Something Evil (1972)

Instant Favorite.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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

Coming on the heels of Duel (considered by many to be the greatest TV film ever made), Steven Spielberg's second television film is a derivative & mediocre horror that's marred by numerous shortcomings in the narrative & acting section but its clever camerawork & sinister tone does make the ride somewhat bearable. Worth skipping unless you are a Spielberg completist.

With the possible exception of "Duel", fans of director Steven Spielberg have outright rejected his early efforts (such as this TV-movie and the theatrical "The Sugarland Express", a box-office disappointment) most likely on the basis that his budgets during this time weren't big enough to expand on the action inherent in the material (Robert Altman's admirers are much the same way, ignoring everything the filmmaker did prior to "MASH"). "Something Evil" is a forgotten film, a mere footnote in Spielberg's history, but that doesn't mean it's a failure. Spielberg takes a shopworn scenario (the old haunted farmhouse bit) and gooses it with interesting visuals and an active camera. New York couple with two young children move into a rural estate, unaware of the farm's dark history. Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin are a casual, laid-back, ordinary twosome--just this side of dull, which is probably what Spielberg wanted--whose lives are shaken up by the ghostly goings-on. Two action sequences (a death in the prologue and a tragic car accident following a party) are both encumbered by the picture's low budget and are sadly ineffective, while a subplot involving Ralph Bellamy as a neighbor who studies the occult is left unfulfilled. Still, Spielberg manages a tense, prickly mood (the film never lapses into camp), and Dennis seems fully invested in the proceedings.

I was 10 when I saw this movie, and I have never forgot about the red eyes in the window when the family drove up to the farm house. Every time I think of the cast of Family Affair, I remember Johnny Whitaker as the little boy who see's these eyes in the window. I did not remember the name of the movie, so I decided to research for the title, after all it has been 40 years since I have seen the movie. I am hoping to find it on Amazon. Any movie you can remember 40 years later is miracle. I just found out this is Steven Spielberg movie and it is one of his first attempts at directing. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who wishes to watch a good movie from the past.

My mother first saw this movie when it premiered on television back in 1972. I first saw it a few years ago on the Encore channel (roughly part of it), and thought it was an amazing film. I had recently been looking for a copy on DVD but couldn't find one until I got one on ioffer.com (it was a copy that was recorded on TV and transferred to DVD). In my case, it looked great, and all that. Sandy Dennis played Marjorie Worden and Darren McGavin played her husband Paul. Johnny Whitaker is the couple's son, Steven, and the daughter Laurie is played by twin girls (played by Sandy and Debbie Lampert). The family moves into a farmhouse in the countryside, without knowing until later that the previous occupant had been driven to suicide by jumping out of the 2nd floor window of the barn. Then, some mysterious things start happening shortly later on. Marjorie is hearing sounds of a baby crying, the family has a party at the house (and two guests mysteriously die on the way back home), multi-colored gel in a mason jar in the barn then in the house, and the son is being possessed by the devil! Another shocking thing is the sight of those scary ass red demon eyes peering out of a window while some silly commercial is filmed. Several other mysterious things are seen in the film, but they are odd as well. To me, those hideous eyes are what freaked me out the most. The family then moves out of the house to get away from the evil lurking in there. This movie never runs very long (at 73 minutes), but it's still worth watching. It would be great if this could be released on DVD (commercially), but until so, just deal with what is recorded from TV.