Tony and Marie's friends - Sure I could have done a little extra work and gotten all their names down on paper, but what's the point? These guys and gals are the film's cannon fodder.

As far as villains go, the Devil has always been a perennial favorite. I mean, come on, here is a supernatural being with seemingly infinite powers and a huge chip on his shoulder. He is usually represented as a bad-ass red-skinned demon with huge horns jutting from his forehead, rippling muscles, fangs, glowing yellow eyes, what have you. Now, take your totally cool preconceived image of Satan, toss it out the window, and make the Lord of Darkness into a scrawny, pale, and very feminine high school teenager. Done that? Good! You have just simultaneously emasculated Lucifer, and created the main character of Frank LaLoggia's Fear No Evil.

Side by side comparison: Andrew and Satan. Which version of Lucifer do you prefer?

All complaints concerning the "wuss-ification" of Satan aside, Fear No Evil does offer an interesting take on Christian mythology. You see, after Lucifer rose up against God and was stricken down, the Fallen One decided that he'd rather pick a fight against a far weaker opponent: humanity. To stop Lucifer from gaining a foothold in our world, God sent three mighty Archangels to stop Satan's second coming, and so, Mikhail, Gabriel, and Rafael (what, no Leonardo or Donatello?) came to Earth and were reborn as mortals, though not at the same time or place.

Rafael gets a crack at Lucifer moments after the opening narration. In his current human form, Rafael is an old priest named Father Thomas Damon. The kindly priest, armed with a holy staff, travels to Satan's lair at Boldt Castle and prepares to send Ole Scratch back to Hell. However this holy commando raid is all part of the plan because Lucifer apparently has to die now in order to achieve his second coming. So ultimate evil is defeated temporarily, and a weary old man, that is actually one of God's archangels in disguise, is prosecuted for murder and sent to rot in a sanitarium for the remainder of his short life.

Lucifer in the meantime, is reborn as a cranky infant named Andrew Williams. Andrew's folks are thrilled with the bundle of joy they have been "blessed" with, but probably develop some regrets when Andrew's baptism becomes a blood-soaked fiesta. (Jesus may be able to turn water into wine, but a newborn Satan can turn Holy Water into delicious punch! Tremble before his power!) After this shocking event, the film leaps ahead to Andrew's eighteenth birthday. What started out as a nice (albeit creepy) day turns bad when Andy's dad drops the birthday cake. This leads to an argument between Andy's folks, which ultimately leads to a short scuffle.

Holy water + infant antichrist blood = Hawaiian Punch!

Mr. Williams tosses his wife to the floor and, as she attempts to grab a nearby table to get back on her feet, an iron falls and smacks her in the head. The resulting head injury turns her into an invalid trapped in a wheelchair. Wracked with guilt, her hubby turns to booze for solace, which leaves Andrew completely to his own devices, though all he seems to do is get straight-A's and get picked on by the jocks and jerks at school. His main tormentor is a "tough guy" named Tony, who is about as threatening as the unholy trinity that birthed him. (He surely must be the lovechild of Chachi, John Stamos, and John Travolta.)

But Andrew eventually begins to grasp who he is and what he is capable of, and begins using his evil powers. While in the group shower after gym class, Tony starts picking on androgynous Andy by giving him a big ole wet kiss. (This is why Tony is one of the worst bullies in cinematic history. You are supposed to beat up on nerdy kids man, not make out with them in a shower. That is just well... kind of... gay!) Using his evil Satan powers, Andy forces Tony to continue this homoerotic moment until everyone in the shower (and the viewing audience) becomes sufficiently grossed out.

This unpleasant moment seems to keep Tony at bay, which allows Andy to fully obsess over a girl in his class named Julie. Julie seems to be a pretty normal and level-headed gal, with a nice boyfriend named Mark. The only truly odd thing about Julie is that she has erotic nightmares that involve Andrew. In her dreams, Andrew enters her bedroom David Copperfield style and proceeds to get down and dirty with her. During her latest dream, things change up a bit when Andy gets rough and scratches her back. When she awakens the following morning, Julie has a nasty-looking set of clawmarks on her back. (I guess Satan learned this trick from Freddy Krueger.)

But before Julie can ever tell her boyfriend that she's being stalked in her dreams by the weird kid in class, Mark dies in a "horrible" (i.e. hilariously awesome) dodgeball accident. The "death by dodgeball" scene in this film is probably its most notable and memorable moment, and it is completely unexpected if you are a first time viewer. (Seriously, after you witness this, you will be like... "What in the hell?" Then you will go back and watch the scene again.... and again....) What made this part of the film even more absurd to me was the fact that a kid with Down's Syndrome is running around and tackling some of his team mates just before Mark is dodgeballed into oblivion.

The infamous "DEATH BY DODGEBALL SCENE!"

It's about this time in the film when a character named Margaret Buchanan finally gets her butt in gear. You see, Margaret is actually the archangel Mikhail and is desperately searching for Gabriel, the final member of God's anti-Satan task force. She spends a good chunk of her time trying to enlist some aid from the local clergy against the soon-to-be powerful antichrist, but is dismissed as crazy. (Funny how clergymen are fully devoted to God until called upon to aid the Almighty or his heavenly servants, isn't it?)

While Margaret searches for Gabriel, Andy begins preparations to move back into Boldt Castle. He sacrifices a bunch of animals and drinks their blood, then garbs himself in clothes that would make Dr. Frankenfurter envious. Andy first calls forth a small army of undead minions (probably to spruce up the castle before company comes over), then turns his attention to the "passion play" taking place within view of his crumbling castle. As the play reaches its crucifixion climax, Andy uses his supernatural powers to give the Jesus impersonator a painful dose of stigmata.

If this weren't enough, various people sitting within the shocked crowd begin to randomly bleed from their scalp. This creates mass hysteria and everybody runs screaming from the scene. A few particularly unlucky victims don't escape quickly enough and get fried by some random bolts of lightning.

While Andrew visits a bloody plague upon the local populace, Tony, his abuse-loving girlfriend Annie, and several of their friends, arrive at Boldt Castle to party. Naturally these morons run afoul of Andy's zombie workforce and are quickly subdued. Tony however suffers a different fate than his friends and late girlfriend.

"AH! I've got man-boobs!"

Earlier in the film, Tony asked Andy if he wanted any marijuana and said something along the lines of "C'mon man. Give it a try. Trust me, this stuff won't make you grow tits like some people say. Look at Annie, she smokes all the time and she's pretty flat chested." Well Andy uses his infinite powers to (ironically) give Tony a pair of boobs! Tony freaks out, pulls out a knife, and begins stabbing his newly acquired breasts until he dies. (Yikes! I wonder how Tony would've reacted if told that twenty years into the future, man-boobs would be the norm. The mind boggles!)

It's about this time that Margaret, with Julie (a.k.a. Gabriel) in tow, arrives at Boldt Castle with the holy staff that Father Damon used in the beginning of the film. The pair of avenging angels make their way past Andy's zombie guards and chase the femmy antichrist throughout the castle. Their chase ends in the exact same spot Lucifer "died" twenty years earlier. Rather than destroy the Antichrist, Margaret tries forcing Andy to recite The Lord's Prayer. Annoyed with Margaret's meddling, Andrew grabs her by the throat and promptly snaps her neck.

This however was also apparently in the cards and the spirits of Mikhail and Rafael merge with young Julie, giving her the power to defeat Andrew. But the climactic struggle between good and evil that has been building to this very moment is extraordinarily anticlimactic. All Julie does is stand there while a demonically icky Andrew is irradiated by the animated rays emanating from her holy staff. The continued blasts from the staff keep Andrew pinned down until some lightning flashes down from above and causes the effeminate antichrist and his castle to explode.

This is probably the prettiest anticlimax you may ever witness in a film.

And that's it folks! There's no epilogue and no final scene to set up a sequel, it is all simply over. I guess Gabriel, Mikhail, and Rafael head back up to heaven to throw a victory party while Lucifer goes back to Hell to sulk and rethink his strategy. Here's a tip for you Beelzebub: If you do come back to destroy mankind, choose a more suitable form. No matter how vicious and powerful you may be, we are all just going to laugh in your face if you return as yet another prissy schoolboy.

Film Review: First off, thanks to everyone who chose this film in the first ever "Torture the Vault Master Poll." You could've stuck me with House of the Dead, or The Demon, or even Blood Tide, but instead you picked a movie that turned out to be fairly decent. I highly doubt I'll be so lucky next time.

Frank LaLoggia's Fear No Evil is an amazingly good effort for the then 26-year old director and it is a terribly misunderstood film. Admittedly, when I first bought the film and watched it, I hated it. Now, after watching it twice for this review, I have a far different opinion of this oft-neglected horror film.

Many folks write this movie off as a homoerotic horror film, and I guess it is to a point. (Then again, some members of the gay community feel that it is conversely, a homophobic horror flick.) We witness bare man ass on several occasions, a few (thankfully brief) glimpses of male genitalia, and two scenes of men kissing, so yes, there is a bit of "gayness" present here.

However, I believe the homosexual undertones were added to create a little more shock value, and don't even come close to overshadowing the rest of the carnage that occurs in the film. (e.g. The bloody baptism, the death by dodgeball scene, the death of Andy's mom, etc.) And it’s the film's violent scenes that carry this movie through its running time, because quite frankly, there's not much story to go on here. The plot is a simple "good vs. evil" tale, and disappointingly doesn't bring anything new to the table.

There are a lot of themes that writer/director Frank LaLoggia could have explored a little more. For example, there are times where Andrew seems ashamed and terrified by the evil things he does. I think LaLoggia should have had a couple of scenes where Andrew's inner turmoil is brought out into the open; an antichrist that is conflicted between being good or evil would make for some pretty engaging storytelling. (It worked in Damien: The Omen II.)

Also, I think Andrew should have put a bit more effort in trying to seduce Julie/Gabriel. What if Lucifer temporarily brought one of God's trusted archangels over to his side? And what if the union between the two resulted in a child that could tilt the balance between good and evil? Sure that's sort of been done before, but still, it would've given the plot a little more meat. What ultimately saves the film are some good performances by several of the leads, an amazing soundtrack, and some of the craziest scenes ever put on celluloid.

In regards to the acting, Elizabeth Hoffman (Margaret/Mikhail) and John Holland (Father Damon/Rafael) are probably the best ones here, but that's probably because they had more to work with than the remainder of the cast. (Plus they have this thing called talent; something that is sorely missing from many of today's actors and celebrities.) Stefan Arngrim holds his own as Andrew, but fails to inspire any dread as the Second Coming of Satan, and Barry Cooper (Andrew's Dad) easily wins the award for the worst actor in the film.

As I said in the previous paragraph, the music in this film is incredible. The score was written and composed by Frank LaLoggia and David Spear, and provides an extra boost to the proceedings but is eclipsed by songs from a variety of popular 80's rock and punk groups like "The Ramones," "The Sex Pistols," "The Talking Heads," and "The B-52's." (Plus, like many other horror films from the 80's, Fear No Evil comes with its very own Theme Song!)

While the rockin' soundtrack helps Fear No Evil save some face, it's the truly insane and gory moments in the film that make it worth watching. We get to witness a very bloody baptism, the infamous "death by dodgeball" scene (that has only been rivaled by the "basketball decapitation scene" from Deadly Friend), a woman in a wheelchair getting shot in the head (which results in her skull smashing through a nearby window in an Argento-esque fashion), a horde of zombies, a man who suddenly develops a perky pair of breasts, and a crazy animated light-show at the climax that results in an enormous explosion.

Fear No Evil is an ambitious low-budget film that suffers from a weak plot (and the already much-discussed homoeroticism), but is a competently made film with some great cinematography by Frederic Goodich, a fantastic score and soundtrack, and plenty of horrific elements to at least keep you watching until the final act. It is far from being perfect, but it certainly isn't as terrible as you might imagine. Give it a shot; if you don't like it, then try Frank LaLoggia's far superior second feature film, Lady in White.

---

So how radioactive is this homo-Satanic horror film?

Geiger Counter Reading:

- THREE 'RADS' -

WARNING: This movie is radioactive!
Bleeding babies, deadly dodgeballs, cool 80's rock
music, and men with boobs highlight this odd
and sometimes homoerotic horror film.

---

DVD Review: Anchor Bay's DVD release of Fear No Evil is fairly impressive, especially when you consider that this film isn't exactly something that horror fans have been clamoring for. The film is shown in a pretty clean (though sometimes grainy) 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is enhanced for widescreen TVs. For audio options, you can listen to the film in 5.1 or 2.0 Dolby Digital surround sound or watch the film with an audio commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia and director of photography Frederic Goodich.

This is one of the more disappointing audio commentaries that I have listened to, if only because both Frank and Frederic fail to keep the conversation going. There are far too many spots where both men go dead silent as they watch the film. On the plus side though, they give some great info about the making of the film. One particularly interesting thing that Frank points out is how many changes he was forced, or nearly forced to make, once Avco Embassy Pictures agreed to fund and distribute his film.

While there are a few good anecdotes (Edna Ruth Paul, the editor of Fear No Evil was simultaneously working on Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead which led to a brief and friendly meeting between Frank and the future director of the Spider-Man franchise.) the majority of the commentary seems to be Frederic Goodich explaining how he did the lighting through the movie. The remainder of the disc's extra features include the original screenplay (which you can view via your computer's DVD-ROM drive), the original theatrical trailer, eight TV spots, a poster and still gallery, and a (nearly) twenty-minute-long reel of behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film.

While I would've preferred a director's commentary with this footage, it is still worth watching. Some of the highlights of the footage include setups for several of the film's key special effects shots (e.g. Lucifer's impalement in the first act of the film; Mike's dodgeball death), as well as some scenes that didn't make it into the final cut of the film. (Andy's dad apparently committed suicide after shooting his wife.) And, as an added bonus, the DVD comes with a small booklet with liner notes by Jay Marks that talks about the film's origins.

This is a very good release for a rather obscure and maligned film, and almost makes me forget about Anchor Bay's annoying tendency to double and triple-dip the titles in their massive DVD catalog. All joking aside, this is a very solid DVD release; the only way Anchor Bay could outdo it is if they put Fear No Evil out on Blu-ray with an all new audio commentary.

Mark: "What's the matter?"
Julie: "I felt him touch me."
(Vault Master's comment: Hahaha! This line is funny enough as is, but the sudden blaring music that follows it really makes this a magical moment in the film. And to clarify, Julie felt Andrew touch her ahm... spiritually... or something.)

Marie: "That thing ain't loaded right?!"
Tony: "Just don't cough."
(Vault Master's comment: Ick! I didn't realize that handguns doubled as sex toys. Kind of makes you wonder how the "Sex Pistols" came up with their rock group's name doesn't it?)

• Beginning - God's plan to stop Lucifer from enslaving humanity doesn't seem to be all that well thought out. Maybe the Almighty should have hired some mercenaries, or a contract killer.
• 6:03 - If Lucifer really wanted to entice Father Damon, he should've morphed into a half-naked altar boy.
• 11:00 - Egads! This infant has the power to turn holy water into fruit punch! Clearly his evil powers are infinite!
• 17:37 - This guy strikes me as a third-rate clone of John Stamos.
• 21:47 - This has to be the subtlest fart joke I've ever seen in a film.
• 22:02 - HOOTER ALERT! You get to see Marie's "barely B's" for a split second!
• 23:41 - "I felt him touch me." [snicker]
• 37:31 - ARGH! Did we really have to see these male students hit the showers after gym class Mr. LaLoggia?!
• 38:26 - BLECH! Tony and Andy the Antichrist have a bizarre make out session in the shower! The horror! The HORROR!
• 46:16 - What was this movie missing? Oh yeah, another shot of a dude's bare ass!
• 50:52 - As far as I know, this is the only "death by dodgeball" scene in cinematic history!
• 64:29 - Andy makes sure that Duke will never again try to give away the secret of Bush's Baked Beans.
• 70:29 - Ewww... I'll never look at a pistol again without wondering where (or in whom) it has been.
• 74:16 - Oh cool! Andrew has a loyal zombie workforce to do his bidding.
• 79:25 - Is it really uxoricide when your wife is (metaphorically) a vegetable?
• 85:47 - Hahahahaha! Tony is "cursed" with a pair of breasts.
• 93:27 - Hehehehe. It looks like Julie is about to abducted by aliens here.
• 95:27 - The End Credits.

Recommended Viewing:

• Director Frank LaLoggia has only done two other films. Lady in White (1988) is probably the film he's best known for. This supernatural yarn is a tale about a young boy who gets locked in a closet at school on Halloween night and witnesses a ghostly reenactment of a young girls murder. Frank's other film is called Mother (1996) and is apparently a twisted tale of a young man who is hounded by his overbearing mother and a crazed woman that is obsessively (and murderously) in love with him.
  
  
• Fear No Evil is not the first mainstream horror film to be labeled as homoerotic. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge has a scene where a gym teacher becomes the victim of lethal supernatural bondage.
  
  
• The coming of the antichrist has been the subject of several great horror films. In The Omen (1976 and 2006), an American ambassador discovers that his son may be the actual son of Satan. Damien: Omen II (1978) shows said antichrist as a preteen who is horrified, then eventually elated when he discovers his true identity. In Omen: The Final Conflict (1981) an adult Damien attempts to gain world power and kill off the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The (thus far) final film in the franchise, Omen IV: The Awakening has Damien's illegitimate daughter trying to get knocked up in order to give birth to a new Antichrist. Also, make sure you check out Rosemary's Baby (1969) in which Mia Farrow gets raped by Satan and becomes the mother of the Antichrist. Don't however, watch the 1976 made for TV sequel, Look What Happened to Rosemary's Baby.
  
  
• Horror films set in a high school setting seem to be pretty popular, though they do generally turn out to be pretty cheesy. Here is a nice long list of horror films that take place in a school setting: Horror High (1974), Carrie (1976), Prom Night (1980), Student Bodies (1981), Slaughter High (1986), Return to Horror High (1987), Cutting Class (1989), Monster High (1989), and The Faculty (1998).

Useless Trivia:

• Richard Jay Silverthorn who portrays the adult Lucifer in Fear No Evil, did the makeup effects in the film and also wrote a movie novelization entitled "Satan's Child." Richard passed away on March 23, 1987 from complications caused by AIDS.
  
  
• Fear No Evil was Elizabeth Hoffman's acting debut in a feature film!
  
  
• Actor Jeff Richter (who portrayed the passion play Christ) apparently had a pretty noticeable lisp, and was dubbed over in post-production by director Frank LaLoggia.
  
  
• The film was shot at the junior high school that Frank LaLoggia attended when he was a child. In fact, most of the extras for the film were local students!
  
  
• Producer Charles LaLoggia approached his cousin Frank to write and direct a horror script around the location of Boldt Castle. Charles also insisted that Frank add zombies into the film because they were popular at the time (much to Frank's chagrin I might add).
  
  
• Painted cornflakes were used for the zombies' makeup.
  
  
• Fear No Evil won the Saturn Award for "Best Low-Budget Film" in 1982!
  
  
• The cinematography in Fear No Evil is a culmination of director Frank LaLoggia's desire to give parts of the film a "Hammer horror look," coupled with director of photography Frederic Goodich's desire to base the cinematography on medieval paintings.
  
  
• The scene in which Andrew tries to seduce Julie/Gabriel in her dream was nearly cut out of the film. To keep it in, Frank LaLoggia gave an associate producer's credit to one of the executives at Avco Embassy Pictures.

Download(s):

• CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO LISTEN TO "FEAR NO EVIL" BY TRYBE!
  

  Filesize: 7.9 MB | Length: 3:26 | Bitrate: 320 kbps

  Note: This mp3 was ripped from the Anchor Bay DVD release of Fear No Evil. To download it to your hard drive, right click on the image and select "Save Target As." *Please do not link directly to this download. Instead, link to the review URL and let people know where the download it located. My bandwidth is precious and I need every bit of it to keep hosting cool downloads like this. Purchase the original film score by Frank LaLoggia and Dave Spears at Amazon.com.

---

LEAVE YOUR OWN COMMENTS ABOUT THIS MOVIE IN...

And feel free to e-mail me at vault_master[at]bmoviefilmvault[dot]com if you have any questions, personal recommendations, or information about the films reviewed here on the site! Don't be shy! Your feedback helps make The Vault better!

---

Review posted on October 20, 2008.

B-MOVIE REVIEWS

CAPSULE REVIEWS

DISCUSSION FORUM

MAIN PAGE [FRAMES]

MAIN PAGE [NO FRAMES]