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Something Evil

November 25, 2023

Something Evil is a little known TV movie from 1972 directed by Steven Spielberg of all people. Steven had a few attempts at horror. Most of them turn out to be less horrific and more psychological in nature. He avoids torturing the audience, but likes to present ideas that are psychologically disturbing, like in Jaws, War Of The Worlds or Schindler's List. This movie is no exception.

Conceptually the film is very much like Stanley Kubrick's "The Shinning". It deals with a parent going slowly insane and becoming a threat to the children. Both movies suggest a possibility of a supernatural explanation of the insanity. But the movies are made in such a smart way where there is enough doubt in those supernatural occurrences that you can read it as psychological deterioration only. Which is a very interesting challenge to a filmmaker. And young Spielberg pulled it off.

Quality-wise the movie is terrible. I saw a VHS copy of it where everything was so blurred that you could not see a focus pull. And sound was, to put it lightly, very retro. Perhaps there is a version of this movie that is not that bad somewhere. I would love to see a properly remastered version of it.

Directorially you can already feel the presence of Spielberg in the film. You have hidden long takes that Steven loves so much. Interesting compositions. Interesting evolving compositions. Interesting choices of what to show and what not to show. But, perhaps because it was one of the earlier Spielberg films, it has a few weird choices that break the flow in a strange way. You could argue that those decisions are intentional. And they are trying to be jarring. It is a horror film after all. But it feels like a weird technique to come from Spielberg. Perhaps he was artsier back in those days.

Performances are not trying to get an Oscar since all the actors know that they are making a TV movie. But they are good enough to pull off the necessary emotions for the story to work. The tension is slowly rising and you can feel it in the face of the lead actress Sandy Dennis. The line delivery is strange in the film. But perhaps it's just what actors did in those days on TV. Though if you compare it to the next TV movie directed by Spielberg called "Savage", there the line delivery is better than in this film. I'm not sure whether it's the script or the actors. Something about the dialogue is not musical.

The movie keeps a good level of tension throughout, slowly rising it towards the tension crescendo in the end. The ending though reminds me more of the film within the film called "The Case" made by the children in the film Super 8 by J.J. Abrams which Spielberg produced. It is a bit cheesy but it's fine.

Overall the film is interesting both for people who are interested in Spielberg and both for people that like to track certain trends in cinema. So I guess give a watch.

Happy Hacking!!!

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