(1972) TVM **1/2
Tired of life in the big city smalltime artist, Marjorie, along with her husband, Paul and their two children move into a countryside house in rural Pennsylvania. Paul, a television ad exec is away from the home for long stretches of time leaving Marjorie largely alone. Soon after moving into the house she begins to have strange experiences. She sees her caretaker sprinkling chicken blood in the fields surrounding the house, she hears a baby crying late at night from the old barn on their property, and she finds a strange jar of pulsating red goo in the kitchen cupboard. Later two friends mysteriously die at a party she and her husband throw. Is the house haunted or are these “supernatural” events the product of a lonely, isolated Marjorie? The isolation and atmosphere around the house take their toll on her and she becomes convinced that her son is possessed. Eventually Marjorie enlists the help of a neighbor and together they begin to believe that her home may be inhabited by a devil, and that she is the true target for possession.
Hot off the success of Duel, a young Steven Spielberg directed this small, stylish film, which was probably television’s answer to the popularity of the Exorcist novel. It is interesting to watch this film knowing that Spielberg would later create Poltergeist, which shares many of the same plot elements. There’s not a lot of originality found in Something Evil. It would appear that the “countryside” was given a bad rap in the 70s as many of these made-for-television films would have you believe that the countryside is full of mistrustful townsfolk and ghosts. This film was okay but very derivative.
