Robert Englund might be one of those actors best known for a singular role in his career (as Sheriff Berger in the classic 2006 film, Heartstopper), but I’ve always felt that he was underrated. Having appeared in a butt-ton of movies and television shows (Bones, Workaholics, Supernatural, and apparently he played Freddy Krueger in eight Nightmare on Elm Street movies and a TV show), there are definitely gems. I’m fond of his role in the Scream knock-off, Urban Legend as an eccentric professor, or his pseudo-Dr. Loomis character in Behind the Mask. What might be his most underrated role, though, is behind the camera.
I was afraid to watch 976-EVIL, the first film directed by Englund, and not just because the DVD cover art is terrible. I’d heard virtually nothing about this film other than a few dismissive references online. I expected some low budget vanity project. However, the movie proved to be quite a bit of fun. For starters, it stars Stephen Geoffreys (who, as his character takes a bizarre transformation, begins to resemble Bill Moseley’s Chop Top from TCM 2), best known for playing Evil Ed in the original Fright Night as a nerdy mama’s boy. Anyone whose seen Geoffrey's act knows what kind of a scene stealer he is, and his unique brand of acting is still turned up to eleven in this one. I’d say that he gets a fair bit more screen-time than in Fright Night, as he is more or less the main character in this film, rather than a supporting actor. Seeing as how thin Geoffrey’s IMDB credits are, that alone makes the film worth watching.
What really gets me, though, is the atmosphere of the movie. It perfectly captures that unique 80’s horror vibe that so many throwbacks today are emulating. The lighting is like something out of a Dario Argento film, the characters are all stereotypes (the nerd, the cool biker, punk kids, the over-possessive Christian mother, etc.), and the premise is something out of a Goosebumps novel. A 1-800 number hotline grants strange and evil powers to a kid who gets picked on in school...or something. The movie itself doesn’t really make much sense. There’s a scene where it rains frogs near the beginning. There is also a scene straight from Halloween 3 at the cold open, where a man is seemingly running from all the telephones and winds up getting killed. In fact, that’s the movie this best resembles, but whereas fans have slowly accepted John Carpenter’s failed attempt at anthologizing the slasher series, 976-EVIL is still waiting to catch its break. I used to watch this movie every October, and think that if it ever caught on, it has potential to become a cult classic. As Englund’s first of two feature films as a director, this makes me wonder if he should have been more selective in the movies he signs onto and opted to helm his own pictures, and what kind of movies that could have produced. As it is, 976-EVIL is a promising debut that is criminally overlooked.
