Paul Worden (Darren McGavin) is a television producer. He is married to Marjorie (Sandy Dennis), who is an artist, and has two children, a boy, Stevie (Johnny Witaker) and a girl, Laurie (Debbie and Sandy Lempert). The family lives in New York City. One day they are out in the Pennsylvania countryside on a family holiday. As Paul and the kids are playing, Marjorie is painting and old farm house. Laurie falls in love with the house so they decide to buy it.
The family settles in. The farm is being run by a man named Gehrmann (Jeff Corey). The Wordens keep Gehrmann on to run things in the fields. The neighbors have a party to welcome them. Their closest neighbors are Harry Lincoln (Ralph Bellamy) and his adult son, Earnest (John Rubinstein). Harry compiles cookbooks but is also interested in local folklore. He and Marjorie discuss the occult. Marjorie finds it interesting so Harry loans her some of his books so she can familiarize herself with the local legends, especially the colorful pentacles that many farmers have painted on their barns.
Soon Marjorie starts to experience unusual things. She hears a baby cry in the night and goes looking for the source. Nothing is found. She then begins to feel strange influences. Her son Stevie starts to act strange as well. Marjorie sees Gehrmann killing chickens in a ritual to ward off evil. Marjorie’s unease deepens as she begins to believe that the house is evil and is trying to possess her.
“Something Evil” was released in 1972 and was directed by Steven Spielberg. It is an American made-for-TV horror movie that plays like a made-for-TV movie. It is also the second full length made-for-television film done by Spielberg, his first being “Duel” 1971. The movie aired as an “ABC movie of the week”. The film never had a home video release, at least so far.
The movie is a bit draggy and unclear. It’s not gross or scary but is more of a family horror movie, if that’s a thing. I found myself disappointed in the film, mostly due to the plot being vague and nothing really being explained. The ending leaves you hanging wondering what the movie was really about.
There are some unusual aspects to the film but even those aren’t explained or ever deemed relevant to the overall plot. What were the red eyes in the window about? What was the red glowing and pulsating thing in the Mason jar? Stuff is shown but never really explored or explained. There’s also a watered down red herring or two stuck in there.
Performances were decent enough, but even those weren’t outstanding in any relevant way. It was certainly in no way Spielberg’s best, but this was early in his career so I wasn’t surprised about that. It’s more interesting to Spielberg completists than to horror fans in general.
A pentacle is a five-pointed star inside a circle. It is a folklore symbol from Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that is painted on buildings to ward off evil and bring about good luck. The points represent the elements of nature, earth, fire, air, water and spirit.