stones78
I guess I have a soft spot, a very small one, for this forgotten film, which was directed by horror icon Robert Englund. I think it's because it came out at the end of the 80's, which is the decade I saw the majority of my horror films, as I consider myself a horror buff. I've seen it listed as either 1988 or 1989, but I don't think I've seen many more horror films since then, as the 80's wrapped up my teen years. An interesting tidbit has star Stephen Geoffreys basically become a gay porn star not long after this film came out, no pun intended. You probably won't recognize anyone else, other than perhaps Sandy Dennis, and maybe Robert Picardo. I thought the premise of the film was fairly original; you call a "horrorscope" number, and you get to speak to the Devil. There's a catch though, if you don't do what "he" says, you get a strange sounding ring on a nearby pay phone(remember them?)and bad stuff may happen to you. Buyer beware! I'll get the bad out of the way; first off, I didn't like how Hoax decided to play a cruel, but deadly joke on Suzie, considering she was very nice to him, and even tried to protect him from bullies. Her death scene was pretty lame, as far as horror standards go. Also, the way the house turned into a foamy ice inside, and the fire effects under the house, were cheesy at best. I did like the creature's make-up for the most part, although the extra large hands and feet could've been done better. I also thought the fish falling from the sky was interesting, and I haven't seen anything like it before or after this film. Mark Dark was a very cool addition, but I wish there was more background on his character. To finish this review, I'll reiterate that this has some late 80's charm to me, and was probably one of the last horror films I saw, at least from what I can recall, as the 80's gave me some really cool horror film memories, and I'll proudly include this film as well.
tdrish
First of all, I don't believe I have ever, and I mean EVER, seen a film in my life with as much smokers and smoking scenes, then in this movie. There was more smoke in the air then evil! It seemed like every scene revolved around a cigarette, a cigarette being lit, cigarette smoke lingering in the air, "You got a light?", even a cigarette smoked before the kill! Wow! As for the film itself, I don't believe I have ever, and I mean EVER, seen a film with so much nonsense that doesn't even explain itself. Fish falling from the sky? Really? This the best you got, England? Oh, yeah, Robert England is our director. Yeah, him, the guy who played Freddy. Maybe if we had one of the guys who played Jason as our director, we would have had a watchable flick. Well, to be fair, this flick isn't that bad. I mean, it's bad, but is it so bad, that you're reaching for a rope, and finding a good sturdy beam to hang yourself from? No. Not quite that bad. But it's bad. The film is what I would call a "train-wreck". You don't want to look, but you look. You cover your eyes, but you're peeking between your fingers. How much worse can this movie get? You find out quickly, it's for the worse. The story opens up with....okay, forget about the phone booth, let's talk about Hoax. Hoax is a teen, being bullied in school. He ends up getting hooked up onto one of those 976 numbers, remember those? Ahhhh, the 80's. Kids would call those numbers, and they thought it was for free. Ha ha! Now there's evil! So, he gets hooked up with this crazy phone number, and weird stuff starts happening, but it's working in his favor. So it seems. Will his evil phone number help him earn his charm with the girl who likes to smoke? Tune in, Tokyo, cause no one else is!! A few characters in the film are likable, but most are flat out annoying. Is it scary? Hardly. I mean, you can't just gather a bunch of unknown actors and actresses together, and think that you're going to put together the greatest horror flick of all time. It just doesn't work like that. However, 976-EVIL doesn't seem to aim for that mark, so that's not an issue. In fact, I'm not sure what the movie is really trying to tackle, other then the subject of school bullying, and finding a really jacked up way of resolving the problem. 976-EVIL, on the plus side, does have some great dialogue. For a horror flick, it's actually entertaining. However, the story line itself suffers so bad, that it makes the two 'oil and water', and this good point isn't enough to save the film from being anything more then a recipe for disaster. The dark humor, however, does bring it up a few notches, and to be honest, it's the only thing that saved me from giving this film 3 out of 10 stars. If you're looking for a dark humored horror movie, this film delivers the goods. Of course, it's stuff you shouldn't be laughing at, but let's just say if Hoax doesn't scare the heck out of you, he's bound to determined to crack you up laughing. Another annoying note: What is up with all of the overhead camera shots? I thought the director of photography was just a really tall person. Overhead shots, under head shots, it's just a disorganized mess, and yet it still manages to be entertaining enough to keep you watching. You're not really sure why, but you do. The violence and gore is kept to a minimum, making it close to a harmless movie for your kids to watch. ( I said 'close', that's up to you to decide.)
Lucien Lessard
Hoax (Stephen Geofferys) is a painfully shy teenager, who gets harassed by a group of thugs (led by J.J. Cohen) in High School and suffers at home with his overly religious mother (Sandy Dennis). The only thing that Hoax looks up to his good-hearted punk cousin Spike (Patrick O'Bryan), who lives next-door to him. When Spike finds an phone number in a card from the magazine, he was reading. Which it's a horror-scope that predicts horrible things in the near future. When Spike finds himself saved by a undercover police detective (Jim Metzler). Which a car nearly run Spike over but no one was driving the car. Which this detective is trying the investigate the bizarre deaths that involves the mysterious phone number from the horror-scope. Which these unfortunate victims called that number. When Hoax decides to call the number for the hell of it, he comes intriguing with the black magic and he finds himself seduced by the unimaginative powers from the horror-scope he calls. Now Hoax uses the power from the phone number he called giving him and he uses it for revenge.Directed by Robert Englund made an fairly entertaining horror/thriller with elements of fantasy. Which the premise is somewhat familiar, especially for those who seen "Brian De Palma's Carrie" and "Evilspeak". I have to admit, this movie starts out very badly. I almost lose interest in the story but it slowly improves. Especially when it's focuses on Hoax's character. Englund shows some unexpected flair behind the camera with some decent imaginative special effects and good make-up effects work, despite it's low-budget showing. The performances are better than average. The script by Oscar-Winning:Brain Helgeland (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4:The Dream Master, L.A. Confidential, Payback) and Rhet Topham (Trick or Treat) is confusing at times and the odd-ball dark humour doesn't always work. Still, horror fans will enjoy it. The directorial debut by Englund is not bad (Who best known playing Freddy Krueger in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series). Robert Picardo (Who always has scene-stealing performances in Joe Dante movies) is memorable in his cameo as Mark Dark. Followed by a Sequel. (** ½/*****).
