Something Evil (1972)

Steven Spielberg is not one of my favorite directors, but I respect his work.Considering that this is a film from the beginning of his career, filmed with low budget and poor quality film equipment, I would dare to say that this is a masterpiece! The truth is that I was kid when I first time saw it, and I could not find it for a long time afterwards. But when I saw it again, as an adult, feeling was the same, FEAR!Don't get me wrong, I'm not some kind of a sissy, I'm a big fan of horror movies.I can watch the sickest and bloodiest movies without any problems, almost nothing can scare me. But this movie scares me. The atmosphere of the movie is so creepy. Without fancy visual special effects, without special make-up effects. Only the story of the movie, some decent acting and obvious talent of Steven Spielberg. I highly recommend it to the real fans of horror.

SOMETHING EVIL goes to prove that not all American TV horror movies of the 1970s are great. This one's an unusually lacklustre effort that tells an all-too-familiar tale of demons and possession, and for once the low budget works against it. The story isn't too shabby, acting as an interesting precursor to the likes of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and written by ENTER THE DRAGON director Robert Clouse, of all people.No, the problem here is Steven Spielberg, directing this very early on in his career as a follow up to his cult classic DUEL. Well, DUEL was much better, and Spielberg feels out of place, uneasy with the material, unsure of himself and playing it safe throughout. The result is a film that's oddly uninvolving and one which only gets going in the last few minutes.The storyline sees a family renting a farmhouse out in the Pennsylvania countryside only to discover that something sinister lurks within. Darren McGavin is a welcome presence as the husband but is underutilised, while the viewer has to contend with the shrill acting of the miscast Sandy Dennis for most of the running time. The less said about the annoying red-haired kid the better. SOMETHING EVIL is a shallow film that seems too afraid to properly tackle its storyline; weak sauce at best, and unsurprisingly forgotten by its director.

Early TV movie effort from Spielberg that is rather uneven. I'm not really sure why this doesn't work better. I guess there was little money and a lot of TV people looking over his shoulder that may have not helped the process. Whatever the reason, the location screams that it is a set, so flat and airless. When the spirits arise and the winds begin to blow, I realized why it had been absent, before but surely some sense of heat or rain would have given some sense of life to this clapperboard and cardboard. I also wonder whether using Ralph Bellamy was a good idea, he didn't seem to fit too well but would probably have been difficult to tell. Sandy Dennis is pretty much as she always is and I always like her but here when everyone seems a bit strange we could have done with a more staid central character. Otherwise, reasonable enough and there are scares particularly at the end, even if they are a bit undermined by an early sign of sentimentality creeping in and almost spoiling things.

A married couple and their two children move into an old country estate in rural Pennsylvania. The father spends most of his time working in New York City, but his wife stays home tending to the kids and coming up with various art designs. It isn't long before she's plagued by bizarre happenings, and while her husband is disbelieving, she comes to the conclusion that a devil is haunting the estate.This TV movie was Steven Spielberg's follow-up to "Duel". While nowhere near that film's level, it is a reasonably effective little haunting yarn. The late Sandy Dennis carries the picture with her frantic, on edge performance. Ralph Bellamy of "Rosemary's Baby" is on the right side of the occult this time as a friendly neighbor who supplies Dennis with info on devils and protection from evil. The haunting is predominately low-key, though it occasionally moves into more pronounced territory when attacking others and even causing a fatal car accident. The creepiest scenes involve the sounds of a baby crying in the still country night and Dennis desperately trying to find out where the cries are emanating from. What she eventually finds makes for a rather disturbing visual.Less unnerving and more cheesy is a scene where Sandy is flipping out on her son. The aftermath doesn't hit as hard as Spielberg would like it too because of this, but Sandy's performance does lessen the damage. Her husband doesn't seem to think much of it and heads back to New York for more work on the annoying commercial he's been preoccupied with. All of this leads up to a fun, if somewhat limp ending. The climactic surprise is telegraphed well in advance.As a whole, there's nothing particularly remarkable here, but it all works just fine. Still, I was hoping that "Something Evil" would be something truly special.