Tuesday, November 10, 2009

FEAR NO EVIL movies


OK. Strange thing to post about but here goes. I just tried to watch the 1981 film FEAR NO EVIL and I completely friggin' gave up after 19 minutes. I could not gag down any more of the crap it was dishing out. Amateur acting, pathetic dialog and truly stilted direction had me marveling at the pure incompetence onscreen. I have friends that have tried to convince me over the years that writer/director Frank LaLoggia's later film THE LADY IN WHITE is some kind of minor classic but I never agreed. It always seemed like a poorly thought out hodgepodge of horror movie ideas cobbled together badly and glazed over with a veneer of sappy nostalgia. It, to put it bluntly, sucks. For years I've figured I'd check out his earlier fear flick to see if it was any better and tonight I discovered the truth- it isn't! It might actually be worse. I may never see the rest of his FEAR NO EVIL and I am unconcerned.

But to relate the bizarre nature of things this evening-- by accident, right after I gave up on 1981's sad effort, I discovered a completely unrelated movie with the same title. This movie appears to be an NBC TV movie from 1969 starring Carroll O'Connor, Louis Jourdan, Lynda Day George and Bradford Dillman. It's listed as a suspense/gothic story and it was the last script penned by Guy Endore who was responsible for 1935's MAD LOVE, 1936's DEVIL DOLL and wrote the novel that Hammer's THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1962) was based on! Holy terror gap! I must see this. It has to be better than LaLoggia's embarrassing dinner theater production. Two movies- same title- same night- without planning. Odd.

No comments: