Evilspeak (1981)
Cast: Clint Howard, R. G. Armstrong, Joseph Cortese, Claude Earl Jones, Don Stark
Director: Eric Weston
Synopsis: A computer nerd turns to Satanism to get revenge from his tormentors
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

Clint Howard, remembered by many from the 1960s television series Gentle Ben, is perhaps even better known as the younger brother of celebrated Hollywood director Ron Howard. Clint never quite graduated to the A-list himself but carved out a long and prolific career playing eccentric supporting characters in countless largely forgettable productions. Now and then, big brother Ron would throw him a more substantial role, ensuring he never disappeared from the screen altogether.

By the early 1980s, the cherubic child star of Gentle Ben had grown into a rather podgy and unconventional-looking young man whose agent had wisely steered him towards character roles rather than leading-man status. Then, in 1981, at the height of the post-Halloween horror boom, Clint Howard landed his first major adult starring role as Coopersmith in Evilspeak, a film that would later achieve a measure of notoriety after briefly finding itself on the British Board of Film Censors' infamous "Video Nasties" list before cooler heads eventually prevailed.

The film opens during the Spanish Inquisition, where the satanic Esteban, about to be banished forever, vows to return and exact his revenge.

Cut to modern-day America.

At West Andover Military Academy, the school's football team has just lost yet another match, thanks largely to the blundering incompetence of hopeless misfit Coopersmith. His fellow cadets despise the socially awkward nerd, but school regulations insist that every student must participate in the team. Even the coach, exasperated by Coopersmith's repeated failures, hints to his disgruntled players that although he cannot remove the boy himself, perhaps an unfortunate accident might solve the problem.

The not-particularly-bright jocks promptly take the hint.

Meanwhile, after arriving late for class, Coopersmith is punished with cleaning duties in the pigsty before eventually being banished to the academy's gloomy cellar. While exploring its forgotten depths, he stumbles upon a doorway into another world—one he enters with alarming enthusiasm.

The audience soon learns that the academy itself stands upon the very ground where the diabolical Esteban once practised his satanic rituals.

As Coopersmith ventures ever deeper beneath the building, he discovers what can only be described as Esteban's Idiot's Guide to Satanism, together with a mysterious computer that seems positively eager to communicate with him. Combining the ancient book with modern technology, Coopersmith inadvertently performs the ritual capable of resurrecting Esteban, blissfully unaware of the catastrophic consequences awaiting everyone around him.

The film recalls elements of both Carrie and Damien: Omen II in its basic structure yet ultimately proves far stranger than either. There are some wonderfully tacky—yet oddly effective—special effects, a magnificently resplendent demonic goat's head, generous helpings of gleefully gratuitous gore and a persistent undercurrent of genuine nastiness, including the rather unpleasant killing of a puppy.

As Coopersmith's revenge gathers momentum, his increasingly sinister relationship with Esteban's possessed computer guides him towards swift and bloody retribution.

The Academy principal's attractive secretary discovers this the hard way. After attempting to remove an emblem from Esteban's book, she is promptly set upon by a pack of impressively rotund wild boars who decide she would make an excellent evening meal.

The attack itself is surprisingly effective. Although very little actual flesh-tearing is shown, skilful editing combined with the sheer enthusiasm displayed by the porcine cast makes the sequence considerably nastier than one might expect. One particularly memorable shot sees a boar casually dragging away a length of tendon from what, only moments earlier, had been a perfectly respectable secretary.

Things finally descend into glorious horror delirium during the climactic massacre, when Coopersmith succeeds in fully summoning Esteban's spirit and becomes possessed by pure evil. Bursting spectacularly through the walls of the academy chapel, levitating, spewing venom and brandishing a huge sword, he proceeds to hack, slash and decapitate his tormentors with unrestrained enthusiasm.

Evilspeak was widely dismissed by critics upon its original release as little more than another screaming dud. Looking back, however, and considering the mountain of interchangeable slashers flooding cinemas during the early 1980s, it actually emerges as something of an oddity.

For one thing, it isn't simply another masked-killer imitation of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, which immediately gives it an identity of its own. Secondly, Eric Weston directs with a surprising amount of visual flair and keeps the proceedings moving at a respectable pace. Finally, there is enough blood, gore and outright nastiness on display to satisfy dedicated shock seekers.

Its principal weakness is that it never becomes genuinely frightening. The plot follows an almost entirely predictable trajectory, offering few real surprises beyond its unusual blend of Satanism, computers and revenge fantasy.

The film occasionally resembles one of the many straight-to-video cheapies that flooded rental shelves during the VHS boom, despite the fact that it actually enjoyed a theatrical release. In Britain it briefly achieved notoriety by appearing on the infamous Video Nasties list before the authorities eventually realised there was relatively little to justify the panic. Ironically, several of the gorier moments—including a scene in which the grizzled old cellar keeper tears a student's heart from his chest—were trimmed for American and European releases.

It is also a pleasure to see Charles Tyner, virtually continuing the same wonderfully authoritarian persona he perfected in Harold and Maude, as the pompous and prudish headmaster.

Evilspeak is certainly no forgotten masterpiece, but it remains one of the more curious horror films of its period and is well worth seeking out for fans of early-1980s genre cinema. A weird, strangely compelling and agreeably nasty little slice of supernatural horror that deserves rather better than its reputation.