Fear No Evil (1981)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Fear No Evil, the low budget debut from director Frank LaLoggia (Lady in White), is one strange little film: made during the golden age of the slasher but inspired by such films as The Omen, Carrie, and Night of the Living Dead, this offbeat oddity mixes rebellious teen shenanigans with biblical horror, throws in random homo-eroticism without a moment's notice (in the film's most memorable and unintentionally hilarious scene, a supposedly macho bully victimises Andrew in the boys shower by trying to engage him in a naked kiss, whilst cheered on by his enthusiastic pals—it makes A Nightmare on Elm Street 2's towel whipping seem perfectly reasonable), boasts a surprisingly good new wave/punk soundtrack (The Ramones, The Boomtown Rats, The Sex Pistols, Talking Heads), and culminates in a burst of dazzlingly crap visual effects that wouldn't have looked out of place at a Jean Michel Jarre concert.An undeniably ambitious project for a first-time director, the film features sincere performances, several well executed sequences (the rise of a horde of zombies is particularly effective), and one or two genuine 'WTF?' moments (a guy grows breasts for no discernible reason, and a church production of the Passion Play attracts massive crowds), but it simply doesn't work as a whole: the film changes tone a little too abruptly throughout; Stefan Arngrim is terrible as Andrew, Lucifer in human form, especially when he's hamming it up and howling like a banshee in his character's more demonic state; LaLoggia makes sure he gets his money's worth out of a smoke machine; and there are far too many boring scenes where very little of interest happens.3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up for the decent tunes.

I would have to say that I was not expecting anything. The last random film I watched on FearNet turned out to be boring. This time before watching this movie I looked it up on IMDb and saw that it had a 2.9 rating, so I expected something horrid. I ended up watching this film and finding a gem! There are many things that I loved about this film. Basically the film is about a teenage boy named Andrew who is the Devil incarnate. The movie had a very creepy feel to it the whole time. The acting was not very good except for Stefan Arngrim (actor who played Andrew). I thought that he was a good choice. I found his acting to be very well done and he looked the part perfectly, normal yet creepy, and somewhat sinister all at the same time. I think that one of the most eerie parts of the entire film is how innocent Andrew seems to be all the time. He looks, acts, and just seems so shy and innocent that when he does horrible things it really hits you hard. Most of the effects were good, but not used in the best ways, which made most of the deaths seem quite phony and sometimes laughable. I quite enjoyed the happy sounding music when Andrew's father starts flipping out and yelling that his son is the devil. There was a big cliché used in the film, the cliché of having a nightmare and waking up only to realize that I happened, yet it is used quite well and does not seem cliché at all. The shower scene was genuinely creepy, and for a random low budget 80s flick it was very surprising. Though I could have gone without seeing the guys penis flop.... The scene where Andrew kills the dog, squeezes his head until the blood rushes into a cup, drinks the blood and proceeds to start to eat the dog is equally scary and disturbing. Another disturbing scene was at the end in the play where the person playing Jesus started bleeding where he would have been nailed to the cross. For this film there are many disturbing parts that I had not expected at all, and it was great that I do not get disturbed by many things at all. I would also have to say that the movie had a great soundtrack, including Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones, Anarchy in the UK by Sex Pistols, and Psycho Killer by Talking Heads. A great film that I recommend to everyone!

Wow, this is an absolute mess of a film. I have over 1,000 DVD's in my collection and I count this one as one of the very worst. You certainly get the idea that the director (who was a first timer) bit off far more than he could chew when he tackled this project. The plot is extremely incoherent, the acting is terrible and the special effects look like they came out of Xanadu. It is honestly hard for me to say anything good about this movie, I cannot think of anything redeeming about it. I guess some of the movie's punk-rock soundtrack (which features the Sex Pistols and Ramones among others) is interesting but is completely wasted in this film. Avoid this one if you can.

I don't understand why this has such a low rating. If it's a matter of just not liking the film because you don't think it's scary or a good story then that simply is just a matter of opinion. Technically the film is very well made, in my opinion. The lighting stands out almost more than the soundtrack which is awesome. The director was just 24 years old when he made this, the simple special effects (those with shadows, camera tricks, strings, etc..) make you question how they actually pulled the trick off while other effects were rotoscoped. You know when artists trace over a live action scene frame by frame, cool stuff! Joel Coen was the assistant editor, scenes were shot on location at incredible settings. There are a lot of interesting facts about this movie. The film fits right in with other early 80's horror classics and any fan of the genre should not miss this one.