Something Evil

Synopsis

A married couple with two young children move into a Pennsylvania farmhouse that turns out to be inhabited by demons. Darren McGavin portrays the TV producer husband, while Sandy Dennis plays his artist wife. Popular child star Johnny Whitaker co-stars as their oldest child, who becomes possessed and begins to torment his family and their friends. When the mother begins to sense that something may be wrong with her son, her husband and friends think she is going insane.

Cast

Filming locations

Production

Spielberg created Something Evil immediately after his television movie Duel (1971), and it aired in January 1972. As a horror film, it is unique in Spielberg's filmography, and bears resemblances to the movie Rosemary's Baby (1968), and to the book The Exorcist (1971) and its subsequent 1973 film adaptation.

Reception

While the majority of critics have dismissed Something Evil, Neil Sinyard wrote of the film: "Spielberg's direction is nothing short of magnificent. There are splendid montages as mother [Sandy Dennis] paints and creates models and mobiles that will eventually be significant in resisting the evil spells; dazzling dissolves and sinister camera placement for stealthy, apprehensive entrances into fearful places; and [...] a Hitchcockian sense of the moment to throw away explanatory dialogue (the explanation for the house's past) when it is less interesting than the mystery and menace."

Song

The movie features the "Apple Bar Candy Song" by Charlie Marie Gordon. It appears in the film performed by Laurie Hagen for a commercial Darren McGavin's character is filming. The song has been spoofed several times.