Artist, Marjorie Worden (Sandy Dennis- GOD TOLD ME TO), her husband Paul (Darren McGavin- TV's THE NIGHT STALKER, and THE NIGHT STRANGLER), and their son, Stevie (Johnny Whitaker) have taken up residence in an old farm house. Here, Marjorie can work on her art projects in peace. It doesn't take long for her to notice some odd things, but she tries to overlook them. When people start dying, Marjorie is uneasy and Paul is unconvinced. At a party, the Wordens are introduced to demonologist, Harry Lincoln (Ralph Bellamy- THE WOLF MAN, ROSEMARY'S BABY), and in no time, Marjorie is painting a huge, protective pentacle on the floor of the kids' bedroom! Of course, the fact that she's been hearing a baby crying in the barn at night, could be partially to blame. The further Marjorie goes in her investigation into the occult, the weirder everything seems to get. As for the crying, suffice it to say that Marjorie makes a terrifying, bewildering discovery! The rest is a fairly basic possession story, w/ devilish forces aplenty. Marjorie grows increasingly anxious, feeling that eeevil spirits are making mischief. Paul is ever-skeptical, having no time or tolerance for any foolishness. More otherworldly events unfold, causing Marjorie to doubt her own sanity. This culminates in the rather anti-climactic, supernatural showdown. A fairly solid made-for-TV horror movie by Steven Spielberg that -sort of- prefigures POLTERGEIST. Watch for Roger Corman regular, Bruno VeSota and Spielberg himself as party guests!...

SOMETHING EVIL goes to prove that not all American TV horror movies of the 1970s are great. This one's an unusually lacklustre effort that tells an all-too-familiar tale of demons and possession, and for once the low budget works against it. The story isn't too shabby, acting as an interesting precursor to the likes of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and written by ENTER THE DRAGON director Robert Clouse, of all people.No, the problem here is Steven Spielberg, directing this very early on in his career as a follow up to his cult classic DUEL. Well, DUEL was much better, and Spielberg feels out of place, uneasy with the material, unsure of himself and playing it safe throughout. The result is a film that's oddly uninvolving and one which only gets going in the last few minutes.The storyline sees a family renting a farmhouse out in the Pennsylvania countryside only to discover that something sinister lurks within. Darren McGavin is a welcome presence as the husband but is underutilised, while the viewer has to contend with the shrill acting of the miscast Sandy Dennis for most of the running time. The less said about the annoying red-haired kid the better. SOMETHING EVIL is a shallow film that seems too afraid to properly tackle its storyline; weak sauce at best, and unsurprisingly forgotten by its director.

I never heard of this movie before, I had no idea that Steven Spielberg, was one who work in this low budget movie.It's was not bad movie, this were some good spooky moment in the movie, the baby crying was creepy at first but then got annoying as goes on for bit to long,There are some scenes in this movie, which are ALL MOST the as is other movie that made 10 years later Poltergeist. (Is little Girl in both movies)This movie was little short, i Thought, ending, it felt the story still going, then about then second later the credits are rolling,I felt there should have been a little aftermath of just happened but no! The acting well, the both good and bad, this was a TV movie. Worth watching

It's almost unfair to judge this film by today's standards. A) it's a TV movie; B) It's a TV HORROR movie; C) It's a TV horror movie from the '70s. All of these factors combine to literally guarantee that it doesn't have the fright factor of the classic theatrical horror from that era. Sure, there were some creepy TV movies in the '70s, but none had the intensity or the special effects to blow you out of your seat. "Drag Me to Hell," this ain't.Let's face it...if you've gone to the trouble to hunt this one down on You Tube or on bootleg VHS, you've done so to get a glimpse of Spielberg's guerrilla-style movie-making from his early, hungry days. And on that score, "Something Evil" doesn't disappoint. Say what you will about Steve-o's stuff of recent years, back then his films were FUN. ESPECIALLY for film buffs.He didn't just throw in fancy camera-work to draw attention to itself. It always had a purpose, it always had subtext, and it always was original. Take the scene where Whittaker is bouncing the ball against the house. Spielberg clocks the pace with the maddening repetitiveness of a metronome as Dennis does a simultaneous freak-out, smashing the ceramic pentacles she's making to pieces. Her subsequent violent rage against the young actor, even though shot tastefully from a distance, is truly disturbing. Mission accomplished. Ditto for the sly scene where Dennis peers terrified from her kitchen door at a young man, the door chain links neatly overlaying his eyes, like ominous glasses.And even though the mason jar, baby-crying gag is a bit absurd, the way it's shot is so masterful, it draws you in and creeps you out. Again, this is not a wham-bang thriller, but it definitely has its moments of uneasiness. I wasn't bored. If you like Spielberg's early TV work and "Duel," in particular, check it out.