Something Evil

A married couple and their two children move into an old country estate in rural Pennsylvania. The father spends most of his time working in New York City, but his wife stays home tending to the kids and coming up with various art designs. It isn't long before she's plagued by bizarre happenings, and while her husband is disbelieving, she comes to the conclusion that a devil is haunting the estate.

This TV movie was Steven Spielberg's follow-up to "Duel". While nowhere near that film's level, it is a reasonably effective little haunting yarn. The late Sandy Dennis carries the picture with her frantic, on edge performance. Ralph Bellamy of "Rosemary's Baby" is on the right side of the occult this time as a friendly neighbor who supplies Dennis with info on devils and protection from evil. The haunting is predominately low-key, though it occasionally moves into more pronounced territory when attacking others and even causing a fatal car accident. The creepiest scenes involve the sounds of a baby crying in the still country night and Dennis desperately trying to find out where the cries are emanating from. What she eventually finds makes for a rather disturbing visual.

Less unnerving and more cheesy is a scene where Sandy is flipping out on her son. The aftermath doesn't hit as hard as Spielberg would like it too because of this, but Sandy's performance does lessen the damage. Her husband doesn't seem to think much of it and heads back to New York for more work on the annoying commercial he's been preoccupied with. All of this leads up to a fun, if somewhat limp ending. The climactic surprise is telegraphed well in advance.

As a whole, there's nothing particularly remarkable here, but it all works just fine. Still, I was hoping that "Something Evil" would be something truly special.

I know that The Possession Of Joel Delany (1972) is often cited as a possible cinematic influence on Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), but I had never seen this little gem until recently. The finale has little Johnny Whitaker (yes, from Family Affair) possessed by a "devil" yelling weird demonic gibberish in a surprisingly creepy and effective vocal track and attacking his mother (Sandy Dennis) as objects fly around the room. The devil is driven out by the chanting words of love from mom. It's a brief scene that might elicit giggles from some, but it's strange how similar some scenes in The Exorcist would play out nearly two years later.

Your basic horror story: A family moves into a house and they do not realize it's haunted but will soon become believers and it's haunted by demons. A quote from Marjorie Worden: "Can you believe that I believe that the devil's in my house?"

This TV movie was back when they made fun and interesting movies for television. Not all of them were great but they were at least worth watching. When real life society changed, the TV shows and movies changed - I quit watching - but I hear the TV movies today are nothing like these older films and not nearly as good. This particular film is not grand but it's not a bad watch either - mildly entertaining demonic horror.

6/10

It's easy to knock something like this because it's cheap, but you have to look beyond production values and see quality for what it really is. On paper, 'Something Evil' is pretty routine stuff, but it has the kind of energy you only get from young, hungry directors. There's a great sense of atmosphere that transcends the movie's low budget, something that would have never been achieved through routine direction. I've always been indifferent to Spielberg, but this is great.

The fact that you could turn on your television in the 70's and find something like this every week makes me wish I grew up a decade earlier.

There were a lot of brilliant and spooky TV movies made in the seventies (Night Stalker etc),and it's a lost art now. This is, in fact, one of Spielberg's best films and is chilling. I saw it on a farm in the middle of nowhere, so the whole bit with the barn was terrifying. A reminder of what suggestion and the mind can conjure up without gruesome special effects and pointless noise. What was the horrible thing in the jam jar? What were the buzzing objects falling onto the windscreen of that car? Eerie stuff and brilliantly done. Also features a rare appearance by the unusual and authentic Sandy Dennis who died tragically and is sadly missed. Best scare is the demon eyes caught during the filming of a commercial at the haunted house.