Nice effects though.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Charles B. Pierce directed several films in the 1970s, two of which were potent mixtures of crime and horror. The first was the overly-clinical, coldly effective "The Town that Dreaded Sundown," based on a string of real-life murders in mid-century Texas; the second was "The Evictors," which follows a young couple in 1942 Louisiana who move into a rustic farmhouse in the woods. Little do they know, the house has a dark past as the site of numerous unsolved murders. Before long, the wife finds herself being continually stalked by a man prowling on the property and threatening her life.As a thriller, "The Evictors" works quite well—it has intrigue, mystery, and a truly effective twist-ending. What shocked me in watching it however was how much it functions as a horror film, in some ways even more so than Pierce's "The Town that Dreaded Sundown." The film is anchored at the rustic farmhouse, which leaves poor Jessica Harper at her own wits, a candlestick telephone her only lifeline. Since the bulk of the film is centered around her and the time she spends alone at the house, there is considerable opportunity for thrills and suspense that Pierce cashes in on. There are some phenomenal sequences in which she is confronted by the ominous stranger (played by Vic Morrow). One encounter occurs late at night in a window, and is possibly one of the most effective "jump" scares I've seen. A second masterful scene has her looking up while using the phone in the foyer; the camera shifts to her point of view, and the audience watches as the edge of the villain's hat creeps around he corner at the top of the dimly-lit staircase. It's these simple domestic terrors that have been the fodder of numerous horror films well into the twenty-first century—one needs to look no further than "The Strangers," "High Tension," or even "The Purge" to see that these scenarios still scare us. Home invasions are perhaps some of the scariest kinds of encounters with evil because they occur in our own sacred space, outside the realm of public life; we expect to be safe there, and the illusion of four walls can trick us into forgetting that this isn't necessarily the case. Pierce realizes this, and presses all the keys in placing his thrills. There are a handful of sepia-toned flashback sequences detailing past murders in the home that are likewise effective and predate Fulci's "The Beyond."Atmospherically, the film is sublimely Southern Gothic, very colorful, and the period setting is nicely done. The B-movie budgetary limitations do show a bit, but they weirdly melt into the tapestry of the era. A hazy and at times piercing score punctuates the film's more intense moments. One pitfall is that there is some rather choppy editing throughout, which does distract at times. Harper is very likable in her role despite some instances of hammy acting, and Vic Morrow turns in an unexpectedly chilling performance. The final reveal is less obvious than it should be, and the penultimate scene riffs on a moment reminiscent of "Psycho."In the end, I was colored surprised by how much I enjoyed "The Evictors." As a low-budget thriller, it is nicely photographed and offers some finely-tuned moments of legitimate horror that is unexpected and familiar. Ultimately, it is a B-movie, and thus has some of the limitations that come along with that—but then again, the material itself doesn't necessitate much of a budget anyway. I was no less taken aback by how astutely Pierce is able to play on universal fears; there are moments in this film that are still chilling over forty years later. 8/10.

****SPOILERS**** The movie starts back in 1928 with an eviction notice for the Monroes who've been behind in not paying their state & property taxes for the last five years. Refusing to go quietly and join the legions of homeless people in and around Shreveport La. The Monroes decide to fight it out with the evictors made up of mostly state police and end up getting blasted by them in return. It's now 1942 and this young married couple the Watkins Ben & Ruth,Michael Parks & Jessica Parker, move into the former Monroe house not realizing what's waiting for them there! It was the real-estate agent Jake Rudd, Vic Morrow, who sold the house to the Watkins who kept from them not only the deaths of the Monroes but a number of other strange and unexplained death that occurred there over the last 14 years to people that lived, and later died violently, there.Predictably strange things started to happen to the Watkins that included this tall and creepy looking farmhand who showed up at all hours in the day and night to terrorized the couple. He even went so far as murdering with a ax in his back to kind and elderly junk-man who just happened to show up to sell Ruth some of the trinkets he found rummaging through the neighborhood garbage dump! It's the Watkins's next door neighbor the wheelchair bound and widowed Olie Gibson, Sue Ane Langdon, who goes out of her way to make both Ben & Ruth to feel at home in the neighborhood. But you soon notice that their something that Olie's is keeping from them as well as we in the audience that explains the terror what the Watkins are going through! And it all has to do with the shootout back in 1928 with the state police that left the Monroes dead and buried. ***SPOILERS*** "The Evictors" has already after some 35 years reached cult statues with the movie considered among the best of the slew of 1970's horror movies in it concentrating more on story not on special effects as well as blood & gore which is mostly absent in it. The shocking ending that leads to an even more shocking double ending, when you thought the movie was finally over, makes what at that time was a better then average horror movie to an all time classic one!

A small thriller set in the 1940s courtesy of Charles B. Pierce. Jessica Harper & Michael Parks move into a house that turns out to have a very sordid past. Murders, suicides, etc. have occurred and there's more to come. Not the scariest of films, there is plenty of suspense and Pierce is not slow to get things going. Harper & Parks make an odd pair, both are so quirky it's hard to take them seriously as young marrieds. Sue Ane Langdon is a "kindly" neighbor and Vic Morrow is a real estate broker (buy NOTHING from him). The art direction and costumes capture the feel for rural Louisiana circa 1945 and the music by Jaime Mendoza-Nava is very unsettling. A mostly effective shocker.

I saw this move when I was 15 yo and found it rather atmospheric and creepy. The backflashes to the murders of the past were nicely done too and the main characters in this flick behave in a manner that I at least found plausible. It's not a "no-holds-barred" terror movie or some "Friday the 13th"-clone, just a handsomely put together, semi-independent movie. However, the claim that this is a true story, is ridiculous and, considering the ending, not something even the filmmakers believe in.