The Evil / Twice Dead Double Feature DVD Movie Review
The Evil / Twice Dead Double Feature DVD Movie Review
Roger Corman Presents The Evil / Twice Dead. Starring Richard Crenna, Joanna Pettit, Victor Buono, Andrew Prine, Cassie Yates, Tom Bresnahan, Jill Whitlow, Todd Bridges. Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson.
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Twice Dead is a creepy-yet-cheesy 1988 ghost movie featuring a spooky female mannequin, the suicide-ghost of an old time film star, Todd Bridges from Diff'rent Strokes in a sweater-vest, and a pudgy biker gang with faux-hawks! What more could anybody ever want?
…Perhaps something a little more serious? Then you'll be watching The Evil first on this disk. (But let me stress: "a little" are the operative words there, not "more serious".) But datedness be damned: The Evil is an old-fashioned haunted house b-movie of the first order when it comes to pure entertainment, and I loved it.
Richard Crenna plays C.J. Arnold, a no nonsense psychologist who has, along with his wife Caroline (Joanna Pettit), have just bought a dilapidated, long-abandoned historical estate with an eye toward fixing it up on the cheap (with the help of friends and faculty in the persons of Victor Buono, Andrew Prine and Cassie Yates). The goal is turning it into a drug rehab facility, a place where Arnold can do good. But the home's current occupants aren't interested in good deeds. (Hint: The massive mansion sits not only in the middle of a gloriously beautiful nowhere, but its foundations are firmly planted in Hell.)
The Evil is a prime example of the old school horror fan's lament, "They just don't make'em like that anymore!" Without having to resort to gratuitous nudity, buckets of blood, rivers of vomit, and not a single moment of torture, The Evil keeps the suspense and scares coming. There's a mysterious ghost, a dog gone mad, people inexplicably bursting into flame, and much more. (Such as the awesome late-70s tight-fitting fashions… I now know Andrew Prine's religion!)
If you enjoy creepy, mysterious, haunting movies like The Legend of Hell House, Let's Scare Jessica To Death, and The Changeling, you'll adore The Evil! While Twice Dead isn't exactly a complimentary picture for a double bill, it's fun too — this disk is well worth taking for a spin. There aren't many additional release materials (commentaries), but the prints are beautiful, crystal clear, and presented in widescreen.
If you're located in L.A. and you'd like to see The Evil on the big screen, be sure and check out the all-night horror show at The New Beverly Theater on October 9, 2010.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
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