Confession... I haven't seen The Exorcist. I'll get that taken care of soon enough. It's always got this billing as "the scariest movie of all time," and I almost feel like I have to be in the right mood to take in a "classic." For whatever reason, I'd rather take my chances a cheesy TV movie that rips it off rather than the watch the original. Maybe it's because there's no fear of disappointment.
Without having seen it, I can still tell that Good Against Evil is paying homage, Hard, to what is still the standard-bearer for all possession movies. The very first shot of the thing is a silhouetted man walking down a foggily lit street, lit by a street lamp with his giant shadow in the foreground - Sound familiar?
The first five minutes are probably the scariest in the whole film - we start in 1955, with a woman getting ready to give birth - which is already enough to make me stressed out and unsettled. Some orderlies and nuns (with the scary-nun winged hats) are pushing her down a corridor, with her screaming "where's my doctor! This isn't my hospital!" When she is actually in the throes of labor, they imply that she is freaked out enough by these people that she is TRYING TO KEEP THE BABY IN! Child-birth is frightening enough on it's own, but a mother-to-be, uh - un-pushing to keep her baby from being born... that just bothers my delicate sensibilities.
Anyways, since life will find a way (especially when it's aided by drugs), the baby is born and taken away by the scary nun/evil hospital staff. When the mom awakens from her post-birth haze, she finds the baby but is chased off by the nun and tries to escape the hospital, when the first (of many) Bad Cats scares her face first down a flight of stairs. Our newborn is now an orphan (dad is never mentioned), and ready to be raised as the child of the cult.
Our introduction to the cult is at what appears to be a fancy company Christmas party, except there is a demon statue instead of a tree. The obvious CEO/leader (the prolific Richard Lynch - my first thought was "Rutger Hauer?") gives a big speech which sets up the rest of the movie, holding up the newborn and saying he will spend the next twenty years taking care of the child, educating her, and making sure she's set to be the... next bride of Satan? ( I think - the motives were a little unclear.)
Flash-forward to 1977 in San Francisco, and our newborn Jessica is now a beautiful 22 year old working as a clothing designer in a little boutique. While at work, her Phyllis Diller-esque boss informs her that her car has been hit while it was parked out front. This is the meet-cute for the romantic angle that takes up a a good half of the movie - her car was hit by the free-spirit Andy (a charismatic and awesomely-named Dack Rambo). Jessica is hesitant, but Andy is persistent, and eventually their relationship grows - until Satan gets in the way!
What I like
This movie is pretty quirky and occasionally fun - I don't know if it's just the era it's from, or that's the tone it was going for, but there's enough weird stuff going on to make it enjoyable. For example, our hero Andy woos Jessica by more or less stalking her. He basically steals her car to get it fixed, finds her registration and begins following her around, leaving her messages and sending her packages at work. It gets worse when she relents to go out to dinner with him, and he invites her out to his pimped-out van to "read some books," but even then Jessica isn't too bothered. It's all presented as cute and flirty. Times have really changed. Part of the movie's success though is Dack Rambo (yes!) and his goofy charm - you kind of want to dislike him but he eventually wins you over - just like he wins over Jessica.
There's also the filmmaker's outright hatred of cats. You usually get a cat hissing or whatever in horror movies, but this takes it a step further and actually equates cats as minions of Satan. I have a cat that is kind of a little shit, so I can appreciate this characterization. But there is a black cat that (I think) is supposed to be Satan incarnate, and an awesome scene where the cult leader punishes a member by locking her in a room that is slowly filling with 20+ cats. They try to make the cats menacing, but really it just seems like they're circling at meal-time. Eventually things start ramping-up and the cats are whipped into a murderous frenzy - which means people off camera start gently throwing the cats into the shot. It's great - think Maru jumping out of his box.
I also have a fondness for movies of this era putting pivotal plot points in newspaper headlines:
I would totally buy a coffee table book of these sorts of shots. This comes up just after Jessica disappears - so shortly after the end of the "first-episode." Ostensibly, future episodes would revolve around Andy trying to find her. So, after finding mysterious satanic symbols at her old apartment, this headline makes Andy seek out this little girl.
Through cult magic, it so happens that the mother of this little girl is Andy's former lover... who happens to be played by a young Kim Catrall! (I thought she looked familiar, but didn't realize it was her until imdb.) They cult is trying to make him forget Jessica by hooking him up with a former flame.
So finding Jessica is thrown by the wayside for the "second-episode," while Andy deals with his former lover and her possessed daughter. A priest shows up out of nowhere, and insists on an exorcism or the girl will surely die. The chaos caused by the exorcism is great though. Again, the director equates chaos with things being thrown from off-camera - you can almost see the grips tossing pieces of furniture across the room. The wind machine helps though.
Anyways, good defeats evil here and all is well (despite Andy turning down a young Kim Catrall!) and he goes off to search for Jessica in the next episode. He picks up the priest at a bus-stop and they decide to pair up for further adventures/episodes.
What I didn't like
The lack of any sort of resolution was frustrating. Obviously, it's set up as a pilot so they can't tell all, but there are just too many unanswered questions as the main storyline is just dropped. And overall, it never gets really scary - besides the occasional kidnapping the cult seems to have Jessica's best interests in mind - they hook her up with great jobs and great places to live. Whatever shadowy goal they have is never presented in too much detail.
Also, this is not the movie's fault in the least, but if you look at the picture on Amazon or imdb, it is probably the most misleading cover of all time. I know there is a great history of misleading box art in horror, but this is ridiculous. The cover art is a fit, topless blond woman, facing away from you in a thong and lace leggings, facing a bunch of flames (hellfire, apparently). A big red "18" is on the front. I guess trying to trick you with thinking it's adults only? Although, note they are not lying - just saying "18" doesn't actually mean anything. I couldn't imagine anyone getting upset about this being even PG if it was released now (it was on TV, for cripes sake), so I just feel a little for all of the horny teenagers (and adults) who were bamboozled by this box art. Shame on you, Devil Doll DVD!
Ultimately...
Honestly, I'm having a hard time of coming up with anything I didn't really like about this movie. Granted, when you know going in it's a TV pilot, your expectations are held in check. But overall it was fun enough and had engaging performances from a game cast, so it killed the time well enough. I'm glad I watched.
I would warn you that it's a TV pilot from 1977, then recommend this film.
Until next time...
 |
| A slow news day in San Francisco |
I would totally buy a coffee table book of these sorts of shots. This comes up just after Jessica disappears - so shortly after the end of the "first-episode." Ostensibly, future episodes would revolve around Andy trying to find her. So, after finding mysterious satanic symbols at her old apartment, this headline makes Andy seek out this little girl.
Through cult magic, it so happens that the mother of this little girl is Andy's former lover... who happens to be played by a young Kim Catrall! (I thought she looked familiar, but didn't realize it was her until imdb.) They cult is trying to make him forget Jessica by hooking him up with a former flame.
So finding Jessica is thrown by the wayside for the "second-episode," while Andy deals with his former lover and her possessed daughter. A priest shows up out of nowhere, and insists on an exorcism or the girl will surely die. The chaos caused by the exorcism is great though. Again, the director equates chaos with things being thrown from off-camera - you can almost see the grips tossing pieces of furniture across the room. The wind machine helps though.
Anyways, good defeats evil here and all is well (despite Andy turning down a young Kim Catrall!) and he goes off to search for Jessica in the next episode. He picks up the priest at a bus-stop and they decide to pair up for further adventures/episodes.
What I didn't like
The lack of any sort of resolution was frustrating. Obviously, it's set up as a pilot so they can't tell all, but there are just too many unanswered questions as the main storyline is just dropped. And overall, it never gets really scary - besides the occasional kidnapping the cult seems to have Jessica's best interests in mind - they hook her up with great jobs and great places to live. Whatever shadowy goal they have is never presented in too much detail.
Also, this is not the movie's fault in the least, but if you look at the picture on Amazon or imdb, it is probably the most misleading cover of all time. I know there is a great history of misleading box art in horror, but this is ridiculous. The cover art is a fit, topless blond woman, facing away from you in a thong and lace leggings, facing a bunch of flames (hellfire, apparently). A big red "18" is on the front. I guess trying to trick you with thinking it's adults only? Although, note they are not lying - just saying "18" doesn't actually mean anything. I couldn't imagine anyone getting upset about this being even PG if it was released now (it was on TV, for cripes sake), so I just feel a little for all of the horny teenagers (and adults) who were bamboozled by this box art. Shame on you, Devil Doll DVD!
Ultimately...
Honestly, I'm having a hard time of coming up with anything I didn't really like about this movie. Granted, when you know going in it's a TV pilot, your expectations are held in check. But overall it was fun enough and had engaging performances from a game cast, so it killed the time well enough. I'm glad I watched.
I would warn you that it's a TV pilot from 1977, then recommend this film.
Until next time...
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