Director Report Card: Steven Spielberg (1972)

3. Something Evil

Most sources make it sound like “Duel” busted Steven Spielberg's career right open. That the critical and commercial success of that made-for-TV thriller gave Spielberg the pull necessary to make his theatrically released debut. This is not the whole story. Spielberg didn't leap directly from “Duel” to bigger budget fare. Instead, he spent two more years in the made-for-TV trenches. The first of these frequently overlooked motion pictures, Spielberg's other TV movies, is “Something Evil.” Filmed directly after “Duel,” it would air on CBS on January 21st, 1972, a mere two months after the previous film. Does “Something Evil” deserve to be forgotten or is there more to this one than its reputation suggests?

Paul Worden is a successful advertising exec. His wife, Marjorie, is an artist and stay-at-home mother to their two children, adolescent Stevie and baby Laurie. While relaxing in the Pennsylvania countryside, Marjorie becomes enamored of a dilapidated farm house. She talks Paul into buying it and the family moves in. As they renovate the home, Marjorie discovers a pentacle over the old barn. She's told this symbol wards off evil spirits and makes more of them. The household needs protection, as strange sounds and events begin to happen around Marjorie and the children. The housewife soon becomes convinced that an evil spirit, seemingly fixated around the barn, is attempting to possess her body.

“Something Evil” is the kind of horror film that reflects its time-and-place very keenly. The film fits in with a whole crop of genre movies in the seventies, about people moving from the city and into the countryside. Usually, the terror the city folks encounter out in the sticks is depraved rednecks but rural devil movies like this were not unheard of either. Urbanite Paul bemoans moving to the country all throughout the film, despite his wife's enthusiasm. The family finds the folk beliefs of the countryside unnerving — such as swinging a decapitated chicken around to ward off evil — even before the paranormal activity starts. It's pretty easy to see the cultural anxieties of the time reflected in these stories. “Something Evil” is ultimately the story of the modernism of big city living, with all its science and reason, falling victim to older beliefs that still live on in the forests and fields. (Which, yes, makes “Something Evil” an example of that current favorite term of genre historians, “folk horror.”)

Themes like this are very representative of the late sixties and early seventies, when seismic changes were happening in American culture. The wave of Satanic horror of the time represents this too. People were anxious that traditional Christian values were falling out of favor, that America was losing its way. You see this in "Something Evil" as well. After Marjorie discovers the pentacle, she becomes obsessed with it. A whole montage is devoted to her making more, which she fashions into a mobile for the baby's room. Even though the pentacle is supposed to protect against evil, just talking about this belief seems to invite the malevolent spirits into the house. She grows increasingly obsessed with the topic afterwards. Much like the Ouija board in "The Exorcist," the mere acknowledgment of spiritualism or a belief in demons is enough to bring evil into the home. Simply talking about something non-Christian, not even necessarily believing in it, is all it takes to shake up the sanctity of the traditional family unit.

This was not an intentional reference, as "Something Evil" obviously debuted a full year before "The Exorcist" hit theaters. (Though multiple source say future “Enter the Dragon” director Robert Clouse wrote the teleplay explicitly to cash-in on the popularity of William Peter Blatty's book.) Yet, strangely enough, this isn't the only popular horror film this low-budget TV movie seemingly predicted. I'm reminded of "The Exorcist" again in the last act, when a child becomes possessed by a demon. Making a little kid a figure of demonic horror also brings "The Omen" to mind. The image of demonic red eyes staring from a window, later made notable by "The Amityville Horror," first appears here. That film's theme of sticking with a home, no matter how obviously cursed it is, is also present here. The future blockbuster "Something Evil" most resembles is "Poltergeist." As in that film, familial love is ultimately what defeats the evil forces here. "Something Evil" does it in a much more ham-fisted way, that reinforces the traditionalist values at the center of the story. Yet, considering Spielberg's involvement in "Poltergeist," it's an interesting parallel to notice. 

There's one big horror hit "Something Evil" definitely followed though. As in "Rosemary's Baby," the plot here follows a wife frequently left alone and ignored by her callous husband. In her isolation, she starts to go a little mad, fearful that a Satanic conspiracy, that seeks to rob her of her identity, is swirling around her. Both women are right, of course. Yet "Something Evil" is obviously not the movie "Rosemary's Baby" was. The husband is not a willing participant in this evil scheme here. He's just an insensitive jerk. "Something Evil" ultimately reinforces the value of the family unit, where the wife stays at home and raises the babies and the man works. (The demon draws Marjorie out by mimicking a baby's cries, furthering the implication here that women are connected with their roles as mothers.) The evil is depicted as not a symptom of this system but a force outside of it, that intrudes on something good. Yet, again, it's interesting to see these themes -- of women falling victim to paranoia while forced into these roles -- arise across different stories at this time.

You've noticed I'm talking more about "Something Evil's" relationship with other, more interesting movies here. That's probably because Spielberg's second proper feature is, ultimately, not that good on its own terms. A big problem is how the main characters are written. Marjorie is too histrionic to be likable. Sandy Dennis plays her role melodramatically. She gasps and cries in ways that are never convincing. Watching her spiral into paranormal paranoia is not especially believable or compelling. I'm not blaming this on Dennis, an Academy Award winning actress, but on the script. In the final act, Marjorie simply gives in and accepts her fate. She's not a dynamic, driven heroine that moves the plot. Instead, it just happens to her, which is not that interesting to watch. 

If Marjorie is a drippy, hysterical woman, than Paul is a totally clueless Alpha Male hopelessly set in his ways. He complains the whole time about having to buy the house. He fixates on his job as an advertising exec, focusing on a commercial he's shot featuring a totally inane jingle. Even after he witnesses some of the weird events, such as those demonic red eyes, he's unconvinced anything unusual is happening. He's totally indifferent to his wife's distress. If this was meant to be a subversive take-down on how emotionally distant and useless men like this are, maybe “Something Evil” could be commended. But I'm pretty sure the movie is just badly written. Not even Darren McGavin, seventies made-for-TV horror royalty and a performer of infinite charm, can elevate a thin, unlikable part like this.

It's not just the film's two lead roles that are underwritten, underserving talented actors. Ralph Bellamy gets a “Special Guest Star” credit, in the role of the family's friendly neighbor. Bellamy's avuncular character is, inexplicably, an expert in the occult. All this amounts to is having him deliver a lot of exposition about the movie's plot, a part that Bellamy at least attempts to elevate through a little bit of charm. Veteran character actor, Jeff Corey, appears as the ranting former groundskeeper that appears at various times to also drop more exposition about the movie's demonic threat. Lastly, the script makes the weird decision to have a minor character, played by John Rubinstein, come off as a creepy red herring. This is a subplot that is never followed up on.

Probably the biggest criticism you can level at “Something Evil” is that it simply isn't scary. The film's attempts at horror sequences come off as hopelessly hokey. It seems the most evil act the movie's demonic entity can think up is creating strong gushes of wind inside houses and knock stuff off shelves. This happens repeatedly throughout the film. An image the movie repeatedly returns to is light shining through colorful liquid in a jar, which is simply more goofy than creepy. This is also present in probably the film's most laughable moment. When the actress from Paul's commercial and a male friend are driving away from a party, the windshield of their car cracks up via some very janky animation. This proceeds a comically overblown car crash sequence.

“Something Evil's” campy attempts at horror movie theatrics reach their most hysterical pitch during its possession-fueled climax. Spoiler alert for a fifty year old, obscure TV movie: It turns out the devil isn't out to possess Marjorie but her son instead. This causes the film to attempt to mine thrills out of Johnny Whitaker, the chubby-cheeked, curly-haired little boy from “Family Affair.” As with everything else in the film, the devil's powers strike the viewer as pretty underwhelming, mostly making the boy float in the air and more wind blowing through the room. It is a laughable, thoroughly underwhelming finale. 

All its flaws aside, how does “Something Evil” measure up as a Spielberg film? You can see the young director attempting to enhance the motion picture with fancy camera angles. There's some nice tracking shots, panning down the side of the barn, as Marjorie walks out to investigate the baby noises. There's also some decent camera work, with lots of close-ups, during scenes where Marjorie is looking for her kids while wandering through some underbrush. There's also some stylish editing during the sequence where the different pentacles are being made. Considering how corny its script is, “Something Evil” does notably still look a little better than your typical TV movie of the time. No doubt, this can be owed to Spielberg and his team.

The director himself was not very happy with how “Something Evil” turned out. According to an admittedly unsourced bit of trivia on IMDb, Spielberg has said that CBS slashed the movie's budget right before filming began. The same anecdote claims he also wasn't given the creative freedom on this project that he had on “Duel.” Whether this is actually true, I can't confirm but it does strike me as likely. Even among aficionados of seventies made-for-TV horror films, a surprisingly passionate fan base, have been reluctant to reclaim this one. Despite being an early credit of the most famous movie director in the world, “Something Evil” has never been released on DVD. It survives today only as blurry Youtube uploads and bootlegs. Though it has a handful of interesting touches, including Spielberg's direction, “Something Evil” is ultimately something forgettable. [Grade: C]