EVILSPEAK
PC gone mad
released OUT NOW! 1981 | 18 | Blu- ray/ DVD
Director Eric Weston
Cast Clint Howard, RG Armstrong,
Joe Cortese, Claude Earl Jones
You don’t get more incongruous pre- credits sequences than Evilspeak’s; it’s like something out of Ingmar Bergman, with dour medieval, subtitled types congregating on windswept rocks.
The main action takes place in a modern- day American military academy, where cadet Stanley ( Clint Howard) is being bullied. But – and now the pre- credits make sense – he comes across an ancient tome which, when fed into his computer, unleashes an evil spirit that torments his bullies.
This is where the movie, so sluggish to develop, turns into Tron meets Carrie, with lashings of gore that earned it “video nasty” status back in the ’ 80s. Wild pigs attack! An ickle puppy gets bloody! It’s just a pity almost everything else is handled so clumsily.
Extras A brief intro by the director; Noo Yoik- flavoured commentary by him, star Clint Howard and the location manager; interviews with Howard (“I ate so much pig shit I was full for days”) and two co- stars ( 30 minutes); a Making Of which reveals that the sacrificed dog was just a stuffed toy ( phew!); a 15- minute interview with effects man Allan A Apone, responsible for making it look like pigs ate a woman; trailers. Russell Lewin
For the bits where Clint Howard “flies”, he had the same flying harness that Christopher Reeve wore in Superman.