SoftInloveRox
Horrible, fascist and poorly acted
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Cristi_Ciopron
'Good against Evil' is actually an exciting movie, much better than reputed, and well crafted, its storyline offered indeed a possibility of progress, by bringing in the older priest, a very striking look (better than v. Sydow, in an equally conventional part), so there was the opportunity to continue the storyline (as emphasized by Rambo's teaming with O'Herlihy); there are also silly and clumsy, unintended funny moments, I do not mean the banal look of the attacks (fear can be shown like this), but the exorcist fighting with a pillow, or sipping a drink and looking self-important and conceited, which diminishes his dignity, so some slapdash. As a Gothic romance, it belongs to a now forgotten TV genre, named Gothic soap opera, which also accounts for the cardboard characters. Its eeriness works, I liked the cityscapes, perhaps the profanation of the church would of worked better as an evening scene, and with more characters.The script emphasizes that the plot is at least as much about love, as about the occult. This pilot has been meant to establish a story, which it does, convincingly, it's soap opera with occultism; it deals with Satanism as a cult, a '70s topic, and understandably so. An equally good series could have followed. The leading actor should of been a success with the female audiences, so we'll leave it at that. But the cast is very good: Lynch, O'Herlihy, Kim Cattrall.The veteran of the cast was O'Herlihy, who still had some nice roles ahead. Here, he does a colorful exorcist, though with the aforementioned silly moments.
Wizard-8
This was clearly a pilot for a proposed TV series, but it seems all three American TV networks passed on making it a series. Watching it, it's pretty easy to see why there were no takers. The producers probably thought they were on a hot trend, since the movie takes elements from the recent and popular movies "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist". But this execution is sorely lacking in thrills and coherence. After an okay five minute opening taking place in the past, the movie proceeds to focus the next forty or so minutes on a romance between Elyssa Davalos and Dack Rambo, which is utterly boring when the two actors are not acting extremely obnoxious. Then the movie abruptly changes track, so much so that I was often bewildered - it seems that A LOT of key scenes of explanation are missing in the movie's second half! B movie fans will probably be disappointed that Richard Lynch is given almost nothing to do in the entire running time. It's no surprise that the movie is apparently in the public domain, since I can't see any strong fan base for this movie that would keep it in the conscious of the copyright holders.
rsoonsa
This was meant as a pilot film, being an initial sequence for a projected television series that did not come about, and it is quite clear why it was not found to be acceptable, since it is immensely uninventive, with both its format and attitudes plainly copied from William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST, released but a few years prior, and the 1968 ROSEMARY'S BABY, directed by Roman Polanski. Two primary threads are woven into the narrative, the first relating the efforts of one Mister Rimmin (Richard Lynch), who is in fact Astaroth a Grand Duke of Hell, to breed with a young woman, Jessica (Elyssa Davalos), who has been reared and protected by a coterie of Satanists from infancy through her 22nd year (the present), with an objective to produce a child that will rule the world in favour of The Forces Of Evil. Since Satan and his court, whose acolytes are legion, may readily mate with any number of women at any time that they choose, there seems to be little point in Rimmin tarrying for Jessica. However, such flaws in logic are matched with those of risible continuity issues. The second principal theme in the plot is of the soap opera variety, a blithely groundless love affair between Jessica and a young man, Andy (Dack Rambo) whose romantic role in Jessica's life upsets the Duke of Darkness no end. His attempts to interfere with the budding relationship of the young lovers is empty of those cunning components that are requisite for films of the "Thriller" genre. The original television airing was for only 72 minutes, and the reason is revealed by an ongoing spate of orchestral crescendi along with fades indicating arrival of commercial interruptions. The release in the DVD format adds about 25 minutes, with little overall improvement, because of uninspired parallel editing that fails to engage a viewer with either of the contrasting story lines. There is even an exorcism here, in spite of its having little significant connection to the narrative but rather a bit more with the Friedkin film that it partially apes. Direction seems to be unfocused, and few able acting turns are to be found; nonetheless Richard Lynch, playing Astaroth as earthling, is impressive as ever. The film ends abruptly, with some lead-in dialogue to subsequent chapters that did not occur, an unsatisfactory finish to a work that is rapidly paced, easy to watch, and easy to forget. There are a good many such minor productions being reissued with fresh packaging to cash in on the burgeoning popularity of DVDs. This one should probably have remained wherever it was mouldering.
bensonmum2
It's a romantic story that's as old as time – boy meets girl, but girl is destined to wed Satan. Seriously, that's pretty much the whole plot. A girl is born and raised to make the perfect bride for Satan. Her whole life has been carefully planned and mapped-out for her. So when love enters her life, those who have worked to protect her must put a stop to this new threat.Good Against Evil is a 70s television movie that looks like a 70s television movie. Acting, sets, and other technical aspects are just what you would expect if you grew up in the 70s huddled around the television waiting for the Movie of the Week. Most everything in the movie is safe and sanitized and ready for general consumption. The exorcism scene, the supposed highlight of the movie, is subdued in comparison with others that have been dramatized on film. In fact, the whole movie could be described as subdued. It's incredibly slow-paced and predictable. It doesn't take a psychic to spot the twists and turns in the plot. And the ending is about as jarring a finale as I've seen. It seems that Good Against Evil was meant to become a regular, weekly television series. So the movie just abruptly ends with several unanswered questions and was to be continued in the next episode. The problem is there never was a next episode.The exception to almost everything I've written is the opening scene of the baby girl's birth and the death of her mother. In comparison with what follows, it's quite creepy. It's a dreamlike sequence that doesn't look or feel like the rest of the movie. Had the movie followed the tone of the opening set-piece, it might have been a much better movie.
