Evilspeak

Evilspeak (1981)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Eric Weston

Starring: Clint Howard, a bunch of random people playing loathsome teens (although one of them was played by Donna's dad from That 70's Show), plus Hamilton Camp, R.G. Armstrong, & Lenny Montana

From: Warner Bros.

The dog dying was not my only gripe with this.

Last night I was struggling with deciding on something to watch; I went to the Shudder app and on one of their three channels that plays movies 24/7, this was starting up. I only watched the first few minutes before stopping then picking it out to watch on my own as I did not have the time then. What I saw first was the awesome old Warner Brothers logo they had at the time that is hard to see now as most copies now of films from that time have that logo replaced with their modern one. Nostalgia is why the period logo is something I mark out for. Anyhow, the first scene involves an evil Satanic priest named Esteban from several hundred years ago-who was supposed to be from Spain but was played by Richard Moll!-and a ritual that naturally involved a topless woman and it also revealed that the special effects did not always look good.

After seeing that I was intrigued enough to finally see a movie I only knew a few things about, such as it being edited to death along with dozens of others back in the draconian world of 1980's UK censorship. Unfortunately for me, too much of the movie is not fun. Aside from real confused storytelling which made me wonder if scenes were excised right before it was released, they went way overboard on almost everyone in the military academy hating Clint Howard's chubby nerd character. I mean, that made it a slog to get through seeing a group of bullies act like cartoon bad guys around him for minutes on end.

You see, the academy was built on land that was owned by Esteban & gang; one day Howard discovers a hidden room that contains a book which allows for Esteban to... possess an Apple II computer?! It'd take too long to even try and explain-plus I don't entirely understand it myself. There's wild hogs on the loose, more nudity, way more bullying, etc. I'll be real here: I was in fact bullied back in my childhood, including school; I'd rather not go into details except to say it wasn't as severe as what was shown here. As if they needed even more heat on them, the bullies also kill a dog.

By the time the gleefully over the top ending happens which was obviously based on Carrie-then again, the entire film is in essence based on that plot-the conclusion was not enough for me to like this picture. As fun as it was to see horrible people die gruesome deaths, the movie had lost me. It's not all bad-at least it can receive an OK rating. There are some familiar faces, such as Lenny Montana (funny that I revisited another one of his roles earlier today) & R.G. Armstrong. The graphics that you see on the computer of course are far more colorful then what was actually on an Apple II... yet at least they did look good by 1981 standards so no complaints there. Then again plenty of people like Evilspeak more than I do so YMMV.