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976-EVIL - Robert Englund
This is the directorial debut of master actor (and horror
legend) Robert Englund. High school nerd Hoax Wilmoth is stuck
in a backwater burgh trying to get through a life full of leather clad
bullies and his religious zealot, cat-collecting mother. His
cousin Spike is living a normal life across the side yard in a separate
dwelling and Hoax wants nothing more than to be like him. Unknown
to Hoax his cousin Spike has his own problems. He keeps losing at
poker with his thug friends and he's always fighting with himself over
doing the right thing. That fight is getting worse now that he
is calling up a phone service to get his "Horrorscope". The
recorded voice on other end keeps telling him to do things he knows he
shouldn't and it gets angry when he doesn't. Then when Hoax gets
a hold of the number the real terror begins.
976-EVIL is your typical 80's horror movie with a strong sense
of B-movie to it. Despite typically bad reviews everywhere else
I have to say that this is a good movie. The story is a little
over the top in places, starts off quite heavy handed, and will
probably never be a legendary film (like say The Exorcist).
However this does not discount it from being good. The
acting is better than a lot of other movies, the characters have some
depth to them even the cliche ones. In fact the star Stephen
Geoffreys (Fright Night) does a really excellent job of his part as it
grows and changes during the film. The special effects are good;
Kevin Yahger's production company did them after all. The
direction is straightforward and the attention to detail is good.
The strongest downside if one wants to look at it as such is the
desire the film seems to have to homage the film Carrie. This
homage comes across as a pale comparison but I don't believe it is
meant to be the focus of the film anyway. All in all a solid
film.
(
Thank you for reading my review.
Bob Male)
All ideas, opinions, and information are from the reviewer
and are not representative of any company or group involved with the creators
and/or staff of the materials being reviewed.