Evil Town (1985) User Reviews

Saved by boobies

[Tikkin · 4/10 · 28 April 2006]

The most interesting thing about Evil Town was most definitely the presence of breasts, big huge bouncing breasts at that. I couldn't stop laughing when the woman is being chased through the forest and as she runs, her boobs wobble up and down like a yo-yo. There's plenty of shots of them too. After this is over the story soon gets dull. The deaths are goreless and the plot seems to be going nowhere...until the end, when all is revealed.

The overall story is vaguely interesting, but it's the sort of thing that's been done before. I notice someone else described this as a zombie film, which is untrue. There are no zombies to be found at all. The only good things going for Evil Town are breasts, as mentioned, and a fairly good musical score.

Forget it, Jake. It's Evil Town!

[Kastore · 4/10 · 26 April 2001]

At least that's how I was hoping this movie would end. I managed to NOT absolutely hate this movie, although the rental synopsis was misleading. The only reason I tried "Evil Town" was my weakness for zombie movies, and this movie promised to be about a doctor who creates an army of the living dead. Not quite.

I regard "Evil Town" as an ultra-cheap "Pulp Fiction" of B-grade horror movies. It basically has three plots, all involving the same group of people in a sleepy town. (If anything, watch this one to see the sign in the opening minute of the movie - Smalltown, Pop. 666, Elev. 13) One plot involves two perverts who get a kick out of kidnapping girls who are passing through. Another is about an escaped patient from the local hospital. And the third and major plot is about the aforementioned doctor performing experiments at the same hospital, creating an army of the brain-dead who don't end up doing anything anyway.

So the acting is terrible. So the gore is non-existent. So the directing is flat and talentless. (The movie had 3 - count 'em, three - directors!) So the entire thing could be made by a group of friends and their immediate families. Hey, I know I've never seen a movie involving a town of rampaging senior citizens! If you want to see a movie where the only thing that sets the hero apart from all the other characters is his willingness to beat up old people, I say give "Evil Town" a quick view.

Gave me an evil headache...

[Coventry · 3/10 · 3 October 2022]

Somewhere in the mid-90s, when I was actually too young for it, I read a terrifying book entitled "Darkness" by John Saul. The plot, if I remember correctly, was about a community of elderly people that structurally extracted a serum from the younger inhabitants and passers-by to maintain their own youthfulness. Back then already, I thought about how cool it must be if there existed a horror film version of this book.

Of course, the idea has been used in horror films already, and apparently even long before "Darkness" got published in 1991. Today I found out that "Evil Town" also features a very reminiscent plot, but despite the enormous potential, it's one of the worst and most boring horror movies of the 80s (and that's saying something).

"Evil Town" can only be described as hectic, unstructured, and hopelessly inept. What do you expect from a film that has three different directors and four different scriptwriters? What started out in the early 70s as a good idea by a promising young director (Curtis "L. A. Confidential" Hanson) quickly ended up in production hell and oblivion, until it was picked up again during the 80s and expanded with gratuitous nudity and dull sub plots. The nudity, primarily provided by voluptuous Lynda Wiesmeier, still stands as the highlight of the film; - even though shot quite distastefully. The essence of the story, namely the mad doctor and his rejuvenating serum, is totally ruined by the lack of tension, the absence of half-decent special effects, and by the actor (Dean Jagger) who can't even pronounce simple medical terms correctly.

lynda exposing her top charms once more....

[wildpeace10 · 4/10 · 9 December 2007]

This is a film where former playboy playmate lynda wiesmeier exposes her wonderful breasts once more after WHEELS OF FIRE two years previously.

So if you're searching for that kind of stuff you may be satisfied but pass the film's first 20 minutes you won't find anymore nudity even though the story still concerns the kidnapping of other women.

After reading the other comments,i was expecting a worst movie than it is but it's STILL pretty bad.

One of the highlights is a scene (about at 64 minutes after 20 minutes of dullness)where this doctor with an accent is explaining his medical experiments to the james keach character but it's pretty short and the ending of this film(which isn't even 90 minutes)is unsatisfying and makes you ask: is that all?is that it?

Some of the acting(lynda is alright but there's just something wrong with this keach character)is pretty terrible and unconvincing but perhaps it has to do with a shoestring budget.The music is pretty terrible too because it doesn't fit with the film's themes.

The scenes featuring Lynda gets a 3 and the doctor's explanation & performance gets a 1.

Evil has no business in this town...

[Vomitron_G · 2/10 · 9 February 2009]

Awful, wretched and plain lousy... Apparently this film was cut together from the remains of three unfinished films??? Maybe you wouldn't guess it right away (there's plenty of films out there that are an incoherent mess), but the ending really makes the film look like it was never finished.

While extremely painful and super-boring to sit through, here's a few laughs I had:

-- There's this blond bimbo (apparantly an ex-playmate) that keeps on running topless during the first act of the movie. And boy, look at those big cahoocha's! You'd say the director would show some respect and love when filming those two wonders of nature, but one "smoochy"-scene has her pressing her naked breasts against her boyfriend's chest in such a way that they just look plain wrong. Like one of them is mutated, or something. Best part has her running topless through the woods: bounce, wobble, shake, bump!

-- There's a couple of scenes in which old people drug a young couple and fight with a young dude... all in slow-motion! They wave syringes, they get kicked in the face, fall on the ground, wrestle with the young dude... all in slow-motion!

-- You'll never believe the town's evil doctor! Not only he can't act, he also has a speech-problem of sorts. The guy just can't articulate and stutters his every line. "Pituitary gland" comes out sounding "Patwooatwy gland" and even a simple word like "country" sounds like "cµntwee".

And will you listen to that downright abominable and most inappropriate music on the soundtrack...

EVIL TOWN is one of the worst "small town with a secret"-horror films I've ever seen. Oh, and in case you're wondering: There's no zombies in it.

Two points for those cahoocha's as they always come in pairs. And that's it.

* out of 4.

[brandonsites1981 · 20 August 2002]

Wretched film was the result of three (or two) unfinished films being edited together in order to create one film. The final results are a choppy and dull. What little plot there is, is about a crazed doctor bringing the dead back to life in order to create an army of zombies in a small town. Virtually no gore is present in this so called zombie outing and the film doesn't even entertain in a so bad it's good way. One of the absolute worst horror films to ever be made. Rated R.

Attack of the Geriatrics!

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 11 January 2016]

From what I understand this film was actually started in 1984 and completed in 1987. However, it used segments of other films which were produced earlier such as "God Bless Dr. Shagetz" and I suppose this is the reason "Evil Town" carries a production date of 1977. Regardless, this movie is essentially about a scientist named "Dr. Schaeffer" (Dean Jagger) who has invented a serum extracted from the pituitary gland which can extend a person's life. This is great news for the elderly residents of the small town who benefit from Dr. Schaeffer's research. Unfortunately, it is terrible news for any unlucky travelers who have the misfortune to stop there for gas as they are subsequently abducted and used as donors. This results in their becoming mindless creatures who are incapable of supporting themselves. That's not to say that they are necessarily "zombies" but rather poor souls who are reduced to a semi-vegetative state. As such, I don't consider this to be a "zombie movie" by any current standard. In any case, although the movie certainly had potential, there really wasn't any great horror or suspense which might have made this movie stand out and as a result I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Evil Town

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 20 March 2021]

This movie is a mess and I love it. A glorious four director thrown together junkfest that started filming in 1984, as well as containing footage coming from an unfinished Dean Jagger movie made a decade before, God Bless Dr. Shagetz. Then, to spice things up, Gary Graver's wife - and Fonzie's girlfriend Lorraine - Jillian Kesner-Graver and Playboy Playmate of the Month for June 1982, Lynda Wiesmeier, show up for the "foreign sales."

A group of four friends end up in a small town where young people just happen to disappear, all because there are some old folks using young folks to become young folks again.

One of the directors of this movie, Mardi Rustam, liked the idea so much that he made his own take on it and that would be Evils of the Night, which may be the better movie and definitely came out two years before this one finally got completed. That said, how many movies have an evil Hope Summers from The Andy Griffith Show?

Idea was good.

[Sergiodave · 3/10 · 21 October 2020]

This movie is for B horror movie lovers only. The idea of the film is really good, though the execution is awful. The acting is terrible, though you might recognise a few actors. Dean Jagger, who plays the evil doctor looks the spitting image of Arthur C Clarke, which in itself is creepy. Surprised this hasn't been remade, in the right hands it could be good.

Shoddy horror pic

[lor_ · 22 March 2023]

My review was written in November 1987 after watching the film on Trans World Entertainment video cassette.

"Evil Town" is a perfunctory horror thriller, which began production in 1984 and is notable mainly for the oddity of four directors credited with shooting it. Pic is a direct-to-home-video title.

Vet talent includes Dean Jagger as a mild scientist doing aging research involving the pituitary gland, which requires human organ donors. Various inhabitants of the remote village Smalltown (population: 666) help out by capturing unwary tourists and travelers, knocking them out and delivering them to Jagger's clinic.

James Keach is a young doctor out camping with his girlfriend and another couple, whom Jagger tries to shanghai to become his research assistant. Ultimately, Keach and his girl escape, Jagger is killed and the clinic patients riot. Film seems unfinished, with unsatisfactory stock footage in place of an ending.

Standard slasher horror film action to dispatch a series of young campers is highlighted by very lengthy topless scenes by former Playboy model Lynda Wiesmeier, obviously constituting the pic's potential draw in pay-cable showings. Tech credits are weak and fans of Jagger or other vets like Regis Toomey and Dabbs Greer will be disappointed by their work here.