Blessed Year: 2004 Director: Simon Fellows Written by: Jayson Rothwell Threat: Devil Worshippers Weapon of Choice: Fire IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
none

Rish's Reviews
Full Moon Pictures producer Vlad Paunescu brings you Blessed. I recently wrote a story that was a shameless ripoff of Rosemary's Baby. Seeing this on a shelf of my local video store, I took it home, fully expecting it to be the same. It's not great, but hey, I kinda liked it. Especially the last scene. The flick is predictable, really (and I'm sure the back cover gives it all away), but you do want to see how they pull it off.
So, Heather Graham and her husband (James Purefoy) want to have a child, but can't. Lucky for them, an opportunity presents itself to go to a fertility clinic in the country that's virtually guaranteed to work. And it does . . . though she begins to suspect that something ominous is afoot. Or awomb, anyway.
I really enjoyed the film. There was some very cute, clever dialogue. Is it just me, or was it a joke that Heather Graham worked at St. Rosemary's Catholic School?
The film is only marginally scary, though the sound effects are pretty disturbing. Everybody says that childbirth is natural and beautiful, but dude, in the movies it's always straining and screaming and blood and pain--it's really gross. Hanging and heart attacks are treated more glamourously.
There's a very amusing scene where the wife goes from "Do you still think I'm pretty?" to "It seems like you don't even love me anymore!" in, like, two seconds flat. While I imagine that sort of shite is actually pretty realistic. To me, it's irritating when an actress plays a pregnant woman, complete with hefty bulge in her midsection, but her legs and arms remain reed-thin. But hey, perhaps that's what happens, eh? All I know is that the second my buddy's wife got pregnant, she blimped up to Gamorrean Guard size and stayed there for the rest of the marriage.
Blessed is a cute film with an excellent little coda. Children scare the crap out of me, as I may have mentioned before. Twin children do too. And devil twin children? Well . . .
The film was shot in Romania (where Paunescu is from), but for once, you'd never guess it. It was odd to hear Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis with an Italian accent, and he really is a distractingly ugly man. Conversely, you know, Heather Graham is not a bad-looking person. Does she now qualify as a Former Celebrity? Or should we give it some time?
Best Scare: It features a truly hideous pair of children. Chilling.
I'd Recommend It To: I don't know, young expecting couples, and women trying to get pregnant. And my own mother, I guess.
Posted: February 20, 2006

Total Skulls: 15

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film		Rosemary's Baby
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears		Stella Stevens
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?