Saturday, September 10, 2011

Film Review: 976-EVIL/976-EVIL 2






976-EVIL was a horror franchise that they only unfortunately made two of, The original 976-EVIL and the straight-to-VHS sequel 976-EVIL 2:The Astral Factor. In the late 80’s, prior to 1-900 becoming the number for pay calls, phone sex/party lines/psychics etc. used the first three digits 976. These two films took to very different feeling takes on the same general premise of a satanic 976 line that grants the user wishes, but takes demonic possession of the user. The sound of the telephone dialing or a phone ringing is the signification in these films that some thing horrific is about to take place. I think the films should really be ripe for a rival of interest as the telephonic seems to play such a critical role in today’s news stories, wiretapping playing into countless media stories such as the News of the World wiretapping scandal. These films are focused on landline phones as the cellphone was a newer phenomenon at the time.
The original 976-EVIL was actually directed by Robert Englund, best known as the actor who played Freddy Kreuger in the Nightmare on Elm St. films. The original 976-EVIL has very much the same feel as the Nightmare on Elm St. films. You have some 80’s punk rock looking teenagers as many horror films of the time had. Spike and Hoax are cousins that live next door-to-each other, Spike is older and fills the stereotypical “cool” role of the time with a motorcycle and a leather jacket, Hoax is more of a nerd with a little bit of a perverted edge to his personality. Hoax’s mother and Spike’s aunt is an extreme evangelical bible thumper patterned probably after Tammy Faye Baker. Hoax is bullied By Spike’s gambling buddies and covets Spike’s girlfriend. First Spike encounters a card with the 976-EVIL number for daily “Horrorscope”, but then it’s little Hoax that gets the card and calls the number. Hoax exacts bloody revenge on Spike’s girlfriend, the bullies, his bible thumping mother. Much like the Nightmare and Elm St films that Englund stared in, We got horrible puns and one-liners through out. That along with the use of stock 80’s character types gives the film a certain camp. However, sequences in which Hoax spies on Spike having sex with his girlfriend through a telescope lend a kind of genuine feeling perversity and pathology to the character of Hoax, and the enactment of his revenge fantasies feels very real.
Jim Wynorski, king of straight-to-video horror and soft-core films was the hand that guided the sequel, and his fetish for large busted women is featured prominently. The dean at a college is arrested for being a serial killer. However, through the 976-EVIL line he is able to send his body out of his prison cell to stalk a large busted blonde co-ed that worked in his office. Spike shows up. It has that odd bad acting that he has in all his films, the southern California setting and the fixation with using large busted actresses, in particular blondes, the Wynorski carries through all his films. 976-EVIL 2 has very much the classic early 90’s straight-to-VHs Feel of other Wynorski films such as Ghoulies 4.
Those are excellent little horror films. People never talk about those much, but those are quite entertaining.

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