User Reviews

It's almost unfair to judge this film by today's standards. A) it's a TV movie; B) It's a TV HORROR movie; C) It's a TV horror movie from the '70s. All of these factors combine to literally guarantee that it doesn't have the fright factor of the classic theatrical horror from that era. Sure, there were some creepy TV movies in the '70s, but none had the intensity or the special effects to blow you out of your seat. "Drag Me to Hell," this ain't.

Let's face it...if you've gone to the trouble to hunt this one down on You Tube or on bootleg VHS, you've done so to get a glimpse of Spielberg's guerrilla-style movie-making from his early, hungry days. And on that score, "Something Evil" doesn't disappoint. Say what you will about Steve-o's stuff of recent years, back then his films were FUN. ESPECIALLY for film buffs.

He didn't just throw in fancy camera-work to draw attention to itself. It always had a purpose, it always had subtext, and it always was original. Take the scene where Whittaker is bouncing the ball against the house. Spielberg clocks the pace with the maddening repetitiveness of a metronome as Dennis does a simultaneous freak-out, smashing the ceramic pentacles she's making to pieces. Her subsequent violent rage against the young actor, even though shot tastefully from a distance, is truly disturbing. Mission accomplished. Ditto for the sly scene where Dennis peers terrified from her kitchen door at a young man, the door chain links neatly overlaying his eyes, like ominous glasses.

And even though the mason jar, baby-crying gag is a bit absurd, the way it's shot is so masterful, it draws you in and creeps you out. Again, this is not a wham-bang thriller, but it definitely has its moments of uneasiness. I wasn't bored. If you like Spielberg's early TV work and "Duel," in particular, check it out.

I've been thinking about this film recently, as I often have since the last time I saw it in the early 70's--Didn't even know it was Spielberg until now! I was trying to describe it to my adult child and Googled "70s horror movie devil in a jar" and voilà!

I saw the film just once. I find it impressive that the images have stayed with me past all of the in-theater and in-home filmed that have followed. I hear that Bach piece and have a flash of a boy at a piano--I'm sometimes tempted to look for those eyes when I look out my window on a dark night--and my garden shed recalls for me a vague memory of the scene in my Google search. Mostly, I remember my very patient dad staying up for hours so I'd feel safe sleeping.

I never searched for the film before--and here I find that it struck many of us who remember it years later.

Pretty effective, I'd say?

This TV movie scared me as a kid, and I still think it has a fun, scary feel to it if one is in the right mood. A great cast with the unusual, nervous, totally convincing Sandy Dennis, gruff Darren McGavin, and cute little Johnny Whittaker. Great setting of a Pennsylvania-type farm house. The movie builds slowly but pays off with creepy fun. The move from the city to a farm that pleases the wife but burdens the husband reminds me of the 1975's The Stepford Wives. I love the painted symbols on the barn, the glowing red eyes in the window - Amityville Horror pig anyone? Jars of throbbing red goo in the cupboard. Deaths and possessions. And it also features a 1971 Thunderbird, which I consider a big plus! Give this movie a look and have some spooky, seventies fun!