The Force of Evil

This was produced back in the late 70's, back when they still made suspense movies for TV that were entertaining (remember the 90-min. ABC movies of the early 70's? This film is in a similar vein but better). Like others have said, this is one that you remember all through the years if you originally saw it as a kid or teen. It had some pretty memorable shock scenes for it's time and especially for television. It also features very good performances from the actors: Lloyd Bridges, William Watson as the bitter ex-con Teddy Jakes, and veteran character actor John Anderson as Lloyd's brother & sheriff trying to find ways to catch Jakes before he hurts Bridge's family. I found this on VHS back in the early 90's but I'm sure it's out of print now - I'm glad I picked it up when it was available because it's almost as good now as it was 27 years ago. Hopefully, a re-make of this will be produced at some point down the road, although the plot is quite similar to "Cape Fear".

Taken for what it is, a 1977 TV movie, "Force of Evil" is above average entertainment. I'm not going to kid you though, believability is not one of it's strong points. Lloyd Bridges plays a doctor, and while Lloyd Bridges may not be able to tell when someone is dead, a doctor definitely should. The entire last half of the film pivots on this point, and drags everything down a notch. The acting is scattered, although William Watson is memorable as the villain "Teddy Jakes". There are definitely some scenes, such as the mom and daughter discussions on the houseboat, that I could have lived without. I actually rate this less than IMDBs 7.7. To me it's a 6.0 at best, because it seriously challenges believability. - MERK

Flagrant (and uncredited) rewrite of "Cape Fear", originally made for the "Tales of the Unexpected" TV series, has paroled rapist-killer stalking an affluent surgeon and his family, whom he blames for his guilty verdict and seven-year stretch behind bars (why William Watson's psychopath wants revenge on this particular surgeon isn't made entirely clear). Lloyd Bridges keeps a cool head in the Gregory Peck role, while Watson (in a cowboy hat and shades, menacingly chewing gum) has the showier part originally played by Robert Mitchum. Producer Quinn Martin's work for television wasn't in the same league as, say, Aaron Spelling's. He was, however, capable of assembling decent second-string acting talent, and he doesn't skimp on the production. This melodrama is mounted with suspenseful precision...but it was all unpleasant enough the first time around.

I still remember this creepy movie. It was creepy in a subtle sort of way like most episodes of Kolchak, The Night Stalker. I wasn't very sophisticated as a child but I think this must have been something for me to remember it all these years later. If anyone knows where you can get it on VHS, I would be interested in seeing if it were still as disturbing after all these years.

Back in the late 1970's I saw a movie on late night TV that was really creepy. It has stuck in my mind for almost 30 years. I have been trying to find out what the name of it was and see it again for a long time. It was about a doctor that had testified in a trial years earlier and sent this creepy guy to prison. Now that he's out of prison he wants to get revenge on the doctor and proceeds to torment him and his family.

A few years later I watched a movie I'd never heard of before called Cape Fear, which was made in the early 1960's. Strangely enough it had the same exact storyline as that movie that had been haunting me. Obviously Cape Fear was the original and the one from the late 70s was a remake.

In the early 1990s I heard they were making another remake of Cape Fear. Maybe I'd finally find out something about my mystery film? With all the hoopla about the second remake, I never saw any mention of the first one from the 1970s. I realized that the film I saw was probably very obscure and was probably a made for TV movie.

Eventually I got on the internet and found out about IMDb. Surely I could finally find out about that creepy movie that I saw so many years ago. I looked up Cape Fear and only the remake from the early 1990s was listed. That seemed really strange, because Cape Fear was a well known film and I thought some movie buff would have already put a connection to the remake I saw under "Movie Connections". No such luck.

A few years ago I was looking through the catalog of a company that sold rare VHS tapes and I read the description for something called "Force of Evil". I realized at once that I'd found it! This was that movie that I had been searching for, for almost 30 years. I got on IMDb again and saw that it was a made for TV movie as I had thought. Interestingly enough it was a Quinn Martin production and was narrated by William Conrad. That made sense as I recalled the distinctive narration it had when I originally saw it. It starred Lloyd Bridges and even had one of the Brady Bunch girls in it - Eve Plumb.

I managed to get a copy on VHS and re-watch it again at last. It was as cool as I had remembered it. It does indeed have virtually the same exact storyline as Cape Fear, even down to the houseboat near the end.

So cool to know the name and see it again after all those years!