[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE EVIL – Back to some kind of normality with 'The Evil', a seventies horror film which I hadn't seen before. Basically, it's about a psychologist who renovates an abandoned house in the hope that he can turn it into a rehab clinic. He's joined there by a bunch of his students, and before long the usual supernatural schtick rears its head and we're treated to a barrage of era-specific special fx and mounting hysteria. I quite liked 'The Evil'. It's a bit lightweight, but it does its job. OK, I didn't get that sense of 'whaaat?' that I always hope for when I'm sifting for forgotten relics, but then, for every 'The Pit' come ten or more mere functionaries. 'The Evil' is a bit better than this, and odd moments of craziness hang around its hoary framework and worn out foundations. There's a strangely effective moment when a statue tilts its head, there's Andrew Prine cutting his hand off apropos of nothing, and there's the ending, which has a Lucio Fulci kind of 'metaphysical plane in a cellar' feel to it – the two surviving characters go beneath the house and find a vast white space with the devil in it. Wish the rest of the film had been more like that, but to be honest 'The Evil' is pretty entertaining, and rattles along at an excellent pace, meaning I didn't check out my watch too often, or at all really. Will be enjoyed by lovers of seventies horror and is probably quite good value for money if you get hold of it via that Shout Factory double bill with 'Twice Dead'.

I also quite liked The Evil, Frankie and would also recommend it. It was one of the high-lights in my slog through the as then unwatched films of Nightmare USA.