Good Against Evil & Satan's School for Girls

Rating:
Summary: TV Excorcist
Review: A couple's child is posseseed by the devil. Hardly original this made-for-TV movie at least explored the Excorcist theme when The Exorcist was only available at movie theaters.
Now it is a bit of nostalgia. A highlight is Dan O'Hearly playing the priest.
At times its kind of funny like when furniture flies at the priest trying to excorcise the demon. It looked like people out of camera range were throwing things away from the priest. Does the Devil have extremely bad aim?
Still if you like old '70s horror like I do, you'll enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: TV Excorcist
Review: A couple's child is posseseed by the devil. Hardly original this made-for-TV movie at least explored the Excorcist theme when The Exorcist was only available at movie theaters.
Now it is a bit of nostalgia. A highlight is Dan O'Hearly playing the priest.
At times its kind of funny like when furniture flies at the priest trying to excorcise the demon. It looked like people out of camera range were throwing things away from the priest. Does the Devil have extremely bad aim?
Still if you like old '70s horror like I do, you'll enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Dull tedium best left forgotten
Review: Being a fan of occult films this looked like a bargain to me. Not one but TWO films on one disc for one low price. Oh boy! And one of them looked like it couldn't help but be a lot of fun because it featured a couple of Charlie's Angels.

But unfortunately instead of being scary, entertaining or even cheesy in a schlocky, good kind of way, all these two 1970s made-for-TV movies ended up being is just plain BO-ring.

As soon as I got this I couldn't wait to check out "Satan's School For Girls". In this 1973 movie made a few years before Charlie's Angels got started Cheryl Ladd is still a teenager. She and Kate Jackson are joined here by Roy Thinnes of 60's TV sci-fi classic "The Invaders" fame, as well as that staple character actor of evil/snobbish/shady types on 70s TV, Lloyd Bochner.

But the script is so weak and simplistic it's laughable. A girl's sister inexplicably commits suicide so the girl (not Jackson or Ladd but some unknown actress) goes to the school posing as a new student to investigate. Jackson befriends her, and Cheryl Ladd plays a minor character barely in the movie at all. Don't want to spoil what pitifully little surprise the predictable plot has, so just let me say how this dull script ever got made is beyond me. My comment on this one is "where's the story?" A total waste of time, even for Charlie's Angels fans. It just put me to sleep.

Next I tried 1977's "Good Against Evil". A wee bit more substance here, but I didn't enjoy this one either because I found the main character so terribly annoying.

The premise of the film is that a 20-ish fashion designer in San Francisco is actually a child conceived and raised by Satanists in order to bear the Devil's child. Of course she is unaware of this, and any boyfriends she has made in the past mysteriously keep meeting with fatal accidents. Then along comes her latest extra sappy boyfriend, a goody two-shoes type played by Dack Rambo, who I immediately developed a strong dislike for.

He becomes the main character in the film, and it is never explained just why he does not meet with an unnatural death like the previous boyfriends. Perennial bad-guy actor Richard Lynch plays his nemesis, sinister Satanist Mr. Rimmin.

It is clear that this movie was developed in response to some TV exec's desire to have a TV series to cash in on the then-recent success of "The Exorcist" and the subsequent occult interest boom that it spawned. Thus this movie even comes complete with its own white-haired, Scandinavian-accented exorcist priest -- a total Max Von Sydow rip-off.

But between the very draggy plot and the very annoying main character, I found myself fast-forwarding through much of this film. In typical TV series pilot movie fashion the ending is left open, allowing for the possibility of the boyfriend and the priest's adventures continuing. But thankfully the networks saw fit to spare us that hellish fate and never went on to produce what would have been one yawner of a series.

As for the DVD, the prints of both of these films are in terrible faded and scratched shape.

Overall, I would advise staying far, far away from both of these worthless and unremarkable films. But if your curiosity still has the better of you, I would recommend renting rather than buying, since I am now left with a DVD of 2 movies which I don't really feel like ever watching again. Even one viewing was too much of a waste of time!







Rating:
Summary: Wow, Satan Sure Was BUSY In The '70s!
Review: GOOD AGAINST EVIL was a made for tv pilot film for a series that never got off the ground. It's sort of an emasculated hybrid of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. A baby is conceived through ritual rape, taken from her mother, offered to the devil, and raised by a secret group of satanists. As an adult (played by Elyssa Davalos), she is protected by those around her, oblivious to the fact that they are planted agents of satan. Along comes a guy (Dack Rambo) to fall in love with her and mess things up. Of course, the devil-folks (led by snakey Richard Lynch) don't take kindly to the idea, and set out to split them up by any means necessary. They kidnap the girl and take her to an undisclosed location. Meanwhile, a little girl gets demon possessed and draws Rambo's character to her. The girl just happens to be the daughter of his ex-girlfriend (played by none other than Kim Catrall), who tries to rekindle a romance with him, while getting an exorcism for her daughter! Dan O'Herlihy (Halloween 3, Robocop) is the exorcist. Unforunately, we'll never know how things turned out, as the series was never made. -SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS is a cheesey little gem, starring 2/3 of Charlies Angels (Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd)! A woman enrolls in the Salem Academy For Women after her sister is found hanging in her livingroom. Her sleuthing leads her to believe that one of the professors is killing girls (she finds out that others have committed "suicide" too) and making it look like they killed themselves. However, things are not as they appear. Something far more sinister is taking place at the academy! And I'm not just talking about the ultra-groovey '70s fashions either! All in all, a decent double feature...

Rating:
Summary: TV Excorcist Good Against Evil
Review: GOOD AGAINST EVIL: A couple's child is posseseed by the devil. Hardly original this made-for-TV movie at least explored the Excorcist theme when The Exorcist was only available at movie theaters.
Now it is a bit of nostalgia. A highlight is Dan O'Hearly playing the priest.
At times its kind of funny like when furniture flies at the priest trying to excorcise the demon. It looked like people out of camera range were throwing things away from the priest. Does the Devil have extremely bad aim?
Still if you like old '70s horror like I do, you'll enjoy it.
SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS: This is OK but hardly scary. Kate Jackson plays a witch in a girl's school that isn't quite what it seems. Roy Thinnes also stars. Passable time filler. Definately no SUSPIRIA (although the movie was made before Dario Argento's masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: TV Excorcist Good Against Evil
Review: GOOD AGAINST EVIL: A couple's child is posseseed by the devil. Hardly original this made-for-TV movie at least explored the Excorcist theme when The Exorcist was only available at movie theaters.
Now it is a bit of nostalgia. A highlight is Dan O'Hearly playing the priest.
At times its kind of funny like when furniture flies at the priest trying to excorcise the demon. It looked like people out of camera range were throwing things away from the priest. Does the Devil have extremely bad aim?
Still if you like old '70s horror like I do, you'll enjoy it.
SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS: This is OK but hardly scary. Kate Jackson plays a witch in a girl's school that isn't quite what it seems. Roy Thinnes also stars. Passable time filler. Definately no SUSPIRIA (although the movie was made before Dario Argento's masterpiece.