Something Evil

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Audience Member This early Spielberg directed TV movie features a TV advertising exec (Darren McGavin) move into a country farm with his hippy drippy New Age wife (Sandy Dennis). But strange things start to occur shortly afterwards. I first saw this when it aired on UK television in the early 80's. It scared the pants off me. Is it still scary to a cynical old man of 44? The simple answer is YES! It still packs a punch and the tone and direction are flawless. Theres a creeping, building sense of malevolence that runs through the whole movie that is palpable and builds to a genuinely terrifying ending.  I love the fact that Spielberg gently sends up the fashionable pop-psychology and oh so self aware mysticism that was so hip in the 70's. There are plenty of scares to be had- the sound of a child crying at night, the demonic jam-jars (yes, really) that are discovered in the barn, the presence of something genuinely malevolent in the house that changes not only the young son but Mrs 'Move To The Country' herself as in one scene we see her beat her son for disobeying her orders. This is wayyy too unsettling for what should have been a pretty bland and pedestrian romp made for network television. Spielberg was obviously on a roll when he directed this as he had just made the masterpiece Duel. I hope whatever limbo this title is in disappears so that we get a great Blu ray release sometime soon. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A classic from my childhood. Kind of a guilty pleasure. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member A mediocre film, but a great watch to see how the staples of Spielberg's style were there from the earliest stages. Themes of family, mystery, absent fathers, and suburban danger are already on display in what is essentially an early version of Poltergeist. He's already so effectively stylish with the camera, even if the savviness to use it more subtly wasn't quite there yet. Corny but integral piece of cinematic history. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member I’m not a big fan of ghost stories in the first place, but this kind of muddled possession story might be even worse. There are certainly some spooky moments that are effective at creating scares, but there’s never a clear idea of what is going on. They also spend so much time focusing on the pentacles and then never establish what they are effective at doing. Some simple rules and limitations to the things the spirits are doing, and the magical symbols would have been great. The end, when the reality of what has been happening is revealed to the audience, just confuses all of these things more because it doesn’t make sense for how things happened before. Spielberg was still young at the time and clearly is just working on his ability to create tension and fear in an audience. That part totally works, and he shows he has the strength in his movie-making that would be shown more powerfully in future films, but the script in Something Evil was weak. They could have made it a stronger mystery, if they made it clear we were trying to figure out who was being possessed, or if the possession was real. Instead it’s just creepy things occurring, mom gets scared, and everything’s OK in the end. This TV movie is only necessary to watch if you are trying to be a Spielberg completist like me. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/18 Full Review Audience Member http://www.shanemarais.net/movies-ive-seen/movies-ive-seen-s/something-evil-1972/ Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member esta pelicula es la peor de spielberg la verdad es que es pesima Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Something Evil

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