"A Name For Evil" is one of those seventies films that tries to blend a genre (horror, noir, crime, comedy, what-have-you) with the counter culture movement that had caught on by then and become a trendy, pop, fashion movement. Culp, who looks good for his age (he was in his early forties at the time) is way too long in the tooth for hippyville, but still, he's groovy man, really groovy. Clearly this is his movie, with an emphasis on his body rather than the women, evidenced by several beefcake scenes and one full frontal. He and his wife the beautiful Samantha Eggar, live in a not too distant futuristic world of oppression who decide to move to a huge gorgeous ruin of a lake house and go back to nature. The gigantic fixer-upper is haunted by the previous owner, "The Major", who, we are told repeatedly, does not like change. Creepy things happen and are discovered in the house, and go nowhere. Culp and Eggar have marital problems that go nowhere. The most bizarre moment comes late in the film when Culp rides off on a white horse after being unable to make love to his stunning wife. He ends up riding into a hippie hootenanny that quickly becomes a bizarre antique version of a music video with a folk song sung by a sombre looking young man and strange choreographed dance on the part of the youngins. An orgy ensues (natch) and Culp is officially a flower child (make that flower middle aged man, but at this point who cares), then it's back to the house for a stupid ending that tries to shock. I got the feeling during this movie, particularly with the presence of Culp's then wife who plays the hippie chick he hooks up with at the love-in, that this was some sort of excuse for the cast and crew to get away from the city and party. If you're looking for a ghost story or thriller, you'll be disappointed. If you're in the mood for a blast from the seventies past, where men still wore necklaces over flower patterned dress shirts and hated "THE MAN", check it out.
