What a waste of my time!!!

The Worst Film Ever

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Steven Spielberg is not one of my favorite directors, but I respect his work.Considering that this is a film from the beginning of his career, filmed with low budget and poor quality film equipment, I would dare to say that this is a masterpiece! The truth is that I was kid when I first time saw it, and I could not find it for a long time afterwards. But when I saw it again, as an adult, feeling was the same, FEAR!Don't get me wrong, I'm not some kind of a sissy, I'm a big fan of horror movies.I can watch the sickest and bloodiest movies without any problems, almost nothing can scare me. But this movie scares me. The atmosphere of the movie is so creepy. Without fancy visual special effects, without special make-up effects. Only the story of the movie, some decent acting and obvious talent of Steven Spielberg. I highly recommend it to the real fans of horror.

With the possible exception of "Duel", fans of director Steven Spielberg have outright rejected his early efforts (such as this TV-movie and the theatrical "The Sugarland Express", a box-office disappointment) most likely on the basis that his budgets during this time weren't big enough to expand on the action inherent in the material (Robert Altman's admirers are much the same way, ignoring everything the filmmaker did prior to "MASH"). "Something Evil" is a forgotten film, a mere footnote in Spielberg's history, but that doesn't mean it's a failure. Spielberg takes a shopworn scenario (the old haunted farmhouse bit) and gooses it with interesting visuals and an active camera. New York couple with two young children move into a rural estate, unaware of the farm's dark history. Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin are a casual, laid-back, ordinary twosome--just this side of dull, which is probably what Spielberg wanted--whose lives are shaken up by the ghostly goings-on. Two action sequences (a death in the prologue and a tragic car accident following a party) are both encumbered by the picture's low budget and are sadly ineffective, while a subplot involving Ralph Bellamy as a neighbor who studies the occult is left unfulfilled. Still, Spielberg manages a tense, prickly mood (the film never lapses into camp), and Dennis seems fully invested in the proceedings.

I was 10 when I saw this movie, and I have never forgot about the red eyes in the window when the family drove up to the farm house. Every time I think of the cast of Family Affair, I remember Johnny Whitaker as the little boy who see's these eyes in the window. I did not remember the name of the movie, so I decided to research for the title, after all it has been 40 years since I have seen the movie. I am hoping to find it on Amazon. Any movie you can remember 40 years later is miracle. I just found out this is Steven Spielberg movie and it is one of his first attempts at directing. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who wishes to watch a good movie from the past.

It's almost unfair to judge this film by today's standards. A) it's a TV movie; B) It's a TV HORROR movie; C) It's a TV horror movie from the '70s. All of these factors combine to literally guarantee that it doesn't have the fright factor of the classic theatrical horror from that era. Sure, there were some creepy TV movies in the '70s, but none had the intensity or the special effects to blow you out of your seat. "Drag Me to Hell," this ain't.Let's face it...if you've gone to the trouble to hunt this one down on You Tube or on bootleg VHS, you've done so to get a glimpse of Spielberg's guerrilla-style movie-making from his early, hungry days. And on that score, "Something Evil" doesn't disappoint. Say what you will about Steve-o's stuff of recent years, back then his films were FUN. ESPECIALLY for film buffs.He didn't just throw in fancy camera-work to draw attention to itself. It always had a purpose, it always had subtext, and it always was original. Take the scene where Whittaker is bouncing the ball against the house. Spielberg clocks the pace with the maddening repetitiveness of a metronome as Dennis does a simultaneous freak-out, smashing the ceramic pentacles she's making to pieces. Her subsequent violent rage against the young actor, even though shot tastefully from a distance, is truly disturbing. Mission accomplished. Ditto for the sly scene where Dennis peers terrified from her kitchen door at a young man, the door chain links neatly overlaying his eyes, like ominous glasses.And even though the mason jar, baby-crying gag is a bit absurd, the way it's shot is so masterful, it draws you in and creeps you out. Again, this is not a wham-bang thriller, but it definitely has its moments of uneasiness. I wasn't bored. If you like Spielberg's early TV work and "Duel," in particular, check it out.