strict religion, calling this group “Hittites” (which technically don’t exist) as a stand-in for even more stringent Amish/Mormon types. While Deadly Blessing moves a bit too slow, it’s got a pretty great cast (including early Sharon Stone and fire-and-brimstone-fueled Ernest Borgnine) and some unique kills. Predating a number of genre tropes (including a bathtub sequence Craven would use later in A Nightmare on Elm Street), Deadly Blessing is surprisingly underlooked; it’s just too bad the conclusion is a bit of a mess that curiously gives credence to the Hittites wacky beliefs even while tenderly criticizing its strictures.

Kino Lorber has released Deadly Blessing on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray; we only received the Blu-ray version for review, but the new 4K transfer still shines as a fantastic upgrade from Scream Factory’s prior release. Grain is medium-bodied but resolves nicely, leaving plenty of detail evident. This release also correctly presents the film in 1.85:1 aspect ratio and cools the color grading slightly. One can imagine an HDR layer would help with some of the deep black levels. Extras are basically ported from the previous Blu-ray (see left bar), but this one adds a new audio commentary from Troy Howarth and Eugenio Ercolani that delivers a lot of great background information on the film’s production, including behind-the-scenes meddling. It provides a lot of cast/crew context without specifically following the film’s narrative. Overall this is short of new extras but a nice upgrade, though I’d recommend spending the extra bucks on the UHD edition.