Superstition (1982 film)
| Superstition | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | James W. Roberson |
| Produced by | Ed Carlin |
| Written by | Galen Thompson |
| Starring |
James Houghton Albert Salmi Lynn Carlin |
| Music by | David Gibney |
| Cinematography | Leon Blank |
| Edited by | Al Rabinowitz |
| Distributed by | Almi Pictures Carolco Pictures StudioCanal |
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Release date
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Running time
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85 minutes |
| Country | United States Canada |
| Language | English |
Superstition (also known as The Witch) is a 1982 Canadian-American horror film directed by James W. Roberson and starring James Houghton, Albert Salmi, and Lynn Carlin. The plot follows a family who move into a house that was once the site of a witch's execution.
Two young men are murdered in an abandoned house after playing a prank on a young couple outside in their car.
Inspector Sturgess pays a visit to Reverend David Thompson, a new clergyman assigned to the parish who is taking over for an elderly minister named Reverend Maier. Sturgess complains about the house, which is on property owned by the church. The two boys murdered there have brought the safety concerns of the house to the forefront, as well as the small body of water on the property, known as Black Pond. Sturgis says local teens sometimes go there to skinny dip at midnight, and there have been several drownings. He and Maier go to the house and meet Arlen, the animalistic caretaker of the property grounds, who lives in a small bungalow with his aging mother. The police suspect Arlen of the two murders but are unable to establish a case against him. Sturgess tells his partner, Hollister, to follow Arlen, who goes off running in the direction of the pond. Hollister investigates the dock where Arlen was standing, and is suddenly pulled under the water by a clawed hand that emerges from the pond. When Hollister does not return, Sturgess holds Arlen and has the pond dragged. Nobody is able to turn up his body, and Thompson announces he's going to have the pond completely drained. Arlen reacts violently, breaking free from the police and running off into the woods. Maier and Thompson talk to his mother, Elvira, who tells them her son serves a secret "mistress", something the two men write off as fantasy. Back at the house, Thompson meets a friendly young girl named Mary who seems to appear out of nowhere and vanishes just the same way. Before the ministers can bless the house, a freak accident occurs when the blade of a table saw being used suddenly flies off the machine and embeds itself into Rev. Maier, maintaining its rotation until it has sawed completely through his body.
Reverend George, his wife Melinda, and their three adolescent children: Ann, Sheryl, and Justin, move into the house. On the day of their move-in, one of the renovators is killed by the black-clawed figure when he goes off into the basement alone to turn off the power in the house's old elevator. His disappearance goes unnoticed by the rest of the crew, and they leave without him. Justin Leahy, the youngest of Reverend Leahy's three children, hears the commotion in the basement and investigates, when suddenly the little girl Mary appears and introduces herself. She runs off before Justin can find out who she is. Justin excitedly tells the others that they have their own "pool"...the pond. They all go down to the pond to relax, where Ann jumps in to swim, but she suddenly starts screaming. When they drag her out of the pond, she has a severed human hand clamped around her ankle, presumably that of Detective Hollister. As Ann lies in her bed, languishing from shock, Melinda tells George they simply cannot move out of the house.
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