“The Evil” (1978) – Review
Hello again, my lovely Gorehounds and Horrorfiends,
3FMC is here with you with more fun and laughs as we review horror films from yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Today, we decided to wait until the nice day was over, then it was pizza time, and some Horror to scare the mozzarella out of us. As we are drawing closer to the 31st, and All Hallow’s Eve, we have cranked up our Horror viewing by a factor of 5. If we had cranked it up to 10, we would not be going to work, and that would be a big problem. Anyways, we spun our Wheel of Death to see what it landed on…BTW, we made a cute little wheel that works like the Wheel of Fortune, that we spin to pick Horror films when we cant decide. It has the subclasses of:
- Monster Movie (includes Vampires, Werewolves, Alien Creatures, Zombies, etc)
- Haunted House
- Slashers
- Ghosts
- Witches
- Sci-Fi Horror
It landed on “Haunted House” so we pulled one from the drawer that we haven’t reviewed on here yet. That would 1978’s The Evil, starring Richard Crenna, Joanna Pettet, and the late great, Victor Buono.
Premise: A psychiatrist, Dr. Arnold (Crenna) purchases an abandoned mansion that he plans to turn into a drug rehab. He then has some friends come in and help him clean up the place to get it in order. Apparently, the house was previously owned by a Civil War General, who had the home built of some sort of hot springs. Then, when working in the basement, Dr. Arnold finds a trapdoor that he opens and unwittingly releases a nasty spirit which traps all of them in the house. Dr. Arnold later realizes that the trapdoor is actually a doorway to Hell (at least it wasn’t a well in the basement like another house located in Amityville).
Discussion: Once the spirits are released from the basement, the body count starts to soar, and people are killed in some gruesome ways. All in all, this was a very effective, and in a lot of ways, underrated haunted house horror film. Strong performances from Crenna and Buono, set this one apart from many of the other Haunted House films of the genre. Buono’s portrayal of The Devil was particularly good, and frightening. We definitely think that this one is in the Top 5 best Haunted House films of the 1970s and 1980s. Not Poltergeist-level special effects, but definitely more psychological in nature, and an effective one at that. Give it a try.
” I feed on 3FMC Reviews, Mr. Arnold.”
Rating: 4 doors to Hell out of 5.
– 3FMC
#80s #cinema #Devil #fear #ghost #hauntedHouse #Horror #horrorMovies #movie #scary
