Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

utgard14 The Evictors is another in a string of low-budget but memorable films made by producer/director Charles B. Pierce during the 1970s. The best of these were, of course, The Legend of Boggy Creek and The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The rest of Pierce's oeuvre is spotty but almost all of his movies show signs of his talent for coming up with interesting film ideas and executing them with a fair amount of creativity.This film is a mixed bag. The plot is that in 1942 a couple (Michael Parks, Jessica Harper) rent a house in southern Louisiana, where they are subjected to a series of strange occurrences and attacks. Then they find out the house has a history of violent happenings with previous inhabitants.The setting and premise are right in Pierce's wheelhouse. He directs with his usual flair for creating atmosphere and setting up some nice tension throughout. The flashbacks are particularly well-done with nice attention to detail from the periods involved. However, some slow spots drag the film a bit and the ending is a let-down. Still, there's enough of interest here to warrant you checking it out. Good direction, nice music, and the biggest "name" cast Charles Pierce ever had. In addition to Parks and Harper, there's Sue Ane Langdon and Vic Morrow.

Woodyanders Ben Watkins (a solid and likable performance by Michael Parks) and his wife Ruth (winningly played by the lovely Jessica Harper) move into a creepy old house in a small Louisiana town. They find out that said abode has a violent history attached to it. Director Charles B. Pierce, who also co-wrote the engrossing script with Garry Rusoff and Paul Fisk, relates the compelling story at a steady pace, presents a flavorsome evocation of the 1940's period setting, offers a strong feeling of the rural region and its people, builds a good deal of tension, stages the shock set pieces with aplomb, grounds the plot in a believably sleepy everyday rustic milieu, and delivers a couple of neat surprise twists at the end. The sound acting by the capable cast keeps this picture humming: Parks and Harper make for appealing leads, with fine support from Vic Morrow as friendly, yet shifty real estate agent Jake Rudd and Sue Ane Langdon as pleasant and chipper crippled neighbor Olie Gibson. Familiar character actors Bill Thurman, Dennis Fimple, and Jimmy Clem pop up in cool minor roles. Chuck Bryant's handsome widescreen cinematography boasts lots of gorgeous sepia-tinged black and white for the flashback scenes. Jamie Mendoza-Nava's spirited shivery score hits the stirring shuddery spot. Worthwhile fright fare.

Coventry I'm a big fan of Charles B. Pierce's movies and particularly admire the efforts he did in the field of horror. His movies are extremely low-budgeted, always incredibly hard to come across on VHS or DVD-R and they seemingly always appear to be inspired by true events, no matter how unlikely they may sound. "Legend of Boggy Creek" was a moody documentary-styled film revolving on the contemporary popular Sasquatch legend, the close-to-brilliant "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" was a predecessor to the modern teen-slashers as well as one of the rawest rural horror films ever made and then this "The Evictors", perhaps the most obscure movie of the entire bunch, is an impressively tense and slow-brooding 'haunted-house' type of chiller with a twist. Needless to say this film doesn't feature any outrageous gore, spectacular stunts or exploitative sleaze. Instead of all that, "The Evictors" purely thrives on a continuously ominous atmosphere, devoted performances and a few intelligently scripted surprise-twists when approaching the denouement. The largest part of the story takes place in a secluded little Louisianan town during the early 1940's. Pierce masterfully recreates the grim and almost depressing atmosphere of that era with exact period details (like vehicles, costumes, religious matters and the noticeable impact of WWII going on in Europe) and a rather uncanny yellow-tinted cinematography. The story opens in the year 1928, with the rather harsh eviction of a family from their farmhouse by heavily armed police officers and a relentless real estate agent. Nearly 15 years later the amiable young couple Ben & Ruth Watkins move in. During the long days when Ben is working at the factory, Ruth makes her acquaintance with the neighbors and learns that everyone who lived in the house during the 30's also died there under mysterious circumstances. The stories of the previous tenants are illustrated through extended flashbacks that easily form the suspenseful highlights of the movie (along with the gripping climax, of course). Ruth becomes increasingly terrified of living in the house and then one night she encounters a tall, dark and sinister man atop the stairs… "The Evictors" is incredibly slow-paced (and probably not intended for younger, nowadays horror audiences) but very, VERY rewarding if you like ambiance-driven 70's horror. The murders are tamely depicted but they're surely brutal in tone and, even though you sort of can predict the final twist, it still comes across as mildly shocking when it gets revealed. Vic Morrow receives top billing for his role as sly estate agent, but it's really Jessica Harper and Michael Parks that deserve the most praise. Horror freaks will always remember and worship the stunningly beautiful and cherubic Mrs. Harper for her role in Dario Argento's genre milestone "Suspiria" and Michael Parks is nowadays mostly known for his returning role of Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in the films of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The two form a charming on screen couple and they get some excellent supportive feedback from Sue Ann Langdon (as the wheelchair-bound neighbor), Dennis Fimple and Bill Thurman. This is a terrific film that could perhaps be described as a forerunner of films like "The Others" and "The Messengers", only with the irreplaceable fiendish ambiance of 70's exploitation/drive-in cinema. Highly recommended!

lflores90 I remember seeing this movie back when we first got HBO in the early eighties as a kid. The movie had a PG rating, no gore, no masked men wielding a knife, and no big production qualities and yet still managed to scare the heck out of me. There was something about the brooding atmosphere and dark haunting score that did it for me. I also remember the film had some narration in it which made it even more creepy because it gave the film a more sinister fear of the unknown quality. Like other psychological horror film classics such as Rosemary's Baby, The Others, and the Blair Witch Project(I'm sure some will disagree with me on that one)those films allowed the viewer to create the scariest horror of all, the horror that resides in our own heads.