Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

sadsweeney I've been thinking about this film recently, as I often have since the last time I saw it in the early 70's--Didn't even know it was Spielberg until now! I was trying to describe it to my adult child and Googled "70s horror movie devil in a jar" and voilà!I saw the film just once. I find it impressive that the images have stayed with me past all of the in-theater and in-home filmed that have followed. I hear that Bach piece and have a flash of a boy at a piano--I'm sometimes tempted to look for those eyes when I look out my window on a dark night--and my garden shed recalls for me a vague memory of the scene in my Google search. Mostly, I remember my very patient dad staying up for hours so I'd feel safe sleeping.I never searched for the film before--and here I find that it struck many of us who remember it years later.Pretty effective, I'd say?

moonspinner55 With the possible exception of "Duel", fans of director Steven Spielberg have outright rejected his early efforts (such as this TV-movie and the theatrical "The Sugarland Express", a box-office disappointment) most likely on the basis that his budgets during this time weren't big enough to expand on the action inherent in the material (Robert Altman's admirers are much the same way, ignoring everything the filmmaker did prior to "MASH"). "Something Evil" is a forgotten film, a mere footnote in Spielberg's history, but that doesn't mean it's a failure. Spielberg takes a shopworn scenario (the old haunted farmhouse bit) and gooses it with interesting visuals and an active camera. New York couple with two young children move into a rural estate, unaware of the farm's dark history. Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin are a casual, laid-back, ordinary twosome--just this side of dull, which is probably what Spielberg wanted--whose lives are shaken up by the ghostly goings-on. Two action sequences (a death in the prologue and a tragic car accident following a party) are both encumbered by the picture's low budget and are sadly ineffective, while a subplot involving Ralph Bellamy as a neighbor who studies the occult is left unfulfilled. Still, Spielberg manages a tense, prickly mood (the film never lapses into camp), and Dennis seems fully invested in the proceedings.

Leofwine_draca SOMETHING EVIL goes to prove that not all American TV horror movies of the 1970s are great. This one's an unusually lacklustre effort that tells an all-too-familiar tale of demons and possession, and for once the low budget works against it. The story isn't too shabby, acting as an interesting precursor to the likes of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and written by ENTER THE DRAGON director Robert Clouse, of all people.No, the problem here is Steven Spielberg, directing this very early on in his career as a follow up to his cult classic DUEL. Well, DUEL was much better, and Spielberg feels out of place, uneasy with the material, unsure of himself and playing it safe throughout. The result is a film that's oddly uninvolving and one which only gets going in the last few minutes.The storyline sees a family renting a farmhouse out in the Pennsylvania countryside only to discover that something sinister lurks within. Darren McGavin is a welcome presence as the husband but is underutilised, while the viewer has to contend with the shrill acting of the miscast Sandy Dennis for most of the running time. The less said about the annoying red-haired kid the better. SOMETHING EVIL is a shallow film that seems too afraid to properly tackle its storyline; weak sauce at best, and unsurprisingly forgotten by its director.

Cujo108 A married couple and their two children move into an old country estate in rural Pennsylvania. The father spends most of his time working in New York City, but his wife stays home tending to the kids and coming up with various art designs. It isn't long before she's plagued by bizarre happenings, and while her husband is disbelieving, she comes to the conclusion that a devil is haunting the estate.This TV movie was Steven Spielberg's follow-up to "Duel". While nowhere near that film's level, it is a reasonably effective little haunting yarn. The late Sandy Dennis carries the picture with her frantic, on edge performance. Ralph Bellamy of "Rosemary's Baby" is on the right side of the occult this time as a friendly neighbor who supplies Dennis with info on devils and protection from evil. The haunting is predominately low-key, though it occasionally moves into more pronounced territory when attacking others and even causing a fatal car accident. The creepiest scenes involve the sounds of a baby crying in the still country night and Dennis desperately trying to find out where the cries are emanating from. What she eventually finds makes for a rather disturbing visual.Less unnerving and more cheesy is a scene where Sandy is flipping out on her son. The aftermath doesn't hit as hard as Spielberg would like it too because of this, but Sandy's performance does lessen the damage. Her husband doesn't seem to think much of it and heads back to New York for more work on the annoying commercial he's been preoccupied with. All of this leads up to a fun, if somewhat limp ending. The climactic surprise is telegraphed well in advance.As a whole, there's nothing particularly remarkable here, but it all works just fine. Still, I was hoping that "Something Evil" would be something truly special.