La ligne du diable

Stephen Geoffreys is the type of actor that Bob Saget and Eminem wish they could be! Stephen takes a bland horror flick and transforms it into a surreal epic! Stephen is Hoax, a shut-in of a teenager who lives with his insane and controlling mother. Stephen rules, dude! He is one of the best actors that I can think of, and his performance in this film will make you, as the viewer, feel quite a variety of emotions all at once! Good stuff, man!

Some moments work better than others and the film takes a trip to bizarro world towards the end and you stop caring, but for Robert Englund's directorial debut, 976-Evil has more style than expected and at least two great performances from Stephen Geoffreys and Sandy Dennis. Geoffreys is great as the put upon high school dork who gains his confidence due to demonic possession and Dennis swings from the rafters as his campy religious freak mother. Also worth seeing for some great effects even if it seems like this movie got the MPAA on a bad day. Even the so-called uncensored version feels like it was cut to ribbons.

I guess I have a soft spot, a very small one, for this forgotten film, which was directed by horror icon Robert Englund. I think it's because it came out at the end of the 80's, which is the decade I saw the majority of my horror films, as I consider myself a horror buff. I've seen it listed as either 1988 or 1989, but I don't think I've seen many more horror films since then, as the 80's wrapped up my teen years. An interesting tidbit has star Stephen Geoffreys basically become a gay porn star not long after this film came out, no pun intended. You probably won't recognize anyone else, other than perhaps Sandy Dennis, and maybe Robert Picardo. I thought the premise of the film was fairly original; you call a "horrorscope" number, and you get to speak to the Devil. There's a catch though, if you don't do what "he" says, you get a strange sounding ring on a nearby pay phone(remember them?)and bad stuff may happen to you. Buyer beware! I'll get the bad out of the way; first off, I didn't like how Hoax decided to play a cruel, but deadly joke on Suzie, considering she was very nice to him, and even tried to protect him from bullies. Her death scene was pretty lame, as far as horror standards go. Also, the way the house turned into a foamy ice inside, and the fire effects under the house, were cheesy at best. I did like the creature's make-up for the most part, although the extra large hands and feet could've been done better. I also thought the fish falling from the sky was interesting, and I haven't seen anything like it before or after this film. Mark Dark was a very cool addition, but I wish there was more background on his character. To finish this review, I'll reiterate that this has some late 80's charm to me, and was probably one of the last horror films I saw, at least from what I can recall, as the 80's gave me some really cool horror film memories, and I'll proudly include this film as well.

The rebellious teenager Spike (Patrick O'Bryan) lives with his religious Aunt Lucy (Sandy Dennis), her cats and his annoying cousin Hoax (Stephen Geoffreys) in the house he inherited from his mother. Hoax is a teenager bullied by a gang of punks and Spike protects him whenever possible. Spike finds a flyer of a horoscope dialing 976-EVIL, but he does not give much attention to the voice from the other side. He dates the schoolmate Suzie (Lezlie Deane) and they go in his motorcycle to his room. Hoax sees them having sex from his room and when Spike and Suzie leave the room, Hoax steals the panty Suzie gave to Spike and finds the flyer of his cousin. He goes to the movie theater where Suzie and Spike had gone and is bullied by the punks and the disappointed Suzie learns that he had her panty. He decides to revenge them dialing 976-EVIL and following the instructions received from the voice. Meanwhile the snoopy reporter Marty (Jim Metzler) is looking for a scoop and decides to investigate the phone number with the support of Hoax's teacher Angela (María Rubell).

"976-EVIL" is an horror movie directed by Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund and released in 1988 only on VHS in Brazil. The plot has flaws, the special effects are dated but the storyline entertains and is worthwhile watching it again. Another interesting point is to see the cast young thirty-three years ago. Unfortunately, it was not released on DVD in my country. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Força Demoníaca" ("Demoniac Force")

I do not understand why everyone else hates this movie. Yes, it is cheesy in a lot of the standard horror genre ways, but I really got into it. The main reason a horror film doesn't work is because the characters don't hook you. I started to care about the characters after just a few scenes. The mother who is in love with religion is hilarious--we all know people like her. The son, Hoax, is heartbreaking because he is so weak that he will grasp at anything to be strong. I think we all know him too. Robert Englund was very careful to build up the suspense. There are lots of times when you know that someone is going to die, and he draws it out to the point where it is almost painful to watch (I obviously can't give examples without ruining it.) So, I recommend it to anyone who likes horror.