Evilspeak (1981)

Dir: Eric Weston

Clint Howard (then just known for being the wee boy from "Gentle Ben") stars in this early 80s nasty, playing the geeky Stanley Coopersmith, a military academy misfit who is bullied by both his superiors and his fellow cadets. By chance, he discovers a Satanic chapel that was built beneath the school, hundreds of years before (how conveeeeenient... muhahaha!) and, somehow, manages to program his computer into helping him perform a Black Mass (bear with me here). Obligatory unholy vengeance on his enemies follows. "Evilspeak" starts slowly and very little happens for the first hour, but this is excusable through an above-average script with decent characterisation. The insane final reel, however, is well worth ANY wait and seriously has to be seen to be believed - a righteous splatterfest of epic proportions that manages to be actually quite chilling, in spite of the film's low budget and occasional absurdity. Also, the old-skool computer graphics are nothing short of wild and you'll be willing to trade in your own Grandma's soul for an "ESTEBAN ESTEBAN ESTEBAN" screensaver by the end. Anyway, what really pushes "Evilspeak" out of the 80s video glut and into the realms of the genuinely unusual is its inherent darkness and total lack of the normally ever-present moralising. The final shot (which I won't ruin) is disturbing, bleak and yet, oddly, beautiful. One really gets the impression that writer/director Weston had a score to settle with the hypocrisy of both the church and the military and "Evilspeak" feels like a passionately delivered sword in the skull of both. ***