Amityville 1992: It’s About Time

 

Amityville 1992: It’s About Time
1992
Tony Randel

This movie has virtually nothing to do with the Amityville Horror series but that’s probably not a surprise at this point. There are a flood of films with Amityville in the title now because you can’t copyright a village and/or a house style. Amityville 1992 was doing it before it was cool (it was never cool). You could safely cut out one shot and a small section of dialogue and sever all connection to that film series, but if it managed to get a few extra viewers to rent this movie so be it. 

It's a surprisingly fun little film.

Jacob Sterling (Stephen Macht) is a well-regarded architect who brings home a clock from the notorious Amityville house. The clock is, of course, very haunted and soon the house and Jacob are as well. Only his son Rusty (Damon Martin) realizes something is up but who’s going to believe him?  The only other person who seems to understand is local weirdo, Iris Wheeler (Nita Talbot).

 

Frog House 1992

 

Amityville 1992: It’s About Time manages to craft an uncanny atmosphere by giving us some very atypical haunted house and demonic possession elements. I really enjoyed how the haunted clock physically infiltrated the space and began to alter the house. A less interesting film wouldn’t have demon clock extending secret drills to literally enmesh itself into the physical environment. The demon possession comes via dog bit of all things, and it too is a physical intrusion of supernatural elements. These two possessions mirror each other as the story continues.

It is pretty obvious that Amityville 1992 is not a large budget production, but the money is well used. Most of the film takes place in the house and in a turn away from the typical spooky decrepit mansion or idyllic middle-class home, the house in the movie is a nightmare on its own. It’s filled with clashing ugly patterns and colors. The layout is strange. The house feels wrong even without the haunted clock causing problems.

 

"Hurry, I need to be on the Even Horizon."

 

Another welcome element was the use of comedy in what is a dour series of films. Amityville 1992 cultivates some absurd kills and moments but uses them to build on the uncanny atmosphere almost as much as they threaten to break any suspense. It is yet another odd ingredient in an odd film. I can only guess what someone who rented this looking for some demon shenanigans and instead got a woman killed by a robot bird on top of an ice cream truck.

Direct to video sequels more often than not disappoint so it is exciting to find one that tries to bring something new to the formula and carves out its own identity in the process. Amityville 1992: It’s About Time is kooky little haunted house movie that manages to be more weird than scary but honestly the Amityville films needed more weird (or a least before Amityville went to space or fought a shark or whatever the heck is going on with these films today.)

Meatcleaver Massacre

Meatcleaver Massacre (aka The Hollywood Meatcleaver Massacre aka Evil Force)
1977
Even Lee

Meatcleaver Massacre touts Christopher Lee as its big draw. This is a lie. Yes, Christopher Lee is in it, but also, he’s not. Mr. Lee opens and closes the movie with long rambling speeches about demons and the occult. He is not interested in what he is saying, and it shows. I am certain this was something left off of his sizzle reel. In fact, these opening and closing segments where not originally filmed for Meatcleaver Massacre but were added after the fact. Not an auspicious start (or end) for this movie but nothing can really prepare you for what is coming.

"I don't know what I"m doing in the movie either."

After what I can only describe as the world’s most evil slide show, Professor Cantrell (James Habif) an expert in the occult and demons, heads home to his family. Some disgruntled students(?) get drunk in a van, drive to his house and murder his family for no reason that is ever actually explained. They all wear an identical patch on their jackets, are they supposed to be a cult or a gang? We are never told in a movie that is not interested in explaining anything at all.

After the unexpected murder of the professor’s family (that is totally devoid of a meat cleaver by the way), we get down to the bulk of the film in which the near catatonic professor is summoning demons to dispatch the killers. From there we get this band of the murderers doing random things, stopping those things to go do other random things, having nightmares, and then getting killed in a gory fashion. Repeat this cycle till the end of the movie.

It sounds like a disaster and it is, but the atmosphere it generates is so dreamlike yet grimy, it creates an undoubtedly compelling little film. Events just happen with no real explanation and end just abruptly.  A suicide is interrupted by work, a man just stops having sex and goes home, and a man gets electrocuted in series of events I still do not quite grasp. We even get a monster at the climax with looks like a Bigfoot covered in seaweed. Like the rest of this movie, it is odd more than frightening. After this nightmare we visit Christopher Lee again, who goes on far too long about occult conventions and mysteries. Even an actor of his caliber cannot elevate this material and Lee is only barely trying here.

The smell of this thing is incredible.

Meatcleaver Massacre is not what I expected from the title, and that is an understatement. Should you watch it? If you are looking for a straightforward slasher or demonic possession movie, you’re going to be bored and annoyed.  If you like things slow and confusing but somehow compellingly weird at the same time, then you will certainly find some things to enjoy here. 

The Haunted

The Haunted
1991
Robert Mandel

The Haunted is a made-for-television film that was broadcast on U.S. Fox affiliates in May of 1991. It is the dramatic retelling of the ‘Smurl Haunting.’ It follows a pretty standard plot for a haunted house film, the family moves into a house, there’s a ghost or demon there, and the family battles it. They bring in investigators, priests, and try to solve the problem themselves, but ultimately it’s the family's unity that helps them to survive.

The Haunted works as a horror story because it keeps its monstrous encounters sharp and strange. There is never a proper explanation for what has made the Smurl family a target. There is also horrific imagery that is quite striking, the best one being a shot of something flapping and raging around in the house while the family is away camping. There is also a demonic rape scene that comes as quite a surprise for a show meant for mainstream broadcast television.

The Ugly House Haunting would have been too on the nose for a title.

I honestly like the look of The Haunted, it has a very bland, flatly lit appearance. It in no way could ever be mistaken for a theatrical film. That blandness makes the demonic attacks feel even more out of place, it feels like Satan attacking a sitcom. The special effects occupy that unusual time period where video effects were bridging practical and CGI. They have a very distinctive look, not a terrible one, but one that is particular to this era of genre television.

“The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he doesn’t exist.”

This often-repeated line makes an appearance in The Haunted. What is interesting is that the film makes a similar trick happen. It would be very easy for someone watching this for the first time on television with the assorted distractions of commercials and things happening in their own house to see the religious elements grow more and more prominent in the story and eventually be the device that saves the Smurl family.

But they don't.

The truth is that all the attempts by the church, priests, the family, and the community fail to remove the demon. The priests that get involved are either ineffective or oblivious, screaming at the forces in the house from the family fails to stop anything, and no amount of candle holding and hymn singing by anyone from the church helps. Even legendary hucksters The Warrens (of The Amityville Horror and The Conjuring (2013) fame) are unable to help. The Smurls are still abused by whatever is in their house and it even follows them to their next house. The power of Christ compels you? Not so much it seems.

THE POWER OF HAIRSPRAY COMPELS YOU.

The Haunted is a great made-for-television horror film, it moves at a quick pace and offers some genuine chills. It is a haunted house movie that is very much worth checking out.


Watch the Haunted on YouTube!

Demon Resurrection

 
Demon Resurrection
2008
William Hopkins

Grace (Alexis Golightly) lives with her lover John (Damian Ladd) in an isolated house in the woods. Grace’s friends show up to stage an intervention, thinking that John is supplying her with drugs. It turns out that John has in fact rescued her from a demon-worshiping cult, led by a guy named Toth (Will McDonald). The cult would very much like to have Grace back since she is carrying something horrifying in her womb. Grace and her friends soon find themselves under siege from Toth's green glowing horde of zombies.

Demon Resurrection is a good example of a film that wants to honor its 1970s and early 1980s horror roots without mindlessly aping the surface look of those films. Too often modern ‘grindhouse’ movies think they can throw some digital film damage over their shoddily made work and call it retro. Demon Resurrection takes its plot and a few visual cues from films like Burial Ground (1981) and The Blind Dead movies but it is not interested in just copying them under the guise of homage.

"Can you help me with my tie, it feels a bit noose... hahaha noose, get it? Hey where are you going?"

The zombies are very classic in their presentation. They are green glowing skeletons, slow as hell but relentless in their pursuit. They seem almost harmless but show surprising strength when they finally get their hands on someone. Toth is a fun villain, he is the kind of robe-wearing Satan worshiping baddie that is just as much of a delight to watch as it is to see him get his comeuppance. He meets his end in a fashion that wouldn’t be out of place in an E.C. horror comic.

If Demon Resurrection has any singular flaw, it is that it takes too long to get the plot moving. I could understand some viewers getting agitated wading through a few unpleasant side characters and a lengthy sex scene. Once the zombie attack gets underway, the pace and the entertainment pick up considerably.

Thigh of the Living Dead

Our protagonists aren’t nearly as interesting as the bad guys, but are they ever? In particular, there were a few (Mike) that I would have liked to see get torn apart by zombies as soon as possible (Mike). Demon Resurrection isn’t afraid to put its characters through the wringer, and throughout the runtime, I was not exactly sure who was going to make it to the end. I did really like Laurie Miller as Kate. Looking through her IMDB listing, she is primarily a stunt artist, but I thought she made a believably frightened and desperate character and I found myself rooting for her to survive her ordeals with the undead.

Demon Ressurection is low budget but still creates a throwback horror story, but it never descends into pastiche. It sets out to create a story filled with zombies, demon impregnation, evil cults, and plenty of blood. Aside from some pacing issues, it gives birth to some enjoyable horror.

Demons 2

Demons 2

1986

Lamberto Bava

Set at some unspecified time after Demons (1985), it looks like the Demon invasion was quelled and parts of the city that were overrun have been walled off. People in an apartment complex are watching a television program about a group of young explorers who have decided to venture into the deserted part of the city to see what has become of it. They encounter a still living demon and unexpectedly it somehow emerges through a television set and into the apartment complex to start a new wave of terror.

Following up on the massive success of Demons, Demons 2 was rushed into production. The hurried nature of its creation shows, in a film that isn't quite as well-crafted and realized. It still has some power to horrify and surprise but it feels like a mere shadow to what came before it.

The real face of the dog from Family Circus.

 Like Demons, Demons 2 tries to double the events happening on screen with the events happening in the complex but already we are at a disadvantage. Whereas the Metropol itself was a mysterious and sinister theater, the complex is nothing but a building. There is nothing particularly malevolent about the place. Some viewers might have an issue with the odd way the Demon attack gets its start, but I think it works. These are unknown beings and they should operate in unknown ways.

There are some outstanding effects in Demons 2, the aforementioned Demon emerging from the television screen is a simple effect but it is realized marvelously. There is a wonderfully loopy dog transformation, and a nasty child demon. There is a call back to the demon emerging from a victim’s body like in the first film, this time more influenced by Gremlins (1984).

Perhaps the biggest step down for Demons 2 is that is lacks the viciousness of the original. Aside from an extended scene of mayhem in a parking garage, the film pulls its punches too often. This may have been due to a lack of time to put together special effects, or it was an attempt to broaden the appeal of the sequel.

The main reason I won't buy a 4k television.

The strongest element of the film is its pacing. It wastes little time building up the mystery of what became of the invading monsters, before one shows up in the apartment complex. From there, things degrade rapidly for the survivors as they are under nearly constant assault. What few moments of rest come along are not restful at all, as both characters and viewer know that the next attack could come at any time.

On its own merits, Demons 2 is a good, almost great film. Compared to its predecessor, it is a pale imitation. By all means if you haven’t seen it, take a look, just remember to temper your expectations.  Despite its shortcomings, Demons 2 still manages to be iconic horror film in the pantheon of 1980s Italian horror.

31 Days of Halloween 2015: Day 29

The Borderlands (aka Final Prayer)

2013
Elliot Goldner

Deacon (Gordon Kennedy) is a priest, skeptic, and professional debunker who has been hired to investigate the strange occurrences at a small English church. His team includes a cameraman, Gray (Robin Hill) and another priest, Father Amidon (Aidan McArdle). The weird happenings at the church defy explanation, and soon enough things start escalate. A suicide spurs Deacon into trying to take direct action against whatever is happening by bringing in an exorcist. They come to discover that the church grounds where built over and older pagan site of worship. Things only get worse when the team is separated and Deacon discovers a huge labyrinth that exists underneath the church. He enters it in a desperate hope to find his lost colleges.

The Borderlands is another low-budget found footage horror film, but with the key difference that it’s actually very good. Taking a few notes from Paranormal Activity (2009), The Borderlands creates a reason for there to be constant filming of the events. The story isn’t going to win any awards for creativity, but the film is excellent at building up moments of tension and paying them off. Most notable is that The Borderlands ends on a fantastic final moment that is frightening and unexpected. The acting is good all around, everyone feels naturalistic, and Deacon is an enjoyable lead character. You find yourself warming up to all these people, and that makes what’s coming for them all the more brutal and horrible. The Borderlands is a great example that found footage horror can still have merit.

Night Train to Terror

Night Train to Terror

1985
John Carr
Phillip Marshak
Tom McGowan
Jay Schlossberg-Cohen
Gregg C. Tallas

Anthology films are structurally tricky to get right. Generally they open and close with their strongest stories. This often leaves a weak middle section. The framing story (if there is one) works best if it thematically ties all the other stores together. ‘Tales from the Darkside: The Movie’ (1990) and Trick r’ Treat (2007) are excellent examples of this sub-genre, every story isn't perfect, but working together they achieve something more than the sum of their parts.  Sometimes though, you just have a half-finished movie, a couple of other movies you think you can edit down to fit, a bunch of dancers in atrocious 80’s gear, and 98 minutes of screen time to kill

‘Night Train to Terror’ opens with a song. I hope you like this song because you’re going to be hearing it a lot. A band seems to be running rampant throughout a train, singing about 'Everyone having something to do, except you.' I can only assume they mean you, the viewer. Elsewhere on the train, a conductor checks up on God and Satan as they haggle over the fate of souls. Each batch of souls gets a story and the story appears in the window of their train car. The first story involves a doctor at an insane asylum that likes to abduct people and perform pointless operations on them. The second story is about a couple that get involved with an exclusive club that uses increasingly more ridiculous “Russian Roulette” contraptions to kill its own members, and when the first contraption involves a wasp the size of a house cat, that’s saying something. The final and longest story has Cameron Mitchell chasing down a bunch of stop motion demons.  It’s all wrapped up with more music, more dancing and the worst model train in the history of cinema.

The first story is from an uncompleted film called, ‘Scream Your Head Off‘ and it shows, there is no real narrative to speak of, just an endless series of victims and crazy surgeons. The last two segments are edited down from existing films, 'Death Wish Club' (1983) and 'Cataclysm' (1980), and as a result they feel rushed and possibly make even less sense than the first story. The bickering Satan and God and the occasional musical interruptions both feel like they belong in other movies entirely.

Richard Moll plays characters in the first and last story and is engaging, menacing, and enjoyable to watch. Cameron Mitchell obviously is just there for the paycheck. The rest of the cast is a mixed bag, but that mix is mostly various flavors of terrible. The special effects are plentiful and cheap, consisting of monster puppets and stop-motion beasts that have an undeniable charm, even if they fail to frighten. 

‘Night Train to Terror’ is exactly like watching a train wreck, it’s an awful mess that you simply cannot turn away from. It’s not a film you watch for the stories (there really aren't any), you watch it because you can’t wait to see what sort of nonsense is going to be thrown on the screen next, and this is a film that rarely fails to deliver.

Gate II: Tresspassers

Gate II: Trespassers

1990
Tibor Takács

I’d seen ‘Gate II’ once during its very brief theatrical run. I remember walking out of the theater feeling… well not feeling much of anything at the time.  The original Gate was near and dear to my dorky teenage horror loving heart, so it was probably folly to think that the sequel would be able to capture the isolation and private horrors of being a suburban kid home alone all the time. Not to mention at 15, I was looking for darker fare, and both Gate movies fall squarely in the realm of kid’s adventure stories, not unlike ‘The Goonies’ (1985) or Explorers (1985), just with a touch of demons and magic rather than pirates or aliens.

The film picks up a few years after the events of ‘The Gate’. The house were Glen (Stephen Dorff in the original) lived is still a wreck and he’s long since moved away. Glen’s friend Terry (Louis Tripp) takes center stage in this movie, and he’s using Glen’s house to preform magic rituals (that involve the usual trappings as well as a computer, lasers and a sound system). In this case his ritual is to implore interdimensional demons to help his dad get a job. His ritual is interrupted by some local toughs, John (James Villemaire), Moe (Simon Reynolds) and Liz (Pamela Segall), but Terry still manages to succeed in summoning one of the tiny minions from the first film. He soon discovers that the minion can grant wishes but there is a price. Liz offers to help him send it back through the gate but not before Moe and John get a hold of it.  Terry and Liz now have to try get the minion back before awful things come pouring through the gate.

Taken a sequel to ‘The Gate’, ‘The Gate II’ is a bit of a mess. There’s none of the growing menace, or the slow and steady rising tension as each supernatural encounter gets more intense and dangerous. Although Terry’s dad’s life is kicked around by his son's fooling with the minion, nothing really feels at stake.

Taken on its own, ‘Gate II’ is a fun and fairly breezy adventure.  Terry is a likeable character, and the movie goes a long way to portray him as sympathetic. His main antagonist John is a meathead, but there’s very little to him beyond that. 

The special effects are definitely a mixed bag. Some of the forced perspective shots with the minion are fantastic, while a lot of the matte work is sub par at best. Sadly, the big demon makeup is uninspired and the stop motion lacks the care and detail that made the monster at the end of the original so memorable. I do appreciate any movie that tries to stretch its bounds, so credit to the filmmakers when the third act takes the characters to a cost effective but very well realized hellscape.

‘The Gate II’ is an essentially weightless exercise in late 80’s style horror comedy. It’s not a great film I’m not even sure it’s a good one, but I do think it deserves more credit than it gets.

The Power

The Power
1984
Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow

Like so many obscure films of the VHS era, the best thing about 'The Power' is the box art. It’s colorful and exciting which is the exact opposite of the movie that is contained within the packaging.  There are a few effective scenes in the film but they happen haphazardly within large dull stretches of time. Centering a horror film around an adorable two inch tall statue creates a host of problems too. Its part demonic possession movie, part teen slasher with just a taste of 'Evil Dead' (1981) thrown in and all baked into a dull grey lump.

Things starts off strong with a college professor giving a lecture and handing out psychic powered nosebleeds to sarcastic frat boys. After class he is confronted by a man in a suit, asking him to surrender a statue. The statue is of an Aztec demon called, Destacatl. The professor refuses to give it up and for some reason the demon decides to use it's psychic power to trash the classroom and impale the professor on a flagpole.  From this point on, we follow a tabloid reporter, his would-be girlfriend and three clueless teenagers as they come into contact with statue and one of them falls under it’s power.

The most frustrating aspect of 'The Power' is that it can’t decide what it wants to be, which forces it to meander about with too many plot lines and too many characters. It takes turns being a demonic mystery, a teen supernatural caper, and a horror comedy, but is unable to commit to any of these things so it ends up feeling like the story is going nowhere. Once it finally figures things out in the last fifteen minutes, it suddenly becomes an engaging monster film, but to get to that point is a tedious slog.

There are a few moments worth checking out. The opening is quite good, unexpectedly violent and succeeds in making you curious what’s going on. I found the high school kid’s first encounter with the statue as it starts attracting things on his desk and within moments it begins smashing everything in his room, to be well realized and exciting. The final chase through the house is actually pretty tense. It almost ends on a high note but then drags things on with a pointless and unnecessarily long coda, which ends exactly like a thousand other horror movies but takes twice as long to get there.

As a side thought, what is the point of the power you get from the statue? They never really demonstrate anything attractive about it. The demon also seems pretty quick to kill the people using the power. Sure you can inconvenience the occasional jerk with a nose bleed but the price is awfully high.

Should you watch 'The Power'? I suppose if you’ve seen just about every other 1980’s low rent VHS release, you could do worse. It’s watchable, the performances are never dire enough to take you out of the movie, and the special effects are cheap but effective enough. Unlike the statue in the movie, there is nothing very alluring about “The Power.”

31 Days of Halloween: Day 31

Prince of Darkness

1987
John Carpenter

Donald Pleasance plays a priest who contacts a group of academics, including Professor Howard Birak (Victor Wong) and his students, Walter (Donald Dun) and Brian (Jameson Parker). The priest brings the group to an abandoned church to study a strange cylinder that’s filled with a swirling green liquid.  The liquid appears to be alive and intelligent. Everyone at the site also seems to be having the same reoccurring dream that may be a transmission from the future.  Whatever the liquid is, it wants out and begins possessing members of the research team.

It’s nice to see this film starting to get a little more attention. As much as some of Carpenter’s other works are held up as prime examples of horror cinema, this was the one film that actually scared me. I distinctly remember the dream sequences making the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and the idea of an Anti-God living just behind the mirror haunting me for days afterwards. From the opening moments there is an oppressive dread hanging over everything. It’s not Carpenter’s most technically accomplished film or his best scripted, but for me it at least, it’s the one that really got to me.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 22

The Gate
1987
Tibor Takács

Child denizens of 1980’s suburbia, Glen (Stephen Dorff) and his friend Terry (Louis Tripp) discover a large hole in Glen’s back yard after workmen remove a large tree. Digging down into the hole a bit, they find a geode.  After a series of events involving incantations and a dead dog getting dropped down the hole, Glen and Terry find themselves facing down a demonic invasion. Hordes of tiny demons, shape shifters, zombies, plus one not so tiny demon want into our world and Glen and Terry have only the sage advice of a heavy metal album to help them.

I have seen ‘The Gate’ more times than I can count and I love it every time. It perfectly captures the eeriness of being a latchkey kid in 80’s, the strange isolation of living in housing developments, and the true nerdiness of being an adolescent heavy metal fan. Although familiarity has dulled the horror for me, the movie still has a lot of scary moments as the supernatural attacks slowly ramp-up. The demons still look good, being a mixture of stop-motion and actors with giant props. The end just skirts with being a bit too hokey for its own good but this is essentially a PG-13 kid’s movie, so it’s forgivable.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 15

Happy Hell Night
1992
Brian Owens

In the late sixties, a priest comes upon a gruesome sight in a mausoleum.  Another priest has torn a group of people to shreds and has demonic black eyes. Twenty-five years later, the insane priest is being held in an asylum and two college freshmen have been assigned to get a picture of him as part of a fraternity hazing prank. As is required in a horror movie, they accidentally let the killer priest out to start a new murder spree.

Despite the rote plot, ‘Happy Hell Night’ is a step above most low budget horror movies of its era, largely due to an effective monster. The killer priest is pretty creepy looking, and the low key way he goes about stalking his victims adds some great eerie tension. For a guy who seems to have no problem tearing people apart with his bare hands, he seems to really enjoy getting his hands on a mountain climbing pick. The movie also tries to give its characters a little bit more than paper thin characterizations. It’s only partially successful as the cast still consists of douchey frat bros you don’t mind seeing get a pick in the head. The finale is a little bit of let down thanks an unfortunate sped up film sequence and a pretty hokey final line, but up until those moments, it's a enjoyable and very competent horror film.

Evil Clutch

Evil Clutch (aka Il Bosco 1)

Andreas Marfori

1988

Among the lesser known rip-off sub genres is the ‘Evil Dead’ (1981) and ‘Evil Dead II’ (1987) rip-offs, which includes such luminary films as ‘Shaitan’ (1990) and ‘Demon Wind’ (1990).  In fact  a great number of horror movies that  were made post  ‘Evil Dead II’ tried to copy that film’s mix of horror and slapstick humor to varying (read:  almost always poor) degrees of success. ‘Evil Clutch’ archives the special notice of trying to copy the unrelenting dread and horror of the first Evil Dead and then trying to merge it with some crazed slapstick of the sequel and failing on both fronts in a spectacular fashion.

The film opens with a monster attack involving a woman who seduces a young man then bites him and drinks his blood. It's a pretty well done scene and it gave me a little hope for the rest. Soon, Evil Clutch settles in with Cindy (Coralina C. Tassoni) and Tony (Diego Ribon), young lovers driving through small villages and seeing the sights of rural Italy.  They run into a strange woman hitchhiking (Elena Cantarone), who you may recognize from the opening of the movie. They also happen to meet a guy named Algernoon (Luciano Crovato), who rides a motorcycle, uses a synthetic voice box to speak, claims he writes horror stories and takes them a long pointless walk to tell them an even longer and more pointless story. He seems vaguely aware that the woman they picked up is a monster.  All of this is done in slow build that occasionally teeters into slow bore, but it all goes out the window once the demon and her giant vagina claw swing into action and start smooshing hands and tearing off heads. 

From the handheld camerawork, complete with rushing demon  POV through the woods,  to the design of the demon woman,  it’s pretty obvious this film is emulating ‘Evil Dead’ minus a lot of the efficiency that makes ‘Evil Dead’ such an effective film.  The finale contains some decent gore effects, but a lot of it is shot so dark it’s very hard to see what is actually happening. The demon make-up goes from understated and effective to bulging eyed and goofy. 

Our two leads are pretty dull and they feel underwritten. I would say it feels like a strange turn to have the male lead immediately start doing drugs and making out with a demonic hitchhiker, but that would require him have been written with any kind of personality.  Cindy, runs around and screams until it’s decided by the script that she needs to fight back against the monster.  Algernoon is easily the most consistent character, because he’s pretty much a wall to wall lunatic up until the end.

If you are starved for some old school gore or are a die-hard Evil Dead fan, I could see you taking a look at this, film. For everyone else, the beginning is too dull and the end too silly to make much of a cohesive film, much less an enjoyable viewing experience. There is a severed head that explodes for no discernible reason at the end much like yours might, if you take eighty-five minutes out of your life to view, ‘Evil Clutch.’