evilspeak

Although he’ll always bear the burden of being Ron Howard’s less successful, less good-looking, less charming (pretty much less “everything) younger brother, Clint Howard has had a pretty good run. Starting with his early lead role as a child actor in TV’s Gentle Ben (1967-69) right up to the seven movies he’s currently slated to appear in this year alone, Clint is more just a working actor, he’s a veritable film industry unto himself! And, like his brother, that work ethic probably springs from a Roger Corman aesthetic that no work is truly beneath him.

After his appearance in Corman’s Rock ‘n’ Rock High School, Howard earned the lead in Evilspeak (1981), a kitchen-sink horror film that whips together bits of Carrie and The Omen with a technological-gimmick based around the new fascination with personal computers. But not just any PC. These are the early Hollywood versions that predicted we’d be able to type in a question like “How do you properly stage a Black Mass” and get back a list of itemized ingredients typed out in that futuristic neon-green font.

Evilspeak doesn’t even get around to that shoehorned computer angle for quite a while. It’s focused on the personal plight of Stanley Coopersmith (Howard), the black sheep of a strict military academy who is the victim of constant harassment by his fellow cadets. But when he stumbles into a burial chamber beneath the campus church, Coopersmith puts together a plan for vengeance against those who’ve done him wrong.

Oddly enough, Evilspeak feels a lot like one of Corman’s early New World productions, especially the medieval prologue that introduces us to Esteban (Richard Moll of Night Court), a Spanish priest excommunicated from the church for his satanic rituals. But director Eric Weston’s film never fully embraces the drive-in nature of the story. In other words, he thinks he’s making something “good.”

He does, however, get a lot of mileage from Clint Howard as the unlucky, unappealing and uncoordinated Coopersmith (or Cooperdick as he’s affectionately referred to throughout the film). Evilspeak makes the most of his natural quirks and finds ways to justify the final bloodbath, which again lifts almost wholesale from the finale of Carrie.

Aside from those late third-act special effects (all restored to their gory glory in this new hi-def release) and Howard’s performance, there’s nothing really novel about Evilspeak to speak of. But it gets some typically terrific treatment from Scream Factory anyway on blu-ray. While not labeled as a true “collector’s edition,” the audio commentary and extensive cast and crew interviews fit the bill quite nicely.