Something Evil

Your basic horror story: A family moves into a house and they do not realize it's haunted but will soon become believers and it's haunted by demons. A quote from Marjorie Worden: "Can you believe that I believe that the devil's in my house?"

This TV movie was back when they made fun and interesting movies for television. Not all of them were great but they were at least worth watching. When real life society changed, the TV shows and movies changed - I quit watching - but I hear the TV movies today are nothing like these older films and not nearly as good. This particular film is not grand but it's not a bad watch either - mildly entertaining demonic horror.

6/10

It's easy to knock something like this because it's cheap, but you have to look beyond production values and see quality for what it really is. On paper, 'Something Evil' is pretty routine stuff, but it has the kind of energy you only get from young, hungry directors. There's a great sense of atmosphere that transcends the movie's low budget, something that would have never been achieved through routine direction. I've always been indifferent to Spielberg, but this is great.

The fact that you could turn on your television in the 70's and find something like this every week makes me wish I grew up a decade earlier.

I know that The Possession Of Joel Delany (1972) is often cited as a possible cinematic influence on Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), but I had never seen this little gem until recently. The finale has little Johnny Whitaker (yes, from Family Affair) possessed by a "devil" yelling weird demonic gibberish in a surprisingly creepy and effective vocal track and attacking his mother (Sandy Dennis) as objects fly around the room. The devil is driven out by the chanting words of love from mom. It's a brief scene that might elicit giggles from some, but it's strange how similar some scenes in The Exorcist would play out nearly two years later.

SOMETHING EVIL was one of Steven Spielberg's last made-for-TV efforts before he hit the big time with the big screen release JAWS. The film stars Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin as a happily married couple who unwittingly put their lives and the lives of their two young children into great danger when they move into a Pennsylvania farmhouse that later turns out to be inhabited by evil spirits. Johnnie Whitaker(of FAMILY AFFAIR fame) co-stars as the oldest child.

Had it been made by anyone else but Spielberg, SOMETHING EVIL would be completely forgotten today. Though it came before the lamentable THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, haunted house thrillers were still pretty old hat by the time this TV-made effort came along. Spielberg injects as much life as possible into the deadly dull material, and the great cast does their usual thorough job, but no one can completely disguise the fact that this is second rate stuff. For a more rewarding look at work from Spielberg's early TV years, see the superior DUEL(1971) starring Dennis Weaver.

Early Steven Spielberg TV movie that is a considerable step down from Duel released the previous year, but showing signs of a directorial craft to follow.

Something Evil is not a great horror movie, well it was to those of us at a very young age who were allowed to watch it that is. The plot finds a family of four moving into a pastorally pleasing Pennsylvania farmhouse only to find a demon resides there. Hubbie works all hours in the city while mama and the two young children fall prey to something that manifests itself as red goo in jam jars or via a wind machine. Cue mama fighting the demon trying to take control of her family with love and pentacle art. Yep, it's really that simple, the budget doesn't stretch beyond that.

Spielberg shows some nice skills with his dissolves, close-ups and distorted angle shots, but much of the impact is undone by poor acting and a musical score that belongs on a ghost train ride at the funfair. A couple of characters appear, and then vanish until the last third of the movie needs them, while the special effects on offer are understandable low in quality. For its time, its budget and as an observation to the early work of a man who would become one of America's biggest directors, it's a curio piece worth sampling. But it's hardly essential for horror fans or Spielberg completists. 6/10