Evils of the Night Blu-ray review
Release Date: August 30
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“Extraterrestrial vampires have landed and they want something these kids have: Their Blood. They’ve travelled 3 million miles for this precious substance, and they’re not going home without it!”
Originally distributed by the infamous Aquarius Releasing, Evils of the Night is a scuzzy-but-innocuous 1985 sci-fi slasher whose cast of old timer B-movie regulars is easily its best asset. Having never seen the film before (only knowing it from its poster inexplicably featuring the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars), I really had no idea what to expect. The resulting 85 minutes didn’t leave much of an impression, but those who grew up with the film on cable or VHS will find plenty to enjoy in Vinegar Syndrome‘s Blu-ray, as an alarming amount of love and care clearly went into it.
You can’t fault this viewer for expecting something far out and crazy for a film that features a mid-coitus death before the credits are finished rolling. However, once the alien spaceship (which resembles a spinning disco light) lands and dispatches with its first few victims, we cut to daylight where our smorgasbord of teenagers ripe for the picking are displayed on a lakeside beach. It’s a typical crop of 80’s babes and lunkheads all trying to score on a weekend camping trip. Notable among the bunch is porn legend Amber Lynn, whose two big scenes are wholly unnecessary to the story and basically only exist to add one more dash of nudity to the film. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
After that there’s not much else in the way of skin as we shift gears into the “plot,” which involves a group of aliens straight out of a 1940’s serial who pay a couple of local auto mechanics in gold to go out and bring them back teenagers to drain the blood from in order to expand their lives. The three main aliens are played by Tina Louise (Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island”), Julie Newmar (Catwoman on the 60’s “Batman” TV show) and horror movie legend John Carradine (The Howling, House of Frankenstein), the latter clearly acting to make ends meet between social security checks. The two local grease monkeys are played in an alcoholic haze by Aldo Ray (We’re No Angels) fresh off of being fired from David Lynch’s Dune, and — in his final onscreen performance — Neville Brand (Stalag 17), who had previously worked with Evils of the Night producer/director Mardi Rustam on Tobe Hooper’s cult classic Eaten Alive.
While there are a few okay kills, one involving a drill, another involving a hydraulic car lift crushing someone, they all have a student film quality to them as if they were barely pulled off on set. This is not my first B-movie rodeo by any means, but this is the type of sub-Roger Corman fodder that “Mystery Science Theater 3000” was made for. You get the sense that this was a mercenary, by-the-numbers type of picture without a lot of passion behind it, thus it’s hard to find much merit. A surprisingly evocative score by Robert O. Ragland occasionally seems like it’s pitched more towards a neo noir than a sci-fi nudie slasher. Some of the young cast are trying their best, with perhaps only the lovely Karrie Emerson — later of Chopping Mall fame — showing any real chops. It’s a shame this was her second-to-last movie before leaving the business.
Does spending 85 minutes watching Evils of the Night qualify as squandering the precious gift of life God gave you? Beats me. There are shadows of the camera in several shots. A close-up on an obvious rubber prop wrench betrays exactly how soft it is. “Battlestar Galactica” footage is recycled for the opening shot of the spaceship (which looks nothing like the lander ship), and then later ingeniously reversed at the end to show the aliens vacating Earth.
The credits end with a card that reads, “This film is dedicated to the cast & the crew for making it possible.” This is perhaps one of the only signs that Rustam & co. really may have had more at stake here than merely pumping out cheap drive-in fodder.
Special Features
While the film leaves much to be desired, the new collectors edition disc put out by Vinegar Syndrome is terrific, and generously includes both a Blu-ray and DVD edition of Evils of the Night.
The highlight of the special features is a 10-minute interview with director Mardi Rustam, a USC grad who talks about getting his older/retired name actors on a $190,000 budget in 20-21 days. The first outtake of Neville from the set cut into the featurette shows him with a bottle in his hand. Still, Mardi has nothing but kind things to say about his older thesps, remarking that they inspired the younger actors with their professionalism.
There’s 24 minutes of remastered outtakes sans sound set to the film’s soundtrack that has value as both a behind-the-scenes element and a look at how films were made in the 80’s prior to the digital revolution. A sloppily edited work in progress theatrical trailer contains most of the film’s memorable scenes cut together in a jumble, though a release TV spot makes it look like a much more fun romp than it actually is.
Finally, as if there weren’t enough for completists already, there’s an entire alternate feature length TV edit (sourced from a tape) that eliminates most of the blood and boobs. Yes, that means no Amber Lynn, fellas.
