azathothpwiggins Artist, Marjorie Worden (Sandy Dennis- GOD TOLD ME TO), her husband Paul (Darren McGavin- TV's THE NIGHT STALKER, and THE NIGHT STRANGLER), and their son, Stevie (Johnny Whitaker) have taken up residence in an old farm house. Here, Marjorie can work on her art projects in peace. It doesn't take long for her to notice some odd things, but she tries to overlook them. When people start dying, Marjorie is uneasy and Paul is unconvinced. At a party, the Wordens are introduced to demonologist, Harry Lincoln (Ralph Bellamy- THE WOLF MAN, ROSEMARY'S BABY), and in no time, Marjorie is painting a huge, protective pentacle on the floor of the kids' bedroom! Of course, the fact that she's been hearing a baby crying in the barn at night, could be partially to blame. The further Marjorie goes in her investigation into the occult, the weirder everything seems to get. As for the crying, suffice it to say that Marjorie makes a terrifying, bewildering discovery! The rest is a fairly basic possession story, w/ devilish forces aplenty. Marjorie grows increasingly anxious, feeling that eeevil spirits are making mischief. Paul is ever-skeptical, having no time or tolerance for any foolishness. More otherworldly events unfold, causing Marjorie to doubt her own sanity. This culminates in the rather anti-climactic, supernatural showdown. A fairly solid made-for-TV horror movie by Steven Spielberg that -sort of- prefigures POLTERGEIST. Watch for Roger Corman regular, Bruno VeSota and Spielberg himself as party guests!...

MartinHafer Marjorie Worden (Sandy Dennis) sees a farmhouse and instantly falls in love with it and insists her husband, Paul (Darren McGavin) agree to buy it. Wanting to make his wife happy, he agrees...and soon grows to regret it. The home turns out to be a one weird place...with strange goings on and Mrs. Worden begins to lose her mind. She becomes violent, unpredictable and weird...all, supposedly, because of some strange glowing mason jar and a house that's possessed by Satan. If this all sounds weird, well, you're right. The "ABC Movie of the Week" OFTEN had made for TV films with ultra-bizarre plots--with witches, monsters, aliens and all sorts of odd goings on. But what they didn't usually have was direction by Steven Spielberg (before he was famous) as well as a dopey ending...which, sadly, this one has in spades. The film sets an interesting mood but the payoff, sadly, just isn't there.

Leofwine_draca SOMETHING EVIL goes to prove that not all American TV horror movies of the 1970s are great. This one's an unusually lacklustre effort that tells an all-too-familiar tale of demons and possession, and for once the low budget works against it. The story isn't too shabby, acting as an interesting precursor to the likes of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and written by ENTER THE DRAGON director Robert Clouse, of all people.No, the problem here is Steven Spielberg, directing this very early on in his career as a follow up to his cult classic DUEL. Well, DUEL was much better, and Spielberg feels out of place, uneasy with the material, unsure of himself and playing it safe throughout. The result is a film that's oddly uninvolving and one which only gets going in the last few minutes.The storyline sees a family renting a farmhouse out in the Pennsylvania countryside only to discover that something sinister lurks within. Darren McGavin is a welcome presence as the husband but is underutilised, while the viewer has to contend with the shrill acting of the miscast Sandy Dennis for most of the running time. The less said about the annoying red-haired kid the better. SOMETHING EVIL is a shallow film that seems too afraid to properly tackle its storyline; weak sauce at best, and unsurprisingly forgotten by its director.

christopher-underwood Early TV movie effort from Spielberg that is rather uneven. I'm not really sure why this doesn't work better. I guess there was little money and a lot of TV people looking over his shoulder that may have not helped the process. Whatever the reason, the location screams that it is a set, so flat and airless. When the spirits arise and the winds begin to blow, I realized why it had been absent, before but surely some sense of heat or rain would have given some sense of life to this clapperboard and cardboard. I also wonder whether using Ralph Bellamy was a good idea, he didn't seem to fit too well but would probably have been difficult to tell. Sandy Dennis is pretty much as she always is and I always like her but here when everyone seems a bit strange we could have done with a more staid central character. Otherwise, reasonable enough and there are scares particularly at the end, even if they are a bit undermined by an early sign of sentimentality creeping in and almost spoiling things.