Evil (1979)

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Movie
German title The evil
Original title Phantasm
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1979
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Don Coscarelli
script Don Coscarelli
production DA Coscarelli
Paul Pepperman
music Fred Myrow
Malcolm Seagrave
camera Roberto Quezada
cut Don Coscarelli
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Evil II

Evil is a science fiction - horror film of director Don Coscarelli from the year 1979 . The film is the first part of the "Phantasm" series.

action

The film begins in the cemetery in the small town of Morningside. During intercourse, Tommy is stabbed to death by his partner, a woman in lavender (actually the Tall Man in a different guise). At the funeral, Tommy's friends, Jody and Reggie, talk about Tommy having committed suicide. Jody's little brother Mike, who was secretly watching the funeral, sees the undertaker, the Tall Man, lifting Tommy's heavy coffin back into the hearse with his own hands.

Mike is later startled by a hooded dwarf, but finds no faith in Jody. To get to the bottom of the matter, he visits the mausoleum. He barely escapes a flying silver ball that bores into the forehead of an intruder and the tall man, whose fingers he cuts off the fingers of one hand. He takes one of the fingers home and uses it to convince Jody. Reggie also joins them.

Jody drives alone to the morgue and is chased away by dwarfs and a seemingly driverless hearse. Together with Mike, who drove over in Jody's car, they manage to put the hearse out of action. The brothers discover that the car was driven by a dwarf who turns out to be a resuscitated and shrunken Tommy and that they are storing in Reggie's ice cream van.

Jody wants to kill the Tall Man and hides Mike in his friends Sally and Sue's antique shop, where Mike accidentally discovers an antique photo of the Tall Man. Mike insists on going home. On the way, Mike, Sally and Sue meet Reggie's overturned ice cream truck and are attacked by dwarfs. However, Mike escapes.

Jody goes to the morgue alone to kill the Tall Man. Mike breaks out of his room, is kidnapped by the Tall Man, but escapes again and causes the hearse to explode. He goes to the morgue, where Jody saves him from a silver bullet attack. Together with Reggie, the brothers explore the morgue and enter a brightly lit room. There they find canisters full of dwarfs and a portal to another planet. After a quick look through the portal, Mike finds out that the Tall Man is reviving and shrinking human bodies to send them to this planet as slaves.

A power failure separates the three. Reggie activates the portal and can only barely escape the resulting suction. As the storm breaks out, Reggie is stabbed to death by the woman in lavender, while the brothers escape and the mausoleum disappears. Jody now wants to lure the Tall Man into an old mine and lock it up there. While driving there, Mike is surprised at home by the Tall Man. The Tall Man pursues him into the forest and falls into the mine shaft, buried under a stone avalanche triggered by Jody.

Then Mike wakes up in his bed. He worries about the Tall Man's return. Reggie, who is still alive after all, says it was all a dream and Jody died in a car accident, and suggests a trip together. When Mike goes into his bedroom, the Tall Man appears and takes him over.

Soundtrack

The music and sound effects are from Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrove. The synthesizer is used quite heavily, but also other suitable instruments, but no strings, as we know from The Exorcist .

Premieres and confiscation

The film was released on March 28, 1979 in the USA, in Germany it was released on May 3, 1979. In 1983 the film was put on the index. The 1993 confiscation of the film in Germany was lifted in June 2017. In August 2017, the age rating was reduced to 16.

criticism

"Horror film that presents a potpourri of well-known patterns and effects with craftsmanship, but to which more attention is paid than to a plausible story."

- Lexicon of international film

“Don Coscarelli's directorial debut 'Das Böse' is an exciting and really scary genre contribution from the upper class with a convincing, imaginative story and devilishly good effects. The interesting plot of 'Das Böse' proves once again that the horror film must not only consist of knife-wielding madmen, but can also remember the roots of the fantastic. Don Coscarelli, who was only twenty-two when the film was made and was also responsible for production, book, camera and editing, skillfully combines many set pieces of the genre into a furious mixture of horror and science fiction, which in the multitude of motifs of the young people Fears about the loss of parents, first sexual experiences and longing for death. Even such established critics as DER ZEIT saw in 'Das Böse' 'an intelligent game with phantasmagoria ... of that exuberant, disordered, changeable fantasy that makes a cult film so special.' It is completely incomprehensible that the old, uncut video version was banned in this country. There is only one new edition that has been shortened by approx. 84 seconds and is released from the age of 16. "

- Frank Trebbin

Sequels

A total of 4 sequels were published:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Evil . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; re-examination August 2017). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ schnittberichte.com, accessed on June 9, 2017
  3. ↑ schnittberichte.com, accessed on August 16, 2017
  4. ↑ Evil. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Frank Trebbin: Fear sits next to you . ISBN 3-929234-03-3 .