Good Against Evil (1977)
Article 5847 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-15-2020
Directed by Paul Wendkos
Featuring Dack Rambo, Elyssa Davalos, Richard Lynch
Country: USA
What it is: TV-Movie

A man falls in love with a fashion designer, unaware that all of the previous boyfriends for that designer have ended up dead. It turns out she’s under the control of a Satanist who has plans of his own…

As for the story, suffice it to say that it’s a TV-Movie mishmash of elements from ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE EXORCIST. That should tell you a lot about the type of scares you’re likely to encounter as well as an idea of (this being a TV-Movie) how intense they’re likely to be. The opening is a fast-moving compendium of cliches. Then we have romance for about thirty minutes or so before it starts trying to be scary again. Then, about two-thirds of the way through, we unexpectedly shift the story to a set of characters who mostly appear in the movie for the first time. then, about twenty-five minutes later, you realize that there simply isn’t enough time for the movie to resolve its central conflict. It was only then that something occurred to me that I should have been suspecting from the moment I knew it was a TV-Movie. And though it may be considered a spoiler by some, nonetheless, I’m going to reveal what that revelation was, as it’s the sort of thing that goes under the heading of “fair warning” as far as I’m concerned. This movie was a pilot for a non-anthological horror TV-Series that wasn’t picked up (which goes a long ways toward explaining to me why this movie has such a generic title). In short, there is no resolution to the central plot, nor will there ever be. Now you’re perfectly free to decide for yourself if this one is worth your time.