Audience Member
Decent attempt at creating suspense. The only thing that would've rated this higher is that they show the person, far too often. They should've kept him shadowed in. It would've been more threatening. But, with what they got, you have your typical home invasion thriller. Though how little invasion there was, and no one ever cared that it happened to the girl or not. But still, it was based off a true story (how ever much aligned it was) but it was well shot I felt. But whoever they had doing the sound on it, I felt it was hit and miss. I couldn't hear what they were saying, and the opposite of it being too overbearing. It was good to see the girl from "Suspiria" though. Plus, the ending didn't make much sense. I felt it was spotty in places. The terror radius was only good when it took place inside the house. When it was outside, it was middle of the road. But all in all, it was a decent affair.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
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Audience Member
Jessica Harper and Michael Parks play a young couple who move into a new home in Louisiana, but they soon discover that the house is a notorious local "murder house" that has been the scene of grizzly murders since the 1920s. The young couple then find themselves being stalked by a mysterious figure and may find themselves the latest victims. The film was written and directed by Charles B. Pierce who made the iconic "Boogey Creek" and "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and this film has a very similar low budget, grungy, small town feel to it, which will delight or annoy viewers. I liked it, though this film was a bit slow moving at times and the flashback sequences seemed corny, but the film does feature a solid cast, which also included Vic Morrow, and did have some good suspenseful moments. Not a film for all audiences, but check it out if you liked the original "The Town That Dreaded Sundown." This film was also one of the last films to be released by American International Pictures (AIP).
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
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I want you to move.
A young married couple rents out a house in the country in Louisiana. The couple doesn't know that a strange family once lived there that murdered strangers. A shootout between the killers and the police occurred and lots of people died. When strange things start happening to the couple around the house, it would be easy to blame the events on the history of the home, but is the house really haunted or do the locals just want them gone?
"I knew we'd have our revenge."
Charles Pierce, director of The Legend of Boggy Creek 1 & 2, Bootleggers, Chasing the Wind, The Town that Dreaded Sundown, The Winds of Autumn, and The Norsemen, delivers The Evictors. The storyline for this picture is just okay and fairly predictable. The villains were well done but the overall acting was mediocre. The cast includes Vic Morrow, Michael Parks, Jessica Harper, and Dennis Fimple.
"We killed three people yesterday. We can't get away with that."
I came across this on Netflix and decided to give it a shot since it seemed to have an old school grindhouse feel to it. It was just okay and fairly straightforward. The villains were fairly well done, but they were not good enough to carry the film. This was fairly disappointing and is not a must see.
"You should vacate the premises immediately."
Grade: C-
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
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Audience Member
Fromt he director of The Town That Dreaded Sundown, this similarly set small town creepfest shows a young couple moving into an old home that may still have some squatters who aren't quite ready for anyone else to take over the family manse.
Worth a rental for sure.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
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Audience Member
The Evictors (Charles B. Pierce, 1979)
There are a whole lot of directors at work in America today who should be sat down-with as much force as necessary-and made to watch The Evictors, which is an excellent example of how to make a stylish, effective thriller on a basement budget. But since that's not going to happen, I can distill what they need to learn from this movie into a single sentence: look backward, not forward. Look, if you dare, at the plague of Asylum pictures and Syfy Original Movies and all that sort of dreck, and one thing you will likely notice is that everyone's waving around CGI like it's a brand-new toy they can't get enough of. It's a very loud, flashy toy, and it annoys the hell out of mom and dad five minutes after the box is opened. Now watch the opening sequence of The Evictors, which is filmed in sepia-tone; the sequence takes place in the thirties, and Pierce was going for that kind of look. It's very well-shot, it's obviously out of place, and it does what it sets out to do. If this movie was made in 2013, that sequence would probably be CGIed to death, and the movie would be the worse for it. This is not to say that The Evictors is a perfect film, not by any stretch of the imagination, but for what it is, it is a very good one.
Ben and Ruth Watkins (Kill Bill's Michael Parks and Suspiria's Jessica Harper) are a newly-married couple who get transferred to a little town in the sticks for Ben's job. They're still not rolling in cash, so the local realtor, Jake Rudd (The Bad News Bears' Vic Morrow), shows them a cheap house not far outside of town. You've seen this movie before. As soon as they move in, the townsfolk start treating them oddly, and soon they begin hearing rumors that awful things have happened in that house. With most of the town unwilling to help them, can they figure out what's going on with their erstwhile dream home before they end up being another story the locals tell their kids to keep them from going out at night?
A number of reviews I've read of the movie have as their main criticism that it isn't actually a horror movie. Compared to most of today's horror films, especially in America, it's easy to understand why people might raise this as an issue. Even something like the first half of The Descent, which has as its main fear-inducer simple claustrophobia, has a grittier, scarier feel to it than The Evictors. This is much more an exercise in atmosphere, tension, and suspense than it is horror. I do not in any way consider that a bad thing; quite the opposite. This is a horror film for people who appreciate Bèla Tarr and Krzyzstof Kieslowski movies. Better, then, to bring up some wooden acting-the more I see of Jessica Harper, the more I wonder why she continued getting roles in movies-and some set decoration that was kind of silly even for a zero-budget movie. (Just wait till you get a load of the neighbor's sitting room.) Still, despite problems, there is a great deal about The Evictors to like. ***
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
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Audience Member
I have always said this, you can have a strong female character in a movie without having her be a gun touting, spandex wearing, male ass kicking super chick. What you do need is a person who is likeable, well rounded, and someone the audience can sympathize with. Never has that sentiment range truer than in The Evictors.
The main actress, and the true main character of the film played by Jessica Harper, is everyman's grandmother, not that that's a bad thing. She looks and behaves like every story you where ever told about your grandma from when she was "your age" and to see her put through these harrowing situations really makes you sympathize with her and feel for her plait. It's also why the films ending, was the first in a long time to make me literally yell out, "man that sucks!" Not because it was bad, but because you care so much about her that to see her ultimate fate brings you more discomfort than if she'd let the psycho finish her off.
I mean after all who wants to see their grandma attacked and stalked by a maniac?
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
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