Evil Judgment (1984) Online

Due mainly to the huge amount of slasher films released during the golden period, many struggled to find an audience and rapidly vanished without recognition. Although the likes of 'Movie House Massacre' and 'Click: The Calendar Girl Killer' were perhaps deserving of such a fate, the excellent 'Terror Night' and the two 'BloodStreams' (both 1985 and 2000 respectively) proved to be worthy of a more prominent status.

As I have said before, 1981 was a fine year for fans of slasher movies. Not only were enthusiasts treated to a sequel for the outstanding Halloween, which was arguably the movie that started it all; but also they were given excellent features such as Small Town Massacre, Friday the 13th Part 2, The Prowler, My Bloody Valentine and Tobe Hooper's Funhouse. In my opinion it was perhaps the best and most lucrative year for the cycle and it is reported that over 60% of box office receipts were from slasher flicks.

Evil Judgement was also completed in 1981, but missed out on the chance to become a part of the peak year influx, due to post-production problems, which have remained undisclosed. The movie sat on the shelves for 3 years and was released direct to video in 1984. Usually such a fate is reserved only for the worst of entries (Twisted Nightmare anybody?), so initially the signs were unconvincing for this Canadian effort.

Everything kicks-off in a formulaic region as an unidentified patient escapes an asylum, murdering a doctor and an unsuspecting orderly along the way. Next up we meet our un-archetypal heroine, Janet (Pamela Collyer), who is hardly the virginal tom-boy that so often dictates the stereotype for a female protagonist in a slasher movie. Working in a grimy café really begins to get her down and so after much convincing, she decides to accompany her friend, who is an expensive prostitute, on a money-spinning night of erotica. Janet's prostitution debut doesn't go specifically as planned, because an unseen maniac turns up on site and attempts, albeit unsuccessfully, to murder her. Despite his failure to relieve us of our leading lady, the killer does manage to slaughter both her friend April (Nanette Workman) and their unfortunate client.

The killer realises that he has left a surviving eye-witness and begins to stalk Janet throughout the rest of the feature, gorily slaughtering everyone that gets in his way. Numerous twists and turns in the plot keep the audience guessing until the surprising conclusion…..

Evil Judgement has become something of an obscurity and is rarely mentioned in the same breath as titles such as Prom Night or My Bloody Valentine. It's a real shame, because actually Castravelli's slasher is one of the better peak-year murder-mysteries. The film's strengths lie in the ambition of its synopsis and an excellent characteristic performance from Jack Langedijk as the anti-hero Dino. Despite an obviously low-budget production, the director manages to build an immensely atmospheric puzzle, which includes characters that break the stereotypical slasher clichés. The story enters realms of the unknown in terms of plot development (how many slashers can you name that mix Mafioso with a demented psychopath?) and it deserves credit for its flair for the ambitious.

Judgement is not a gore film like so many that populated the genre at this point in the period, but there's something notably gruesome in the manner that the killer dispatches his victims. The murders are bloody and the camera never shies away from the graphic corpses. Some may argue that more creativity was needed in the slaughters – every victim suffers a gooey throat slashing - but with that said, Castravelli excels in building tension and the stalking scenes in the mansion are memorable for their level of suspense. Mixing a few decent shocks with a talent for building a Gothic atmosphere, the movie makes the most of its plus-points and rarely struggles to keep up a comfortable momentum.

Whilst Jack Langedijk is excellent as the charismatic Dino, Pamela Collyer is irredeemably poor as the one-toned Janet. At times the feature falls prey to a lack of lighting, which is usually a big negative for slasher flicks, but in places it actually works in favour for Evil Judgement. The film is also surprisingly cheesy, which is a strong selling point to many eighties retro fans. The hilarious OTT fashions are fun and it's a slice of nostalgia that I found to be a refreshing reminder of the decade of decadence.

Its lack of a fan-base means that Evil Judgement may never see the light of day on DVD, but if you still own a VHS player, then I recommend that you give this one a shot. Compelling and alluring, Castravelli's part slasher/part crime movie is well worth a revisit.

This was actually an OK film! The character development was a little sloppy, but the plot was actually complex and kept my interest. Janet, a blonde waitress, is trying to make it as a dancer in the big city, but the money just isn't flowing fast enough. Her prozzy friend April suggests she try hooking because she can make an entire week's salary in one night. What?! I had to put my knitting down when I heard that. An entire week!? And to think I've just been giving it away. Janet's first night as a proz turns into a nightmare when her friend and current john are murdered, apparently by a mad man with Mother Mary complex who must punish the impure. A subplot involving the mafia and a corrupt police is also presented, yadda yadda, but back to my new found entrepreneurial idea.... A whole week's salary!? As shown in this fine film, the only possible drawback would be being murdered whilst on the job. But if I were to show my Red Umbrella/SWOP membership card, I'm sure I could avoid any trouble.

Looking at the cheesy cover, one could be forgiven for immediately passing off Evil Judgement as just a typical bottom of the barrel slasher from the years when studios were knocking them out faster than the time it takes to boil an egg. Seriously, this manages to pull itself clear from the mediocrity that engulfed its counterparts from 1984, by providing an intriguing mystery that works superbly with some bloody throat-slicings and some (always) enjoyable inadvertent humour. I thought I'd describe what I found that so aroused my curiosities by giving you a complete spoiler-free run down of the plot…

It begins in an asylum. A doctor enters a (somewhat cushy) ‘cell' to find his patient sprawled across the floor unconscious. The medic helps him back into bed and whilst his attentions are elsewhere, the madman's eyes open and he grabs the practitioner around the throat and strangles him. All this is intercut with a leggy young blonde doing some gratuitous aerobics in a skin-tight leotard at the window of her flat. Anyway, Back to the nut-nut, that's managed to pinch the deceased guy's clothes and a handy scalpel from his bag. He legs it out of the institute slicing the throat of an unfortunately suspicious orderly as he goes.

Next we meet the attractive starlet from earlier for the first time. Her name is Janet (Pamela Collyer) and she works in a grubby café that you really wouldn't want to visit if you were in the area. This fact is proved by an old humbug that believes the swarthy Greek owner's soup tastes exactly like piddle! He makes a point by standing up and urinating in the bowl, justifying himself with the classic line, `If you're gonna sell p**s, then sell p**s!' The grumpy manager, that was leading me to believe that he was the real maniac at this point, chases out the scruffy vagabond with a meat cleaver for his troubles! All this is watched by our sure to be ‘surviving girl' and her abruptly tempered boyfriend Deano (Jack Langedyk). Deano is an Italian ‘wise guy' that looks as if he arrived at the wrong film set and was sorely missed from the Mafioso flick that was shooting in the studio down the road. He really explodes when Jan's prostitute buddy, April arrives (Nanette Workman) and confidently joins the couple's conversation. He lets his feelings be known by hissing, `Where I come from, they strap hookers to a mule and then run them out of town.' April hits back with the amusing comeback, `Is that how your mother got to America?' Deano looks like he's going to dish out the third slaying of the movie, but Janet defuses the situation and he leaves with his tale between his legs. Now the women are alone, the gap-toothed strumpet tries twisting our youngsters arm and getting her to join her in prostitution for a double act, with the invitation, `You could earn more in one night that you do here in a month!' When Janet still rebuffs her, April decides an example of how she can make a killing just from her dance skills alone, is the only way to win her over. Hitting play on a randomly placed beat-box the two women jump up on a table in the middle of the restaurant and get down and boogie! (Now I really was confused. Who was supposed to be the psycho again?) They're watched grooving by pedestrians that pass by the window, that look as baffled as I felt!

After a particularly poorly staged sex-scene (I'm not an advocate of gratuitous sex in a movie, but hey, this sucked!), our two lovebirds from earlier lay in bed, where their pillow talk gets back to the trouble-making hooker from earlier on. Just mentioning her triggers Deano into a blind rage again and he throws the somewhat puzzled youngster out of his flat with nothing but a blanket to cover her modesty. (!) `It's the middle of the night!' Cries Janet in a bid to reason with her ferocious lover. `And it's also the end of the show' he replies solemnly! With nowhere to go, she heads round to her buddy's place, who finally convinces her to come along to her next job telling her it's a `real old coot… that looks more than he touches'. The next day, they arrive at a massive mansion, but Janet looks incredibly nervous. April tries comforting her, `If you don't like it, I know a great surgeon that'll give you back your virginity!' They knock on the door and ‘SHOCK', the psycho with a scalpel from earlier answers! There's no sign of a razor blade and he really doesn't look demented! What's going on? Hmmm Indeed! Before they get down to any actual prostitution, they share a dinner and some wine, in which the mood is set by conversation on the topic of Jack the Ripper. The old guy – that looks suspiciously like the madman we saw at the beginning - won't reveal his true identity, because, well…we never find out! After the meal, Jane is still trembling and doesn't want to go through with it, so her buddy gives her a (ecstasy?) pill, saying, `It'll make you feel like the sun is shinning.' It doesn't really help, she still has cold feet, but that doesn't prevent her from flashing her breasts at the old codger, who pervily remarks, `nice… very nice!' Just as the wrinkly begins to believe all his birthdays have come at once, all the lights are mysteriously cut and April comments, `looks like you blew a fuse already!' He heads downstairs to fix the problem, but bumps into an unseen maniac with heavy breath and black gloves, making those two the last prostitutes that he'll ever enjoy! When he doesn't come back, things sail back into the traditional slasher cliches, when April's next to go downstairs alone, now looking like a prize contender for the chop. Time goes by and when neither of the characters returns, Janet heads off to investigate and finds them both staggering around with their throats gruesomely slashed! They choke to death on the floor in front of her (rather messily may I add) and there's a short battle between the unseen killer and our survivor that ends in him grabbing her identification before chasing her outside…

She awakes in hospital the morning after with her wrists in bandages. It looks as if the psycho sliced them before leaving her to die in a ditch, but luckily the cops found her. Detective Armstrong is standing over her, but he doesn't believe the tales of murder and throat slashings, thinking that she just got drugged up and tried taking her own life. `You're nothing but a two-bit whore, I dunno what I'm doing here, and I'm wasting my time.' He says compassionately (!) before storming out of the hospital.

Next up we catch up with Deano, whose busy planning jobs with another hustler that looks like he's seen one too many Anthony Quinn movies! Meanwhile, showing some amazing recovery kills, Janet returns to the café that she works in to resume her job. Her extremely unsympathetic boss tells her she's sacked, because, `she might try killing herself and the cops would come around'. (!) Poor, Poor Janet! She heads off to find the Italian Stallion, but just before she leaves, the maniac, who has obviously seen Halloween and copies the routine ‘anonymous phone calls', before climbing through an open window and trying to murder her, stalks her. She escapes and makes it round to Deano's flat, but mysteriously he isn't home, so she breaks in and decides a gratuitous shower should calm her down! Our wise-guy returns and he must've taken a brief anger management course, because all of a sudden he's really interested in the petrified youngster's story and decides to help her uncover the truth.

Things head more for the mystery direction now, with clues and shocks that I won't spoil for you, except to say that an unsuspecting cop ends up bloodily dispatched and so does an unlucky maid that also looses a hand! After a few fairly decent plot twists, the killer finally captures Janet at the café that she got fired from, where after a false cat scare, he murders her workmate. The killer reveals himself for the final showdown and the unfortunate female is left all alone with the psycho-assassin…

I actually really liked Evil Judgement. Yes, it's a shoddy B-movie with a synthesizer score that sounds like Lucifer wrote it whilst he was burning in the eternal flames of hell, but the addition of an intriguing mystery makes it stand out from the typical slasher crowd. The performances are mainly weak; perhaps the only exception was Jack Langedyk, who was actually fairly convincing. But the plot manages to rise above the layman cast members and there's also some bloody slayings. It may not be for everyone, it is perhaps a little under-produced, but I was rather impressed and if you're a fan of the genre, I believe that you will be too!