976-Evil II

The possessing 976-EVIL phone line is back. This time, murderer Teacher must finish what he started.. whatever it is.

With visions, astral projection, a helpful out-of-town biker "romance" and more.. or less.

Sadly, this isn't gory or interesting enough to be something worth recommending. There's basically no plot aside from the crazy teacher killing people and being weirdly in love with the main actress. But nothing he does or happens further his agenda in that direction. So it feels very underwritten. Yet the ending wasn't at all what I expected, which was a nice surprise.

Debbie James is quite a charming actress, and it has more than a few very interesting visual effects and ideas. So it is not a total loss.

I have to say this movie surprised me in that it was very well produced and directed. This movie is much better than the original 976-evil movie, the acting is better, the script is better and the characters are more believeable. Now let me talk a little bit about the main character in the movie, her name is Debbie James and wow what a hottie! She is a former Miss Teen USA and a former Miss USA finalist. She is also a former Miss Colorado. Her acting isn't bad either in this movie and she is the main character. I wish Debbie james would appear in more movies (she only has had minor roles in a few subsequent movies) but at least we get to see her as the main character in this interesting movie, which is certainly worth renting and even buying. I give this movie 8 out of 10 stars!

976-Evil (1989) was directed by none other than Robert "Freddy Kreuger" Englund, but sadly was a bit of a mess. This sequel, even worse.

It tells the story of an evil horoscope line that possesses its victims and is behind a notorious serial killer and............stuff.

The plot is hard to follow because not only does it not make a vast amount of sense but it simply isn't very good.

With a cameo appearance by Brigitte Nielsen it has one of those distinctly average casts, and to rise above mediocre it required considerably better. From the plot to the cast to the sfx it's a mess that makes the original look like a work of art.

Even fans of the original will likely not like this because it distances itself so much from the first film despite having the same leading man.

Awful awful stuff.

The Good:

Erm....

The Bad:

Looks ugly

Plot is a mess

976-EVIL II (1991)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

This direct-to-video sequel picks up shortly after the original film as the Dean of a local school has been arrested for murder. It turns out that he got involved in the notorious hotline and soon he was possessed and doing the Devil's work. Before long a woman (Debbie James) is trying to destroy him and the evil powers that he possesses.

I wasn't much of a fan of the original movie and this sequel is certainly far from being "good" itself but at the same time there's no question that it makes for a more entertaining movie. If you're familiar with the work of Jim Wynorski then you already know that he's a master at making low-budget movies and throwing enough in them to make them worth sitting through.

976-EVIL II has a storyline that is pretty much a copy of the original, although this one here adds an even more comic spin to it. The highlight of the film are its use of the public domain films NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Clips from both of those films are shown here and then we get some funny jokes about them and a re-enactment, which is downright funny and I must say it was quite creative.

I'd also argue that Wynorski knows what the people renting this film would have wanted and that's nudity and gore. It takes one-minute for us to reach our first nude sequence and about four more for the first gore scene. The original film seemed to have director Robert Englund not knowing what horror fans would want but that's not the case here. I thought James was fun in her role and I thought Rene Assa was a real benefit as well.

With all of that said, the film is still pretty hard to sit through as there's plenty of action and exploitation but none of the characters are overly interesting and I'd argue that there's really nothing here that keeps you glued into the story. If you're a fan of these types of "B" movies then you might want to check it out but others should probably stay clear.

I believe, we did not. The first part of this movie was far not very good (What do you expect of a film directed by Freddy Krueger?). But this is one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen. Rene Assa (Who is this?) gives the worst performance of a college chief, who fell in love with one of his pupils, then he started dialing this number 976-EVIL, and than started performing assorted Omen-like murders. This poor girl (pupil) stands his evil powers with (guess who?) Spike, an annoying biker who participated in the first part too. Special F/X are poor, the acting is horrible, directing by Jim Wynorski (that genius whose mind brought us "Ghoulies IV" a movie which is in no way better). I didn't see any point in the script, it seems to rely solely on cheap special effects and some disgusting dead scenes. This movie sucks!