The Evictors (1979)

That was an excellent one.

Memorable, crazy movie

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Ben Watkins (a solid and likable performance by Michael Parks) and his wife Ruth (winningly played by the lovely Jessica Harper) move into a creepy old house in a small Louisiana town. They find out that said abode has a violent history attached to it. Director Charles B. Pierce, who also co-wrote the engrossing script with Garry Rusoff and Paul Fisk, relates the compelling story at a steady pace, presents a flavorsome evocation of the 1940's period setting, offers a strong feeling of the rural region and its people, builds a good deal of tension, stages the shock set pieces with aplomb, grounds the plot in a believably sleepy everyday rustic milieu, and delivers a couple of neat surprise twists at the end. The sound acting by the capable cast keeps this picture humming: Parks and Harper make for appealing leads, with fine support from Vic Morrow as friendly, yet shifty real estate agent Jake Rudd and Sue Ane Langdon as pleasant and chipper crippled neighbor Olie Gibson. Familiar character actors Bill Thurman, Dennis Fimple, and Jimmy Clem pop up in cool minor roles. Chuck Bryant's handsome widescreen cinematography boasts lots of gorgeous sepia-tinged black and white for the flashback scenes. Jamie Mendoza-Nava's spirited shivery score hits the stirring shuddery spot. Worthwhile fright fare.

This movie is boring, predictable and silly. The only thing remotely entertaining is the bayou land scape and the lead, victim who is nice to look at. Dreadful stupid mess. Vic morrow who I like get's star billing but isn't even in that much of the film, luckily for him. There is one creepy film in the movie, when the lead victim receives a note from the evictors. Aside from that it was a total yawn fest. I remember seeing the film in the early 80's as a young boy, and even though I didn't remember anything about it I remember some creepy-ness, and the scenery, which is about the only thing which held up. I watched it not long ago, what a disappointment. trash.

A great opening shot of a bank clerk and several deputies going to serve repossession papers to a house full of, well, how shall we put this...old-fashioned Southern undesirables, sets the mood for this often atmospheric, often slow-moving, often tense, generally well-acted, and shoddily at times scripted film(the ending just does not make any sense to me!). If I look at the film minus the last 15 minutes - it really is pretty scary. A couple, played very nicely by lovely Jessica Harper and amiable Michael Parks, move into an old country house somewhere in Louisiana. They soon discover that the house has a history of death. The opening scene happened in 1928, but we then see flashbacks of 1934 and 1939 where two different sets of couples were killed by the same man that is now canvasing their home. Well, a peddler chopping wood is killed and other strange things like lights being turned off, creaking stairs, etc...happen. I had my suspicions who might be involved, and was not wrong, but was not right as the final conclusion draws and is as unbelievable and ridiculous as can be. Why were they living in another house? Where did they get money from to live? What was the Realtor's part? Why did he kill his friend/relation? What happened to the body of the peddler? Does the house make people go mad? Why was Ruth with Rudd at the end? None of it made much sense to me, which really is a shame as it destroyed much of the creepy atmosphere up to that point. The acting is decent. The couple, as I have already pointed out, were quite good. Vic Morrow plays another creepy guy. Did Morrow ever play a likable character? I don't recall that ever happening. Sue Ann Langdon really is quite good in her role.. She convinced me at the beginning. Director Charles Pierce does do a very good job creating suspense, atmosphere, mood, etc... The figure of the man with the creepy hat was very effective. The set pieces, seeing that it was happening in 1942, were all believable. The film print I saw on Netflix was very bright and clear. This is not a bad film, but, for me at least, the ending drops this a couple points.

I remember seeing this movie back when we first got HBO in the early eighties as a kid. The movie had a PG rating, no gore, no masked men wielding a knife, and no big production qualities and yet still managed to scare the heck out of me. There was something about the brooding atmosphere and dark haunting score that did it for me. I also remember the film had some narration in it which made it even more creepy because it gave the film a more sinister fear of the unknown quality. Like other psychological horror film classics such as Rosemary's Baby, The Others, and the Blair Witch Project(I'm sure some will disagree with me on that one)those films allowed the viewer to create the scariest horror of all, the horror that resides in our own heads.