By Sara Reineke
Upon
receipt of Vinegar Syndrome’s new Blu-Ray edition of Mardi Rustam’s “Evils of
the Night†(1985), I was reminded of a tired cliché drilled into my head as a
child: Don’t judge a book by its cover. The cover art, designed by Terry Levine,
a friend of Rustam’s, invokes the stereotypical “sex-crazed teens trapped in a
world of terror†vibe that horror movies of the 1980s were notorious for. However,
I held out hope as I prepared to view the disc but this hope was quickly lost
when “Exploitation TV†appeared on my screen, followed by the silhouette of a
busty woman. Despite this, I still thought: Could this be one of those “so bad
they’re good†cult classics that fans love to revisit? After all, the film
featured such well-known and respectable actors as John Carradine, Julie
Newmar, and Tina Louise, as well as fan favorites Neville Brand and Aldo Ray.
However, since these actors had only about fifteen minutes of screen time combined, we’re mostly left with a
troupe of young actors and actresses whose inexperience is not only
demonstrated on screen but also with their non-existent IMDB filmographies. Now,
after seeing the film, I am relatively certain that Carradine, Newmar, and
Louise, were very happy to be minimally involved in this mess passed off as a horror
film.
The
film’s plotting is unclear and slow moving, with the first half hour of the
movie dedicated solely to embarrassingly non-erotic sex scenes included solely to
titillate the young (and male) audience of the time (Within the first fifteen
minutes, I had closed my laptop twice
in pure disgust). Even if you can make it past the first half hour of pure soft-core
pornography (actress Amber Lynn, who plays Joyce, was a fairly well-known star
in many adult films), you’re still left with a story that is underdeveloped and/or
pretty much defies logical explanation. It’s difficult to even identify the
main character(s) well into the film, as the multiple story threads go nowhere. Which group of teenagers will prevail over
the aliens and their minions, the grease monkey lackeys? More importantly, who cares? At the one hour
mark, I had to reread the back of the disc’s case to remind myself what was
going on, since none of the villains actually announced intentions for the
kidnapped teens. Although it was the intention (I think) of the filmmaker to
tell the story of vampire aliens requiring teen blood to remain youthful, we’re
left only with excessive sex-scenes and hard-to-follow ludicrous “scientificâ€
discussions between aliens. In an
interview included as a bonus on the disc, Rustam says that he considered “Evils
of the Night†as a horror remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still†(1951). He wishes.
I
would say Rustam hit a triple with “Evils of the Night.†His film is combines
bad writing, acting, and direction. However, according to the filmmaker at
least, the movie did well financially and he himself was mostly happy with the
finished product. (To be fair, “Evils of
the Night†was the first film he’d directed). In an interview recorded eight
years following the film’s release, Rustam said, “I believe it is still a good
movie for its period. I might go see again this month.†I agree with Rustam that
the film is a product of its time. Although I doubt a film such as this could
possibly break into today’s market, its “ample nudity and moments of splattery
gore†do mark it as a true horror film of the 1980s. However, unlike director Rustam,
it’s doubtful I will revisit this film within the month— if ever again.
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