A while ago I watched The Sugarland Express, digging into the early filmography of Steven Spielberg, we'll call them the "pre-Jaws years". I am not into plugging many other things on this blog, but I will plug Film Encounters of the Spielberg Kind, a podcast going through the films of the original "cute little guy" Stevy Spiels. I watched this because of them.
Something Evil is about...wait for it...something evil. Yeah. In this case, a house, and specifically, one which a man kills himself at in the early opening of this movie. Cue a couple who are on a drive and see the for sale sign and decide on a whim to purchase the home. The house is evil, as said because houses are a verb and thus "things" as in "somethings".
Spielberg had directed Duel at this point which was a bigger success than it had set out to be, but I guess it was determined that he wasn't quite ready for the real thing yet, and so the studio made him direct this made-for-TV movie of the week for CBS.
I'm no stranger to the realm of made-for-TV and specifically made-for-TV horror, which this is. This is basically your average sorta demon infestation haunted house movie, with a slow plot movement and a few more character moments than expectd, as well as some well executed flourishes from a young go-getter like Spielberg who was showing off and trying to get noticed.
I basically gave the plot earlier, but to close the loop on it, the wife starts hearing weird noises, the son seems aloof and distant, and hubby is now constantly gone because the commute to his job is much longer. Woman is going crazy and that's the plot. Also worhty of being noted is the odd choice of having the hubby's job be a television commercial filmer and the stupid Apple Bar product commercial he's making is legit hilarious stuff. Seems like it is unintentionally making fun of itself.
The movie is good, it moves fine and the ending is weird. I doubt anyone is going to look this one up anytime really soon, but it is on youtube, and I would still give it a standard 2.5.
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