Sandy Dennis
Marjorie Worden
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TV Movie
Horror
A young couple moves into a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. What they don't know is that there is an unseen presence in the house, and that it wants to take possession of the wife.
Top Billed Cast
| Release Date | 1972-01-21 |
|---|---|
| Runtime | 1h 13m |
| Directors | Steven Spielberg, Jack Roe, Bill Butler |
| Producers | Alan Jay Factor, Harvey Lembeck, David Knapp |
| Writer | Robert Clouse |
Beware the supernatural jam jars!
Early Steven Spielberg TV movie that is a considerable step down from Duel released the previous year, but showing signs of a directorial craft to follow.
Something Evil is not a great horror movie, well it was to those of us at a very young age who were allowed to watch it that is. The plot finds a family of four moving into a pastorally pleasing Pennsylvania farmhouse only to find a demon resides there. Hubbie works all hours in the city while mama and the two young children fall prey to something that manifests itself as red goo in jam jars or via a wind machine. Cue mama fighting the demon trying to take control of her family with love and pentacle art. Yep, it's really that simple, the budget doesn't stretch beyond that.
Spielberg shows some nice skills with his dissolves, close-ups and distorted angle shots, but much of the impact is undone by poor acting and a musical score that belongs on a ghost train ride at the funfair. A couple of characters appear, and then vanish until the last third of the movie needs them, while the special effects on offer are understandable low in quality. For its time, its budget and as an observation to the early work of a man who would become one of America's biggest directors, it's a curio piece worth sampling. But it's hardly essential for horror fans or Spielberg completists. 6/10
— John Chard