"Fear No Evil" focuses on teenaged Andrew, who is awkward, withdrawn, and the reincarnation of Lucifer. To make matters worse, he is tormented by his peers, primarily a homosexually-repressed bully. Meanwhile, an elderly local woman, and one of Andrew's female classmates, assume the roles of Biblical archangels, and band together to defeat Andrew.This was Robert LaLoggia's first feature (he would later become known for his autumnal oddity "The Lady in White" in 1988), and rookie mistakes abound here, mainly in terms of script cohesion. The film is a disaster of styles and plot lines that don't entirely run through, and a great deal of the film feels undercooked. There are elements of teen revenge thrillers such as "Carrie" here as well as Gothic horror films, but LaLoggia's script is overtly Catholic and revels in its biblical underpinnings. This is where the film is somewhat interesting, especially as it seems LaLoggia uses the Lucifer plot line as a metaphor for being an outcast teen; the entire film is essentially the biblical coming of the antichrist set in a 1980 high school. While certainly not innovative, it is clever.Many have noted that the film is rife with homoerotic undertones that are never quite elucidated but they are impossible to ignore. For example, Andrew's main tormentor, Tony, engages in a passionate kiss with him as a form of "bullying" in the communal locker room showers as their classmates look on; and later during the finale, Andrew appears in an almost Rocky Horror-esque getup as he summons the undead. These elements are another example of the film's wild inconsistencies and frank weirdness, but overall I found the hodgepodge nature of the film somewhat endearing. The finale set at the castle ruins is reminiscent of the greatest of the Hammer horror films—it's supremely Gothic, even amidst the firework special effects which are very dated by today's standards.In the end, I have mixed feelings toward "Fear No Evil." It's a film that feels like a first-time effort in many ways, and in others, not so much. It is richly atmospheric, relatively well-shot, and has shades of your typical teen horror flick combined with the most sophisticated Gothic, all strung together on a (flimsy) neo-biblical narrative. It's a mess, but it has heart. My biggest gripe would probably be the underdevelopment of the characters, whose union feels arbitrary and vaguely- drawn. Aside from that, I did find the film enjoyable with all of its quirks. Bonus points for the soundtrack, which boasts the likes of the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and Talking Heads. 6/10.

Teenager is the son of Satan and he's plotting a demonic uprising, while a teen girl and a local old woman are actually angels sent to stop him.Fear No Evil is an interesting oddity among the numerous teen horror flicks of the early 80's. For one, it's not a slasher movie. Fear No Evil is a low-budget, but well done throw back to the Gothic horror films of Hammer given a touch of the modern. The storyline is compelling, with some touches of nicely artistic direction from first time director Frank LaLoggia. Still, it's flawed by some awkward moments of silliness (death-by-dodge ball, shower make out) and some supporting performances that aren't as good as those of the leads.The best of the cast are Stefan Arngrim as our devilish villain and Elizabeth Hoffman as the elder angel desperate to stop him. Daniel Eden is also memorable as the school bully who gets a most crazy demise.Fear No Evil is a unique entry in the teen horror genre. Though it's not flawless, thanks to its low budget, it still has enough imagination to be a entertaining and memorable late night movie.** 1/2 out of ****

"Fear No Evil" is just a dull, lifeless supernatural drama.**SPOILERS**Going to high school, Andrew Williams, (Stefan Arngrim) manage to stick out from the rest of the classmates, being rather shy and withdrawn. Stuck on Earth, two of God's Angels, Mikhail, (Elizabeth Hoffman) who is inside the form of Margaret Buchanan and Gabrielle, (Kathleen Rowe McAllen) who is inside the form of Julie, become concerned that something dangerous could happen shortly. While at school, a series of strange incidents makes them believe that he is the one causing all the problems, and are soon justified in their beliefs. Only just becoming aware of the powers that she has, the two Angels train to better understand what is going on with them in order to rid the world of the Devil, who has been reincarnated and makes their struggle all the more dangerous.The Good News: This one doesn't have very many good parts to it. The main one here is that the ending is the only part that's remotely watchable. There's a really great Gothic atmosphere, there's plenty of action to be had and it becomes a big barrel of fun in every way possible. From the resurrection of the Christ that takes place in front of a crowd of observers standing around a giant palace witnessing the event, which is quite fun on it's own, yet there's the fact that this takes place among all the other different plots that come together to make it entertaining. The whole sequence itself is where the film's at it's best and is one of the only reason to see this one. The first sequence, where the Devil starts prancing around another Gothic castle with some great images, a really fun look to it and some fantastic atmosphere that is really where it gets over. All told, these two scenes are all the film has to get itself over, even though the first point is incredibly good.The Bad News: This one is one of the weakest horror films around. The film remains one of the weakest ones due to the fact that the film is just dull and lifeless. Practically nothing at all happens in here that really warrants much of anything other than the ending, and instead of actually making it feel interesting, there's just long periods of time where one of two things happen. Either we get unrelated interactions with the group of school-kids that go to the high-school being relegated to the usual characterization sequences that populate the slasher films of the time, meaning that they're concerned with getting drugs or alcohol or with trying to get their girlfriend to go to bed with them, or the time is spent with the angels trying to get others to listen to them while training for the final confrontation. There's almost very little that occurs in there to warrant any sort of interest from these, and there's just an excruciating amount of time that goes on before there's something interesting that happens. The extreme confusion as to what's going on in the film makes it another flaw. It's way too hard to keep track of what's going on, especially once the angels get involved. That they all go by different gender names when being referred to by another, yet there's still the fact that there's the names everyone else calls them as and it begins to get too much for the time. There's even more flaws in this one, although the absolute, utter dullness will be the one that gives this one the down-grade.The Final Verdict: With only a few anywhere decent moments and a ton of dull ones, this one is just too unspectacular to have any real viewers. Really hard to find those who will enjoy this one, as way too much time is spent with anything substantial, leaving it only for the curious or those who have to see every single one of these kinds of films.Rated R: Violence, Language and Nudity

I actually went to a movie theater to see this movie when it came out. I must've been 13 years old or something and I hadn't seen the movie until last night, for the 1st time in over 25 years! There were really very, very few things I remembered about the movie, except that the bad guy was the Antichrist reborn. I am sorry to say that FEAR NO EVIL has NOT aged well at all. The premise is interesting: a trinity of angels/priests are sent to earth to stop the Antichrist from reigning supreme on his coming. That's as interesting as this movie gets, because the story is rendered with sub-par FX, god awful acting and extremely boring movie. You have to remember that FEAR NO EVIL came out at the height of the slasher movie craze: Friday THE 13th, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, MANIAC, PROM NIGHT, etc. so it had to compete with all this profitable (if not very interesting) movies. For bloodhounds, FEAR NO EVIL will be very tame, and the few blood scenes are so badly made you wish they were never filmed at all. I bought this DVD out of nostalgia only. Some of the movies I've seen as a kid have held up well (MANIAC, Excalibur, ALTERED STATES), but FEAR NO EVIL should have been left in oblivion. Maybe the producer is friends with the people at ANCHOR BAY. Why this trash was ever released on DVD is beyond me, while other MUCH, MUCH worthy movies (like Ken Rusell's THE DEVILS)are left to their hard-to-find VHS versions. View under your own risk!