As horror films go, THE EVICTORS is slightly above the usual stuff that was released back then. The acting and production values are good. The cinematography is gorgeous. The Vestron VHS tape I watched had the film in an uncompressed anamorphic transfer. Everything looked squished but my TV has a 16x9 option and when I activated it, the VHS image was widescreen and beautiful. I loved the sepia toned scenes (they are flashbacks). They give the film a distinctive quality. The film's biggest weakness is the story. It sorta comes into its own by the end of the film but even so it's still pretty weak.
The story is about a couple who are terrorized by a mysterious man who lurks around a house they recently moved in, a house with a long history of suspicious violent deaths. The wife (played by the wonderful Jessica Harper) is repeatedly terrorized by the lurker when the husband is away. This storyline works on a certain level but the character who plays the lurker/murderer is no Michael or Jason. That aspect of the story was severely underwritten and when the revelation of who this lurker is and why he's terrorizing the couple, what gloomy & mysterious atmosphere the film so meticulously created vanished in a blink of an eye. But the revelation is not bad enough to destroy the whole film. It's just too corny, too a la Scooby Doo.
The other annoying thing about this film is the pacing. It's a tad slow going. The action eventually picks up in the second half but the first half was very casual.
Even with all its faults, I still enjoyed THE EVICTORS. It's a gorgeous looking horror film and there's Jessica Harper, which always makes anything worth watching.
