[Inspector Abberline]

The Evil (1978)

Wonderfully ludicrous rip off of Legend of Hell House via The Haunting,from Producer extraordinaire Roger Corman.Richard Crenna and his wife Joanna Pettet are trying to refurbish an old mansion to be used as a rehab centre.So when Crenna assembles a team of people to help him re-build the mansion the chances of nothing UN-toward happening to this motley bunch of polyester wearing bunch of 1970's actors are fairly low.Its a pretty well worn premise,throw a load of people into a big house and have something strangely supernatural happening to them one at a time,until they are all dead or the audience have left the building. Well a supernatural force is stopping the films protagonists from leaving the building,they try throwing tables at the windows,but to no avail,even exploitation veteran Andrew Prine comes to no good even when he tries to saw his way out of the building the fol manages to saw straight into his hand DOH what a do-fuss.Even when one of the groups dog,gets possessed,and start running amuck,although when the Alsatian runs down the corridor I swear thy use the sound effect of a Tie-fighter as the dog chases someone down.AS the staff dwindle in numbers and Pettet keeps seeing a ghostly figure who looks remarkably like the ghosts you see in an episode in Scooby Doo,Crenna finally comes to the conclusion that all is not well,especially when he finds a crypt in the basement (always a big giveaway if your house has a bloody great entrance to hell in its basement that something has gone astray),and if having a dirty great big hole under your house was going to diminish its value,then im pretty sure that having a Victor Buono in your basement is not going to add any value what so ever.If ever you needed a reason to sit through a film till the very end ( Howard the Duck being a prime example,very cool monster at the end) then seeing Mr Buono dressed all in white and developing horns is priceless. It does kind of remind me of the ending of Legend of Hell House where Roddy McDowall,confronts Michael Gough,and luckily before Buiono can talk any more nonsense he gets a crucifix stabbed into him.I really enjoyed The Evil,its nonsensical and to talky at times but there's a couple of interesting demises and the whole film is still a fun watch.