Fear No Evil (1981)

22 Sep 2023

Rating: 3.5/5

Three angels spend multiple lifetimes trying to stop Lucifer. Each lifetime, he is reborn, as are the angels, and they must track him down and kill him (I think)

This iteration began in 1963. The parents almost kill Satan themselves when they have the baby baptized, and the water causes him to hemorrhage blood. It’s like The Omen with even less subtlety and more mythology

The child Satan grows into a queer-coded teenager whom the ruffians bully for his effeminate mannerisms and appearance. So it turns into Carrie but with mean boys — complete with a shower scene and a concentrated dose of dong

Eventually, Satan rises in power, drinking dog and chicken blood to gain strength — the scenes with the angels organizing and finding each other were confusing, so I won’t try to summarize that. He drives the coach to pummel a kid to death with a kickball, he crucifies a kid and raises the dead — it gets wild

The special effects are peak 80s — lots of drawing on film to create glow, lightning, and whatnot

Everyone is chewing the scenery, and it rules — so much yelling and dramatically falling

For a horror film, this might have the coolest soundtrack (not the score, which the director did himself). Here are some of the songs, often playing back-to-back:

boomtown rats - I don’t like Mondays sex pistols - anarchy in the UK talking heads - love —> building on fire the ramones - blitzkrieg bop  talking heads - psycho killer

Overall, this was a bunch of fun — I highly recommend watching it with friends


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