Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

"The Evil" (also known more appropriately as "House of Evil") is a very simple, relatively low-budge film that was shot in only 30 days. So, you'd expect it to be crap...but oddly, it isn't.Richard Crenna and Joanna Pettet head a cast of various folks who are soon to become victims of a demoniacally possessed mansion. However, most of the folks spend much of the film trying to rationalize and explain away the weird and malevolent happenings in the place. But when folks start getting tossed about like rag dolls and the place seems to have a mind of its own, the only reasonable explanation is evil!The film has a lot going for it. The ghosts look amazingly realistic and the stunts do as well. Plus, the film is more than just gore and death. Well worth seeing if you like horror flicks.

So-so B horror fare stars Richard Crenna as C.J. Arnold. C.J.'s a psychiatrist looking to open a drug rehabilitation clinic, and because this is a horror film, he selects a run down historical mansion with an ugly past - because the price was right. As he, his wife Caroline (Joanna Pettet), his associates, students, and patients work to get the place in order, they begin to be violently attacked by the demonic forces residing within the mansion."The Evil" does take its horror seriously, so it gets points for that. It gets down to business in record time, and delivers a lot of supernatural shocks during its brief, 89 minute run time. While watching it, however, one can hardly fail to notice that it's pretty thin on story, and we know next to nothing about these characters, so it's kind of hard to care too much about what happens to them. The movie has adequate, if not inspired, direction by exploitation veteran Gus Trikonis ("Nashville Girl"), and generally decent special effects. One main problem is that it all feels very familiar for anybody who's watched their fair share of haunted house cinema. Some viewers may be interested to note that the exploitation element comes into play in a particular sequence where the unfortunate Felicia (Lynne Moody) gets her clothes torn off by an unseen entity. There is a little bit of gore to enjoy, especially when cocky professor Raymond Guy (Andrew Prine) is "motivated" to take a saw to his own hand.Some of the cast deliver sincere performances. Crenna looks throughout as if all he has on his mind is cashing his paycheck, but Pettet is good as the wife who's all too convinced that strange things are afoot in the mansion. Cassie Yates, George O'Hanlon Jr., Mary Louise Weller, Robert Viharo, Milton Selzer, and Ed Bakey co-star. Guest star Victor Buono is amusingly cast as the Devil Himself; scary he's not, but he is fun to watch.Hurt by an underwhelming ending, but entertaining enough to watch for about an hour and a half.Six out of 10.

A daft, but entertainingly modest low-budget late 70s haunted house variation with horror comic lashings (intentional or not) in what becomes a traditional battle between good vs. evil. Nothing surprises, as no cliché is left untouched, but director Gus Trikonis' able execution is quite well done for what it is. Some creepy or outrageous moments and there's a solid cast led by the ever-reliable Richard Crenna, as he plays a psychologist along with his wife (a doctor) buy an abandon mansion (which does have something of a gloomy past) to hopefully restore to use as a clinic. So some friends and students of his go there to help fix it up, but unknowingly to them a devastating satanic force is unleashed and they find themselves trapped inside trying to survive.The raw atmospheric make-up emit's a dominating presence, from the grand vast secluded mansion to the eerily placed music score, imaginative camera placement and cue in the cackling evil laughter of the evil entity. It constructs an ominously nightmarish strangle-hold, as it grows claustrophobic but at the same time the whirlwind becomes a random schlock-fest with its climax being the tip of it. It's not as unnerving as it could have been and the ending it feebly done. The story dynamics are old-hat (a stormy night) and it's slow to get going with some plodding opening dialogues, but soon that's made way for impulsively staged deaths / encounters --- consisting of spirit manifestations, possessions, fires, self-mutilation and bodies being thrown about. When these strange occurrences transpire, it's even mentioned for no one to go anywhere on their own, but do they listen… of course not. The dedicated cast also features lively performances by Andrew Prine, Joanna Pettet, Cassie Yates and a memorable sequence with Victor Buono.

I remember seeing this movie as a child, and how it scared me! Well one day I was lucky to find the VHS at a garage sale. Last night I finally put it on to a DVD, where it will never ever wear out.I think Richard Crenna did a great job in this film. I think the film itself was a bit before its time with some of the special effects. The look cheesy compared to todays standards, but for a movie coming out of the 80's it is remarkable.I am really surprised at how little information is out there about this movie, It is one of those small classics that got lost, and I am sure glad that I still have it!