Review of 976-EVIL (1988) by Chris M — 22 Jul 2009

Made at the tail end of the 80's by Freddy Kruger himself, Robert Englund, and starring the wonderful Stephen Geoffreys from Fright Night fame, 976-Evil is quite the little curiousity. It straddles the line between interesting and just plain bad an awful lot. The acting is actually quite good, besides Sandy Dennis who really camps it up as Geoffrey's religious fanatic mother. Even though her performance is over the top, it's an awful lot of fun to watch. Englund actually show a lot of promise as a director and the film is very well made. The lighting is very evocative and spooky. It's just too bad that the script is a bit of a mess. It all starts off pretty good for the first 45 minutes or so and then the film just starts drifting off into la la land. The movie just leaves us with lots of puzzling unanswered questions. The films biggest mistake is the inclusion of two random character who end up playing quite a large role in the film's climax for no real reason. The film would be better without those two characters all together.

976-Evil is not really a "good" movie, but I must say that I had a ball with it. From the tacky 80's fashions, weird special effects, odd lighting, and Sandy Dennis' hammy performance, 976-Evil delivers the goods in one way or another. It's worth a rainy night rental.