Nel nome del maligno

The idea of murdering satanic Catholic monks totally turned me on, but what I saw here is just horrible crap! I'm a die hard horror fan, and I go out on a limb to make even the WORST horror films good, but this film was so BAD that I just wanted to kill myself after it was all over! This film is truly horribly boring and poorly acted and pinpoints exactly where low budget horror goes wrong.

*out of****pretty bad low average bore

Prime Evil tells of a satanic cult whose members can achieve immortality and invulnerability through the regular sacrifice of blood relatives to a hideous demon (that is about two foot tall and seems to be made of red rubber). Aged acolyte George Parkman (Max Jacobs) intends to prolong his powers for another thirteen years by taking the life of his virginal grand-daughter Alex (Christine Moore), and then wrest control of the cult from sinister leader Thomas Seaton (William Beckwith); but with Alex's boyfriend Bill King (Tim Gail) becoming increasingly suspicious of George, will the old man's wicked plans succeed?

After spending the 70s producing and directing porn, Roberta Findlay had a brief career making horror films, but in my opinion, it wasn't brief enough: a few months ago, I watched her horrendous '87 whorehouse horror Blood Sisters, and last night, against my better judgement, I checked out Prime Evil, and all the evidence so far suggests that the woman should have stayed in the 'bump and grind' business.

Findlay simply doesn't possess the fundamental skill set necessary to make a decent non-porn movie, her usual objective being to capture a juicy extreme close-up rather than to present a coherent story or obtain credible (non-sexual) performances from her actors (not that anyone from her dreadful cast looks capable of such an undertaking). A poorly developed script full of diabolical dialogue and precious little action doesn't help matters, of course, and with Findlay's visuals having that distinct porno quality (an effect helped no end by regular nudity from some suspiciously low-rent bimbos), the result is a nasty looking and amateurish yawn-fest that, although not quite as terrible as Blood Sisters, is still a chore to sit through.

3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for the topless tarts, the rubbish demon and a laughable decapitation.

I watched this as one of the movies in Rhino's Horrible Horrors Vol. 1 box set. While it wasn't entirely horrible, it was pretty poor.

It starts off with some narration (which is absent for the rest of the movie), and a scene of a monk turning Satanist in the 1300s or something like that. Then in the present day, the death of a priest who was secretly a Satanist prompts a nun to go undercover to try to infiltrate the Satanists. She isn't given much to do for most of the movie, though.

There's a young woman who had been abused by her father and a group of child pornographers who plans to get married. Apart from the sexual abuse as a child, she's never had sex. Her grandfather is one of the Satanists and plans to use her in a sacrifice. He would like to take over the group.

There's also the Satanist's goon, who goes about like a slasher killing some people, abducting others. The cinematography and editing and so on aren't incompetent, but the acting and story are pretty lifeless. Surprisingly, there's no nudity. There's not a whole lot of blood, but there is some, and towards the end some people rapidly age or melt, I'm not sure.

A group of evil monks surface in New York City sacrificing humans left and right to Lord Satan.Fortunately,a brave and determined nun infiltrates the sect in an attempt to stop the immortals' demonic sacrifices."Prime Evil" is truly horrible.The action is very dull and the acting is bad.The gore effects made by Ed French are occasionally pretty effective and gruesome.Still the film is horribly boring,so don't waste your time with this one!

"Prime Evil" came in a boxed set of bad "b" movies. The hope was that it would be at minimum watchable. It met those expectations. The plot was complicated enough, and the format was such that it succeeded in building suspense. This is a horror movie without too much horror, and it is presented without any gratuitous violence. I liked the tale told from a feminine perspective. The reality is that, similar to "Rosemary's Baby", it is a tale that could actually be. That perhaps is where the horror creeps in, in retrospect. The cast was decent and had skills beyond that of your typical bad "b" film. Was I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Probably.