{"id":1987,"date":"2024-08-05T15:37:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T15:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:28:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:28:23","slug":"976-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/05\/976-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"976-EVIL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"976-EVIL <\/strong>(1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CineTel\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, language, nudity, sex)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Englund\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rhet Topham and Brian Helgeland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Thomas Chase and Steve Rucker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Paul Elliott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 24, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Stephen Geoffreys, Jim Metzler, Maria Rubell, Lezlie Deane, J.J. Cohen, Pat O\u2019Bryan, Sandy Dennis, Darren Burrows, Gunther Jensen, Jim Thiebaud, Robert Picardo, Paul Wilson, Greg Collins.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Actor Robert Englund loses the Freddy Krueger makeup and steps behind the camera for the first time with 976-EVIL<\/strong>, an odd little shocker about a nerdy teen who makes a deal with the devil via a 976 phone line. They\u2019re all gone now, but 976 numbers were all the rage at the time of the movie\u2019s release. For the benefit of those too young to remember, it breaks down like this. For a premium rate (e.g. $2.99 for the first minute, 99 cents per minute after that), you could get a personal psychic reading, find out the latest news on your favorite celebrity or talk to \u201chot single women\u201d. It seems like they had a 976 number for everything. Why not one as a recruitment tool for Satan? It\u2019s actually a pretty cool idea for a horror movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Stephen Geoffreys, best known as Evil Ed from Fright Night, stars as Hoax, a high school kid constantly knocked down by life. If it\u2019s not the punks at school sticking his head in the toilet, it\u2019s his overly religious mother Lucy (Dennis, Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) threatening to use the strap on him for sins like sassing her or looking at topless tribal women in National Geographic. His only friend is his cousin Spike (O\u2019Bryan, Victim #1 in Relentless), a leather jacket-and-motorcycle bad boy who lives above the garage. It\u2019s Spike who first discovers 976-EVIL, a seemingly harmless novelty line that gives callers their \u201cHorrorscope\u201d. It proves to be too eerily relevant with its fortunes for Spike\u2019s taste and he stops calling. Hoax learns of it and calls. Unlike his cousin, he buys into it and becomes a different kid, one that\u2019s still weird but now dangerous too. Naturally, he uses his new powers to get even with his tormentors.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a subplot involving a guy, Marty (Metzler, River\u2019s Edge), who\u2019s either a reporter for a trashy miracle magazine or a private investigator; it\u2019s never made clear which. After a strange phenomenon in which fish rain down from the sky (presumably only on Lucy\u2019s property), Marty shows up to interview her. He sticks around for a while to look into the matter further. Somehow (again, NOT clear) it leads him to the 976 number. Regardless of how he got there, he figures out what\u2019s going on and joins in the climactic battle against evil alongside Cousin Spike.<\/p>\n

\u00a0No doubt the coolest part of 976-EVIL<\/strong> is when Hoax wages war against everybody who wronged him starting with Suzie (Deane, Freddy\u2019s Dead: The Final Nightmare), a girl he liked until a date of sorts ends with her joining Marcus (Cohen, The Principal) and his gang in humiliating him. Hoax retaliates by using her fear of spiders against her via a Satanic spell. He goes after the gang next. With each act of evil, his appearance becomes more demon-like.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written by Rhet Topham (Trick or Treat) and Brian Helgeland (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4), 976-EVIL<\/strong> suffers from a haphazardly written screenplay that fails to clarify certain plot points and character details. It has trouble focusing too. It\u2019s all over the place with the story. It starts off being about Spike and his efforts to resist the evil forces on the other end of the line until it clumsily shifts its attention to Hoax\u2019s Jekyll and Hyde revenge story at which point Spike becomes a supporting player. Every now and then, Marty shows up to ask questions or poke around in dark creepy offices. Late in the game, he finds an ally in the school\u2019s assistant principal (Rubell, Salvador). We don\u2019t meet her until maybe an hour into the proceedings; by that time, what\u2019s the point? And what\u2019s the deal with the early scenes of 976-EVIL callers being terrorized by ringing public phones before they\u2019re shocked to death? Did they try to resist the evil they inadvertently invited into their lives? If so, why doesn\u2019t it happen to Spike? It\u2019s a confused screenplay that leaves too many unanswered questions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you can look past its narrative shortcomings, 976-EVIL<\/strong> is a decent scary movie. It\u2019s very atmospheric with its grungy aesthetic and weird dream-like vibe. True to his roots, Englund makes it feel like a nightmare with the uncannily empty nighttime streets, the shabby local cinema (\u201cThe Diablo\u201d) that shows only horror movies and the grubby, graffiti-laden school right out of Class of 1984. Some would argue that 976-EVIL<\/strong> is merely cheap-looking but I say it\u2019s exactly the right look for this movie. Its strange premise demands it actually.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting is all over the map starting with Geoffrey\u2019s schizo performance. He\u2019s effectively scary once he transforms; it\u2019s before it that\u2019s the issue. He specialized in playing nerds- e.g. Fraternity Vacation, Fright Night- but none as annoying as Hoax, a pathetic sort with a rumpled wardrobe and the mentality of a 9YO. At the same time, you can\u2019t help but feel sorry for the guy. Look at the mother that raised him. She\u2019s nuts! She encompasses the worst traits of Margaret White and Mrs. Bates with her extreme religious fervor and smothering parental style. In the role, Dennis gives a fantastically loopy performance. O\u2019Bryan, who I\u2019m convinced was separated at birth from Nick Cassavetes, is rather wooden as Spike. He tries for the swagger of Patrick Swayze to no effect. Deane simply looks hot in chic punk mode.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The visuals, including makeup effects by Kevin Yagher (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, 3 & 4), are pretty impressive for a low-budget horror movie. Obviously, I like the gore effects which include somebody\u2019s hand getting cut off and cats eating out somebody\u2019s stomach. The image that sticks out most is the chasm leading to the fiery pits of Hell that opens up in the living room. It\u2019s COOL!<\/p>\n

\u00a0I didn\u2019t care for 976-EVIL<\/strong> when it first came out but I came to like it over the years. Sure, it has some pacing issues but it\u2019s never exactly boring. I really wish I could get my hands on a copy of the extended version which runs 13 minutes longer. It\u2019s the better version as it provides more character and story development. Either way, it\u2019s a pretty good movie.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

976-EVIL (1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CineTel\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, language, nudity, sex)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Englund\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rhet Topham and Brian Helgeland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Thomas Chase and Steve Rucker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Paul Elliott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 24, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Stephen Geoffreys, Jim Metzler, Maria Rubell, Lezlie Deane, J.J. Cohen, Pat O\u2019Bryan, Sandy Dennis, Darren Burrows, Gunther […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/976-EVIL-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}