A Taste of Evil (1971)
* * * - Okay This TV Movie was written by Jimmy Sangster, a name I didn’t know but whose work I’m very familiar with. He’s the writer of
Taste of Fear,
Nightmare and
The Nanny, #s 6, 11 and 54 on my list of Hidden Horror. This is a reworking of the other three films, which I didn’t realize until now share a lot of plot. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, which is why I watched and late in her career she still delivers the goods. Going big without stepping into camp like other Grande Dames at the time.
The House That Would Not Die (1970)
* * From the director or A Taste of Evil (and Kolchak: The Night Stalker) and also starring Barbara Stanwyck, this TV Movie is a hokey piece of nonsense about restless ghosts and demonic possession. Conforming to the 70-75 minute TV running time, the story is so rushed that the characters don’t have time to be skeptical about séances, exorcisms and possessed relatives who suddenly try to kill them. Their quick acceptance of such events is incredibly weird, like an alternate universe where ghosts and witches are part of everyday life.
Something Evil (1972)
* * ½ Completing this TV Movie trilogy is this Steven Spielberg film, made after Duel and before The Sugarland Express. A completely unoriginal haunted house story, I particularly hate the cliché of the largely absent husband who’s too busy with work and dismissive of what is happening to his wife and children. Spielberg hasn’t reached his peak yet, but you can see a lot of his images of wonder and fear. One of the best directed TV Movies, but the paint-by-numbers script drags Spielberg down.
All Three:
- Safe for Sandy
Killer Snakes (1973)
* *From the director of Horror Marathon Discovery
The Boxer’s Omen, this is a disappointingly formula story about a picked-on nerd in love with an impossible beauty who gains special control over
rats a red Plymouth Fury snakes, and if you’ve seen the other two films I’m referencing you know exactly where this is headed. (And if you haven’t, the remake of Willard with Crispen Glover is pretty great.) Only this time the picked-on nerd has excessive psychological damage that makes him even more of a vengeful jerk than usual. The snakes provide some good creeps, but the exploitation fixings, especially in terms of sexuality, are largely off-putting. Still interested in this director, but I need to find something more fantasy horror.
- This movie was Rated X for good reason