Richard Crenna leads an excellent cast in the horror film
THE EVIL (1978). Crenna is C.J. Arnold
who is a professor who recently purchased a civil war era house in need of lots
of repairs. He assembles a group of old
colleagues and students to help him restore the house but while exploring the
basement of the house he comes across a doorway in the floor. When he removes a cross keeping the doorway
closed he unleashes an evil force that locks them all in the house with no
means of escape. The evil force decides
that each person in the house is nothing more than a plaything at its disposal
and C.J. and his friends must find a way out of the house before they are all
killed.
As ludicrous as the concept for the film is Crenna has
always had a knack for grounding these types of films such as DEATH SHIP
(1980), DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL (1978), NIGHTMARE (1974), LEVIATHAN
(1989), and MURDER TIMES SEVEN (1990), to name a few. He has a great supporting cast in Joanna
Pettet, Andrew Prine, Cassie Yates, George O’Hanlon, Jr., and Victor Buono, to
name a few. The only main problem with
the film is the fact that the female characters are not very fully developed (a
product of ‘70s horror films) and make the film dated.
Written by Galen Thompson and Gus Trikonis, who also
directs, the film is a very suspenseful thriller that has a mean streak in
terms of how each person is killed making for a very entertaining film. Only when the film delves into religious
philosophy towards the end does the film misstep but this can be forgiven as
there were many films of this era that tackled this question. Otherwise this is a very interesting film.
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