CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Paul Magne Haakonsen Given the fact that this movie is from 1978, it is still a movie that holds its own today. Yes, the effects are hopelessly out of date, but the movie is more than just a hollow special effects movies (as many of todays movies are), and it is driven by the storyline and atmosphere."The Evil" is essentially a haunted house movie, where a doctor rents a vacant house to open a clinic. He accidentally unleash the supernatural powers that are confined deep within the heart of the old house.The acting in "The Evil" was good, and people did fair jobs in bringing the individual characters to life on the screen.Now, I will say that the movie was a bit over-dramatic. How? Well, for starters the music throughout the movie was just overwhelming in the attempt to add to the atmosphere, and it was bordering on being too annoying. And there was just way too much going on in the movie. Sure it kept the boredom at bay, but it felt like director Gus Trikonis was trying to put every single horror idea he ever had into an 89 minute long movie. It was just too much, and it sort of went from dread and despair into 'what will the haunt do in the next scene?'. Which was a shame.But all together an enjoyable enough movie given its age.

slayrrr666 "The Evil" is a more-than-serviceable haunted house film with a couple flaws.**SPOILERS**Looking for a new home, C.J. Arnold, (Richard Crenna) and his wife Caroline, (Joanna Pettet) find a large Victorian mansion and decide to move in. As it needs repairs, they invite friends Prof. Raymond Guy, (Andrew Prine) Mary Harper, (Cassie Yates) Pete Brooks, (George O'Hanlon Jr.) Felicia Allen, (Lynne Moody) Laurie Belman, (Mary Louise Weller) and Dwight, (Robert Viharo) over to the house and help fix it up. Finally getting to work, they realize that something isn't right with the house, as they begin to experience strange accidents and hallucinations within the rooms, finally uncovering a long-lost mysterious journal of the former inhabitant that sheds light on the situation. Realizing that they are messing with demonic supernatural forces beyond their capabilities, they try to find a way out of the trap-filled mansion before they all are dead.The Good News: This was a highly enjoyable film at times. Most of the good points come from the film's haunted-house motive. The house itself is actually very well-done, looking incredibly creepy and perfectly suited for a haunted house film. The grand Victorian facade, with the columns, rounded structures and general vibe allow for a pretty great feel to it, yet the inside of it is where most of the fun occurs. From the long, winding hallways, ornate decorations, multiple levels and rather obscure-seeming surroundings that are used to fun effect when the hauntings start make for a spectacular setting that allows for the ghostly action to be taken rather well. Beyond a great setting, the ghost action itself is really nice, actually going for a full-gamut of effects that not only work well, but also differ from the normal ones that are present throughout these types of films. There's a series of ghostly visions appearing only to one, the possessed animal, levitating objects, invisible forces controlling the outcome of events despite their knowledge of it there, slamming doors, shaking foundations and much, much more in here, which allows it to come off so well as it's got a wide variety of events happening. That allows it to appear much more disturbing and powerful, that it's able to do so much within it's confines and makes them seem all the more threatening and exciting, as it provides some interest as to what will happen next. That the scenes themselves are all really fun, as really all of those are just a blast to watch and are part of what makes the film a lot of fun, taking on a ton of great moments that make the film a lot fun, and even more so since all of them come in the last half of the film and make it seem like there's a giant rush at the end as it's just nonstop at all, not slowing down at all. There's a fine trade-off between finding a way out before it gets shut down through something supernatural and another plan is tried, with the same results in a different location to different victims. It's a great tool and is done right in here to give the scenes some weight to them and give these segments a wholly-inspired pace that makes for a lot of good times to be had. With a couple good kills coming from the haunting seasons thrown in, these here make the film enjoyable and interesting.The Bad News: There was a couple of flaws to this one. One of the biggest is the film's rather dull beginning that doesn't start it off on the right note. Despite there being a graphic kill and a creepy setting, the fact that we have to wait about ten minutes to get what should've been done in half the time isn't a good movie, as it appears to stretch the film out to make it reach it's proper running time since the middle segments fly right by, and here it just stinks of filler material. It also wouldn't have been a bad idea to know a little more about the reason behind the ghost's actions in here. Beyond the need for introducing the cryptic diary entry to them, there wasn't any reason for it to be there since it's actually revealed in the equally-lame finale who the real culprit is, so that wouldn't have been terrible information to give out and have a purpose why it's there. The last flaw was the aforementioned finale, which just didn't click at all. From the goofy nature conflicting wildly with the serious tone throughout, the whole segment consisting of resolution over a verbal confrontation that features such limited physical contact as to appear as nothing happened, and the whole scene conveniently overflowing with smoke to obscure what little does happen, the whole scene is a mess and entirely confusing, which really puts a damper on the film somewhat. These are the only things that hurt this one.The Final Verdict: With a lot of good stuff here and some minor flaws present, there wasn't much holding this down and it comes off rather well in the end. Give this one a shot if you're into these kinds of films or feeling adventurous towards it, while those who aren't big on haunted house films should heed caution.Rated R: Violence and Language

Woodyanders Compassionate psychologist C.J. Arnold (a fine, bearded Richard Crenna, who starred in the hilariously horrible made-for-TV hoot "Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell" around the same time) and his supportive wife Caroline (gorgeous brunette Joanna Pettet) purchase a huge, creepy, rundown old mansion with the intention of transforming it into a drug rehabilitation center. A kindly apparition warns Caroline to leave the house, but the stubbornly rationale C.J. balks at the idea that the eerie abode might be spooked and invites a team of college students (genial unsung 70's action movie tough guy Robert Viharo and fetching femme faves Cassie Yates and Mary Louise Weller among 'em) led by C.J.'s good buddy Professor Raymond Guy (a nicely subdued performance by the usually more manic Andrew Prine) to help him clean the dingy place up. Things turn sour and get mighty harrowing when C.J. accidentally releases an ancient and extremely malevolent phantasmagoric force that's been confined in the basement for a long time. Said force proceeds to gruesomely decimate most of the cast (grisly electrocutions, a possessed German Shepard causes a chick to take a fatal spill down a flight of stairs, Prine drowns in quicksand, and so on) before C.J. and Caroline discover that none other than Beezlebub his horned, devilish self (a sumptuously ripe, show-stopping slice of grand thespic ham by Victor Buono) is behind the whole diabolical shebang.While the plot might not sound too promising (in fact, it's pretty threadbare), "The Evil" still qualifies as a superior supernatural scarefest because the invigorating deftness and straightforwardness of the execution wholly compensate for the story's dearth of originality. The direction by the always efficient and underrated 70's exploitation feature ace Guy ("The Student Body") Trikonis bristles with remarkable élan, style and restraint. Furthermore, Trikonis adeptly covers all the mandatory bases to make this picture pass muster as a solid little horrorshow: a fair amount of alarming, pulse-quickening tension is ably created and sustained throughout, uniformly on the money acting, a fleshing-crawling score by Johnny Harris, a galloping pace which never lets up for a minute, properly ugly and unpleasant death scenes, a grim gloom-doom mood, shadowy cinematography by Mario DiLeo, and a cogently stated central thesis which firmly argues that not only must supernatural events and entities be accepted and dealt with on their own logic-defying otherworldly terms, but also that the sole way to effectively thwart evil is through direct and aggressive means. To sum up, this honey certainly rates as a a real killer diller haunted house thriller.

The_Void The Evil could easily be seen as a front runner to eighties classics such as The Evil Dead and Night of the Demons. I don't doubt the possibility that this film had some sort of influence on the aforementioned titles, probably some others too; but in it's own right, it's not all that special. The plot is something of a mixture between the popular demonic horror theme, and the even more popular haunted house theme as we follow a group of people trapped inside an old house that happens to have something to do with an old Indian burial ground. The film was obviously shot on a low budget, and it's nowhere near as grisly as its eighties counterparts - so The Evil is unlikely to give you any nightmares. The plot follows psychologist C.J. Arnold. He buys an old mansion at a low price and decides to ask some of his college pupils to help him fix things up. Everything's going fine until somebody is stupid enough to remove an old cross from a basement door - and then all hell breaks loose! It would seem that the devil wants everyone inside dead, and so begins a night of terror as the occupants try to escape.'Evil' is a very general term, so any film dealing with it as an entity needs an original way of handling things. This film does it in a similar fashion to how The Evil Dead went on to do, as the evil is explored through certain characters going mad and others being chased by a disjointed camera angle. The film does feature a number of set pieces that show the effect of 'evil', and these vary in quality although in the main body of the film is really terrible. The film features things such as a man sawing through his own hand, a ghost taking possession of a woman and a man being dragged into the ground quicksand style after escaping from the house. The acting is all pretty terrible, and the copy I saw was of rather poor quality; so my overall impression of the film's production values isn't exactly good. The Evil isn't exactly a famous film, but one sequence that does have a fair amount of people talking about comes at the end. Victor Buono gets to appear as the Devil in one of the most of the oddest satanic scenes I think I've ever seen. Quite why the producers decided to film the Dark Lord in this way is anyone's guess - but I can't say too many bad things about it because it is at least memorable! Overall, I wouldn't exactly call this film a must see; but its decent enough and you could do a lot worse!