The Evil (1978)

Thanks for the memories!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Richard Crenna leads in this lackluster 70's horror effort. It tells the story of a couple who buy a mansion much in need of restoration, they call in some friends to assist but find themselves trapped inside by a supernatural entity.Alas very little happens, the story doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense and the whole thing is somewhat of a bore.The IMDB rating for this is quite high so expected more, sadly it misfired on all cylinders and left me scratching my head.No idea how this got its 18 rating either, it's stupidly tame stuff.The Good: Decent settingThe Bad:Rather blandInstantly forgettableOdd endingThings I Learnt From This Movie:Satan is an old fat bearded guy with a cross allergy

Doctor C.J. Arnold (Richard Crenna) buys a dilapidated mansion which he intends to turn into a drug rehabilitation centre. Assembling a group of volunteers, C.J. sets about trying to clean up the building, but inadvertently releases an ancient evil force in the process.I'm not the biggest fan of haunted house horrors: they always seem to play fast and loose with the rules, with logic rarely an issue just so long as there are enough scares and atmosphere to last for a reasonable running time. The Evil is just as guilty as most, characters dying off one by one when they could all easily be dispatched in a single moment, but the film still manages to be one of the better examples of the sub-genre thanks to a decent cast, some impressive effects (an effectively spooky ghost, a nasty scene involving a circular saw, and two impressive full body burn stunts), and even an encounter with the Devil himself (played with more than a touch of camp by Victor Buono).In short, I wouldn't class The Evil as essential, but would definitely recommend it to those who particularly enjoy the sub-genre (it's nowhere near as good as The Shining, but is roughly on a par with The Changeling and Superstition, and better than The Legend of Hell House and Burnt Offerings).

The evil is hiding in an old mansion.Whoever strong and noble soul would set the holy seal upon the gate to guard the place in life and death till time is no more that no man will set loose the Beast again.The haunted mansion is bought by a psychologist and his wife.A number of Richard Crenna's colleagues and former interns help in the restoration of the ominous manor.The unseen force begins to knock them off one by one.The battle between good and evil begins..."The Evil" is an eerie haunted house movie that is a bit reminiscent to Lucio Fulci's cult classic "The Beyond".The acting is strong and the suspense almost never lets up.There is very little gore,but some shocks are certainly effective.If you are a fan of "House on Haunted Hill" or "The Nesting" you can't go wrong with Gus Trikonis "The Evil".8 haunted mansions out of 10.

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!