Otherwise forgettable 80's horror flick with an honorable mention
Added 10/17/2008
When shifting through the sheer number of cruddy 80's horror flicks, every now and then you'll find a forgotten gem or two. 976-Evil is not one of them to be sure, but it does have one honorable mention that makes it worth seeing on its own. That honorable mention is that the film is directed by none other than Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund, who does manage to inject a little bit of creativity into this otherwise forgettable horror flick. Fright Night's Stephen Geoffreys stars as a nerd who calls up a hotline said to give out a "horrorscope", and soon enough finds himself taking on a demonic form and striking back at everyone he can, including the high school bullies and his uber-Christian mother. It's up to his cool biker cousin Spike (Patrick O'Bryan) and a private detective (Jim Metzler) to take him down, which results in some fairly anticlimactic moments of bloody violence. There are some decent makeup effects to be found, and the script is from future Oscar winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland, but as a whole, 976-Evil fails thanks to some horrible acting and overall cheesy effects. All in all, 976-Evil is an otherwise forgettable 80's horror flick that is only worth seeing based on the fact that Robert Englund directed it. Other than that though, there isn't much that you're missing here.
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Have you tried nerd love?
Added 10/14/2008
I love this movie. I remember watching it back in the day when it was shown on Up All Night hosted by Rhonda Shearer (remember that show?) But I haven't seen the movie in ages. The other day I was looking for something to watch on the old b00b tube and found "976-EVIL" available on-demand. There was a sequel to the movie that came out a few years after this one (that Patrick O'Bryan was in) and there is talk of an all-new remake, as well.
The movie is directed by everyone's favorite keeper of sweet dreams, none other than Mr. Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. And surprisingly the movie wasn't nearly as gorey as one might think with a talented director like this. Instead there were many sensitive and reflective scenes that are almost never in horror pictures. But truth be told "976-EVIL" is hardly a classic horror film. This isn't a movie that's gonna cause you to piss your pants, unless you piss from laughing too hard. But that's OK too because sometimes a good laugh is just as important as a good scare.
The first half of the movie centered around rebel without a cause Spike (portrayed by '80s b-movie actor Patrick O'Bryan). We see Spike loose a hand of poker to his scummy friends. We see Spike threaten his kooky born-again Christian aunt Lucy (played by the late Academy Award winner, Sandy Dennis). We see Spike defend the honor of his nerdy cousin Hoax (you gotta love that name) (played by Stephen Geoffreys) when the boys in the bathroom try to flush his head down the commode. And we even get treated to a brief sex-session between Spike and his blonde nymph girlfriend Suzie (Lezlie Deane) who thinks nothing of putting on Spike's tighty wighties. Spike also calls some ludicrous horoscope hotline but since he's not a total geek doesn't have much interest in it.
During the second half of the movie we see a lot more of the progressively less geeky Hoax. When he starts calling the hotline his luck starts to change, he even starts to grow hair on his chest too! I love the part when Hoax took revenge on the guys who effed with him when he was just a lowly nerd. I suppose if they'd known who they were messing with they wouldn't have roughed him up so hard. Then he gets revenge on his crazy mom who spends all her time watching the PTL and stroking her playful pussie.
The movie also includes many great lines, such as when Hoax said to Spike, "hell finally froze over cousin." I also like the complete and total b-movie feel of the entire movie. It was like a throwback to the great pictures of the '60s because all of the special effects were so fake-looking. I suppose that had more to do with the budget but it was still funny.
I really like the transformation that both of the cousins went through because it was a total 3-60. It wasn't just Hoax. Spike wasn't the same person because it was almost like their roles were reversed. Although Hoax kinda resembled Marty McFly he was certainly the more brazen of the 2 because he had the balls to make all of his dreams come true (hell really did freeze over). The moral of the movie is not to call too many pay phone lines, unless you're some geeky kid from the '80s who doesn't have anything better to do.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Bad Transfer And Scenes Missing!!
Added 4/23/2008
This DVD is well below the decent quality standard mark. Short scenes and shots are missing or have been omitted for some strange reason and the aspect ratio is completely incorrect. I hope someday someone fix these problems with a correct re-release. The version I'm reviewing is the Sony Pictures release.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Guess what cousin HELL finally froze over!!!
Added 3/4/2008
THIS MOVIE WAS GOOD.I WAS KINDA IFFY ABOUT GETTIN IT,BUT I DID.AND IT WAS GOOD.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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0 STARS: Revenge of the satanic Nerd.
Added 9/14/2007
Ostensibly, "976-Evil" sounded like a good concept to me. Calling satan on the telephone for favors sounds kind of creepy to me, especially with the obvious evil strings attached to it, but this movie fails to execute it properly. While watching "976-Evil", I realized early on that the creators of this flick had butchered what COULD have been a decent plan for a horror flick. In the same mold as "Carrie" (although obviously not near as good of a movie), "976-Evil" is about a nerd who gets picked on relentlessly by some bullies at school, but when the nerd (played well by Stephen Geoffreys) calls 976-Evil, he gets evil or what the creators of the movie would like you to believe is evil and he gets back at the bullies. This movie is rather poorly acted except for Geoffreys, whom, while obnoxious for sure, seems to have nailed down the dorky nerd guy role pretty well. The problem with "976-Evil" is that it is too focused on the nerd getting back at the bullies and, consequently, does a terribly pathetic job at presenting the "evil" theme this movie half-heartedly tries to relate to the audience. As a result, what you have in "976-Evil" is your typical teenaged revenge flick erroneously portrayed as a horror movie when in reality the horror is obviously secondary to the revenge of the nerd theme. There really are NO likeable characters in this nonsense, but I particularly disliked the pathetic loser character named Spike...what a dork! Ultimately, "976-Evil" comes off looking like the total joke that it is and has absolutely nothing to offer the serious horror movie fan.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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0 STARS: "976-Evil 2- The Retarded Factor" -Just plain AWFUL!!
Added 9/14/2007
Admittedly, I watched "976-Evil", and I did not like it. So, why did I watch the sequel? Well, I believe in being thorough when it comes to horror movies. Anyway, it was free, I was bored and it couldn't be any worse than the original, right?? Wrong!
"976-Evil 2" is about a professor who is accused of murder and put in prison. The police have the right man, but he has satan's powers by virtue of his many phone conversations with some demon or satan himself where satan grants him this power to actually leave his body and have an outer-body experience where he actually gets to kill people...thus, the term "Astral Factor".
Unfortunately, "976-Evil 2" brings back that creep Spike for another movie, even though the boy that plays Spike is one of the worst actors known to man. At any rate, only Spike really knows how dangerous this 976-Evil is. He meets his dansel in distress who has an unfortunate connection with the professor.
What transpires is really a lot of ridiculous scenes that were designed to be more of a dark comedy rather than a horror movie. There is nothing remotely scary about this garbage...it's sad really, but this was on Fearnet for free and I decided to take it in since I had seen the original which was terrible in its own right. Actually, what is bad about this sequel is the story itself...it's just totally lame. It's a joke. Indeed, the acting does NOT help this movie at all, but there is something about this professor guy that comes off totally absurd to me. Maybe it's because he tries to be funny, but the main criticism I have for this movie is that it does not even attempt to be scary or horrifying in the slightest...I don't know what they were after in this movie. It's just plain stupid.
One reviewer said this movie is awful in a good way, but I think it's just plain awful, boring and stupid. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone with over one brain cell.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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976-Evil? What will happen next? 1-800-Horror?
Added 10/28/2005
This is a cheap rip off of A Nightmare On Elm Street, when a man goes to sleep, his soul/spirit comes out of him and he kills teenagers. Not a good movie, it's kind of stupid with a dumb ending.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Where is the DVD?
Added 10/1/2005
ALL I'm going to say about part II is I think it has better plot then the first one and I'd like to see it released on DVD!!!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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