The Evil is a 1978 horror movie directed by Gus Trikonis and starring Richard Crenna, Joanna Pettet, Andrew Prine, Cassie Yates and Victor Buono.
The movie begins with a man who is cleaning up an old house. He is nervous and he hears noises. He looks around to see what the noises are. He gets burned alive. Cut to a psychiatrist called C.J. Arnold(Crenna) and his wife Caroline(Pettet). They have bought the old house and they plan to set it up as a rehab clinic. They have heard stories about the house being haunted. Caroline is spooked. They move in but Caroline starts to see weird things happening in the house. She thinks that she sees a statue moving. C.J. doesn't believe it. A group of people come to help them. Pete, Dwight, Mary(Yates),Felicia(Lynne Moody), Professor Raymond Guy(Prine) and Laurie(Mary Louise Weller).
There is also a dog called Kaiser. He senses something in the house and he goes down to the basement and starts digging. The group hear Kasier howling. They go down to the basement and Kaiser gets angry. He scratches Mary. Caroline feels that the house is evil. She is scared.
Caroline sees a figure moving. She discovers an old diary written by a man called Vargas. They all look at it. Caroline thinks that they are being warned to get out of the house. The girls find a dead body. C.J. finds a crucifix where Kaiser was digging. He finds a door. The whole house shakes and Dwight gets electrocuted. The house closes up and they can't get out. Something is stopping them. They try to figure out what happened. Caroline tells them that she saw a figure. Felicia is attacked by an unseen force and it tries to rape her. C.J. and Pete come up with an escape plan. Pete tries to climb out of the house but the forces mess with him. He gets stuck and burns alive. Dr. Raymond questions what is happening. C.J. doesn't believe in ghosts. Dr. Raymond gets injured by a saw. Kaiser attacks and kills Mary and then dies himself. Caroline tells C.J. that she heard laughing but he is not buying it.
Mary's body disappears. Caroline sees a figure and it beckons her to follow. She holds up the crucifix. Vargas wants C.J. Caroline thinks he's trying to help them. They look through his diary but it goes on fire. Laurie gets pulled away by something. Felicia is electrocuted. Dr. Raymond escapes through an open window but he falls into mud and dies. Vargas enters into Caroline and he says that evil has been released and that he needs to lock evil away again. C.J. and Caroline go to the basement. C.J. sees a man dressed in white. He wants them to get rid of the crucifix. He tortures C.J. He is the Devil(Buono). Caroline manages to stab him with the crucifix and it seems to destroy him. They escape and take the cross with them and close the door on the Devil. They seal the door with the cross. The house magically opens up and they escape and drive away.
This was a decent film. There weren't too many scares in it, but I still enjoyed it. It had the feel of a TV movie about it. I liked the idea of the creepy house but I did feel that the ending with the Devil in it was a little silly. Richard Crenna did well in the lead role. Some of the other actors weren't the best, but that is often the case in horror movies so I will let that slide. So, overall this was a fun horror movie that isn't very scary, but has some good scenes in it. It kept me watching but I did feel that the ending let it down. It is worth a look if you like supernatural horror. I will give it a 5/10.
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