Superstition (1982)

Movie Info

Now I know why mom said never to jump through open windows at haunted houses.

A house in the country has a past.  Owned by the church, the home has had a history of death and horrible accidents.  When Reverend David Thompson (James Houghton) and Reverend Maier (Stacy Keach Sr.) decide to rent the house against the wishes of detective Sturgess (Albert Salmi), the Leahy family moves into the home.  Immediately, the home’s dark side rises and as Reverend Thompson searches for the truth about the horror, the Leahys find themselves fighting for their lives.

Directed by James W. Roberson, Superstition is a low-budget horror film.  The film, also known as The Witch, was popular in England where it received a theatrical release in 1984 and was sometimes tagged as a “video nasty” by police.

Superstition is a horror movie that seemed to have the 1982 horror checklist.  It forgot a few things from the checklist (primarily nudity), but it did seem to hit all the horror clichés.  With an almost incoherent story, Superstition isn’t very good, but it does have some really brutal deaths.

See the problem is that they didn’t rotate the head halfway through the cooking cycle…that’s why exploded.

I watched the whole movie and wasn’t even really sure what was going on besides the basic plot.  There is a creepy lady who lives near the nearby home and her creepy son who tends to the home and is the lover of the witch who was sacrificed hundreds of years ago who lives in the pond?  It isn’t very coherent at points and everything just feels thrown into one big mess of horror and body parts.  This isn’t bad if you want some brainless ’80s horror, but it does leave you scratching your head.

The movie also is quite ridiculous.  At the beginning of the movie two guys are killed at the house…one’s head is in the microwave and the other is cut in half.  The ministers seem disturbed by the this but have no problem recommending the house be fixed up and rented to a nice family…who immediately (like day of move in) begin to be killed one by one.  We have murdered and dismembered officers and sawbladed clergymen, but they still move in.  A favorite part is when the husband (who quickly develops a drinking problem) sends his wife to investigate a sound (because he won’t) and she finds her missing son dead.  Instead of mourning the son or trying to get him down she runs away screaming and the husband still is hesitant to go investigate.

Witch needs a manicure

The visuals are kind of good (in a bad horror type of way).  There are some inventive deaths like the mentioned microwave and severing death.  The brutal sawblade scene also is good with a rotating blade slowly cutting throw a chest (which once again doesn’t really faze the people moving in).  There are a lot of “pulled from the screen by claws” deaths which could have been better and the witch is never truly seen in her monster form.

Superstition is bad but good for horror fans and a quick watch.  The movie is readily available online and can be found easily.  If you want an ’80s horror movie you might have missed, check out Superstition.  It won’t go down as your favorite film but it will provide some gore and fun over-the-top deaths.