Good Against Evil (1977 TV Movie) User Reviews

I congratulate whoever pulled the plug on the television series

[bensonmum2 · 3/10 · 12 October 2005]

It's a romantic story that's as old as time – boy meets girl, but girl is destined to wed Satan. Seriously, that's pretty much the whole plot. A girl is born and raised to make the perfect bride for Satan. Her whole life has been carefully planned and mapped-out for her. So when love enters her life, those who have worked to protect her must put a stop to this new threat.

Good Against Evil is a 70s television movie that looks like a 70s television movie. Acting, sets, and other technical aspects are just what you would expect if you grew up in the 70s huddled around the television waiting for the Movie of the Week. Most everything in the movie is safe and sanitized and ready for general consumption. The exorcism scene, the supposed highlight of the movie, is subdued in comparison with others that have been dramatized on film. In fact, the whole movie could be described as subdued. It's incredibly slow-paced and predictable. It doesn't take a psychic to spot the twists and turns in the plot. And the ending is about as jarring a finale as I've seen. It seems that Good Against Evil was meant to become a regular, weekly television series. So the movie just abruptly ends with several unanswered questions and was to be continued in the next episode. The problem is there never was a next episode.

The exception to almost everything I've written is the opening scene of the baby girl's birth and the death of her mother. In comparison with what follows, it's quite creepy. It's a dreamlike sequence that doesn't look or feel like the rest of the movie. Had the movie followed the tone of the opening set-piece, it might have been a much better movie.

Where's The Child!

[sol-kay · 4/10 · 17 December 2007]

****SPOILERS**** Off the wall but still very watchable, because of the films unintentional humor, horror movie that has to do with a future virgin bride of Satan, or Asterof as he's called here, Jennifer Gordon( Elyssa Davelous) who's in danger of losing her way by falling in love, and thus losing her virginity, with a mare mortal the handsome and not taking no for an answer Andy Stuart, Dack Rambo.

Were given a prologue in the film with a scene that takes place in New York City back in 1955 with this what seems like a very disturbed woman, Jenny O'Hara, going through labor and giving birth to what turned out to be Jennifer Gordon. Within minutes of giving birth the woman is killed as she falls down a flight of stairs when she's attacked by a black cat! This mysterious feline shows up in the movie, being responsible for at least two more deaths, a number of times including the films surprise ending.

It's now 22 years later and in the city of San Francisco that we see Jennifer working at a boutique and then running into Andy Stuart who ran his van into Jennifer's parked car. Romance blossoms between the two star-struck lovers until Andy takes Jennifer out for a ride, on horses, and is attacked by the same black cat that attacked and killed her mother at the start of the film. This time around the black Cat killed, by causing him to be trampled to death, one of the Satanists a Mr. Brown, Richard Stahl, who's assigned to look after Jeniffer's safety.

Having absolutely no clue in what he got himself into Andy goes to a local church and asks the preacher Father Wheatley, John Harkins, to marry him and Jennifer as soon as possible. It turns out that Father Weathley is on to who Jennifer really is, The Bride of Satan! Father Weathley not only refuses to marry Jennifer and Andy but if fact tells Andy to get help by having Jennifer exorcised by his fellow Catholic Priest and exorcist expert Father Kemschler, Dan O'Herlihy.

Things really start to get wild when Jennifer realized that she's been groomed to be Satan's Bride and breaks up with the by now totally confused Andy. Andy himself soon sees how wrong he was in not taking Father Wheatley advice when he goes to his church finding the place ransacked with Father Weatley both dead and hanging from the church's bell tower! The movie then takes a totally different turn, with an entirely new storyline, in what the Devil and his secretive followers are really up to.

Andy now knowing what he has to do after he read a story about a child being possessed by the Devil in the local newspaper and rushes down to New Orleans. It's there where not only the child Cindy Isley, Natasha Ryan, is hospitalized after she was attacked by our old friend the black cat but her divorced mother Linday Isley, Kim Cattrall, just happened to be an old friend, or lover, of Andy! What a small world!

The ending is about as good if not even better then you would have expected it to be with Father Kemschler coming out of his corner swinging punches at the Devil in an effort to save Cindy's soul as well as her life. With Cindy's bedroom in total chaos with books chairs tables and toys flying in all directions, as well as what seems like elephants trumpeting in the background, Father Kemscher has a life and death struggle with the Devil himself who's disguised as a pillow!

It's then that what seems like the head honcho of the Sanatic cult Rimmin, Richard Lynch, involved with Jennifer, who by then completely disappeared from the movie,calls it quits and goes off looking for another candidate, a new bride, for his master Satan. That's if his master decides to give Rimmin another chance to redeem himself! ****SPOILER****The film ends with the threat of a sequel in that the very annoying and deadly black cat pops up again but now after thirty years that threat can finally be discounted.

Rambo Against Satan

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 22 June 2008]

"A young couple is forced to confront the ultimate horror when Satan decides to claim the young woman as his own. The boyfriend consults with two priests in the hopes of getting guidance on his spiritual dilemma. The two priests in turn decide to perform an exorcism in order to rid the woman of her possession. The boyfriend and the exorcists are pitted in a battle for the woman's soul with Satan and his clan of worshipers," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

This television movie has its strengths; however, the story is very weak, and the production values do not entirely satisfy the need for horrific moments. For example, the cats perform well -- but, they are not very scary. Still, writer Jimmy Sangster and director Paul Wendkos handle the assignment well. The reason the Satanists could not simply kill the hero was one of the nicer touches (though, arguably, it's inconsistent). The unsatisfying ending suggests a sequel or series was planned. There are several fine performances.

Dack Rambo (as Andy Stuart) is quite likable in the lead role; he is very appealing as the persistent, romantic magazine writer who meets fashion designer Elyssa Davalos in San Francisco, after denting her car. Due to an opening prologue, we know Ms. Davalos is likely the woman chosen to birth the "Anti-Christ". Davalos provides the "Rosemary's Baby" recall, and Kim Cattrall (as Linda) helps add "The Exorcist" to the proceedings. Thankfully, Mr. Rambo and his co-stars stay focused on their characterizations, and don't venture "over the top".

Priestly John Harkins (as Father Wheatley) is always a welcome supporting player; he was unforgettable on "Dark Shadows", blackmailing Chris Pennock and frightening Joan Bennett; and, of course, Mr. Harkins delivered the eulogy for the dearly departed "Chuckles the Clown", causing Mary Tyler Moore's laughing fit. Priestly Dan O'Herlihy (as Father Kemschler) was a part of the "Shadows"-swipe "Dark Mansions" and essayed many memorable characters; his supporting roles in "RoboCop" and "Twin Peaks" are memorable. Devilish Richard Lynch (as Rimmin), meddling Erica Yohn (as Agnes), and resolute Peggy McCay (as Irene) are also appealing.

If only the story were better…

***** Good Against Evil (5/22/77) Paul Wendkos ~ Dack Rambo, Elyssa Davalos, Richard Lynch

Not evil... but definitely not that good!

[Wizard-8 · 15 April 2013]

This was clearly a pilot for a proposed TV series, but it seems all three American TV networks passed on making it a series. Watching it, it's pretty easy to see why there were no takers. The producers probably thought they were on a hot trend, since the movie takes elements from the recent and popular movies "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist". But this execution is sorely lacking in thrills and coherence. After an okay five minute opening taking place in the past, the movie proceeds to focus the next forty or so minutes on a romance between Elyssa Davalos and Dack Rambo, which is utterly boring when the two actors are not acting extremely obnoxious. Then the movie abruptly changes track, so much so that I was often bewildered - it seems that A LOT of key scenes of explanation are missing in the movie's second half! B movie fans will probably be disappointed that Richard Lynch is given almost nothing to do in the entire running time. It's no surprise that the movie is apparently in the public domain, since I can't see any strong fan base for this movie that would keep it in the conscious of the copyright holders.

Huh?!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 20 September 2012]

This film begins much like "Rosemary's Baby", though in this case Beelzebub apparently got a girl--a girl who grew up and had no idea she was the child of pure EVIL!! During much of the first part of the film, she is wooed by a creepy suitor (Dack Rambo)--who is supposed to be romantic because he won't take NO for an answer (I sure was getting rapist vibes from this!). Then, abruptly, the film switches and you hear nothing more about the lady after she is hypnotized! The plot changes to a child who is possessed and her mother (a young Kim Cattrall)--and the viewer is left wandering what happened to the Devil's daughter?! And, by the end of the film, you have absolutely no idea whatsoever! The film just abruptly ends!

"Good Against Evil" was apparently a failed TV series pitched by ABC. It's hard to imagine now, but with the popularity of books and films such as "The Exorcist" and "The Omen", someone at the network thought it would be a good idea to create a TV series about the fight between the followers of Satan and God. The problem is that although this MIGHT have worked, the DVD for this is amazingly unsatisfying to watch--it's not really a movie but PART of a plot for a film that was never completed. What they did show really isn't very good and since there is no ending or even a reasonable stopping point, I can't see any reason to recommend it. It literally stops as if they just ran out of film!! Not worth your time.

Boring as Hell, no pun intended

[Gafke · 2/10 · 26 February 2006]

This made for TV Exorcist rip off doesn't feature much of anything good: the acting is okay and Richard Lynch is always welcome as the Bad Guy, but the plot is nonsensical and the entire movie is sluggish and very boring.

Jessica is a strong, single woman living in San Francisco. She meets Andy when he rear ends her car and after she screams at him like a PMSing harridan for nearly five full minutes, he begins stalking her in that cutesy, romantic way that guys did back in the 70s before restraining orders got popular. Jessica finally agrees to go out with him, despite the fact that every other guy she's ever dated has mysteriously died. This doesn't discourage Andy, who decides to marry Jessica after a whirlwind three week long romance. But Jessica has already been promised to Astaroth by the evil Richard Lynch. And she has the unfortunate ability to bring shadows and cold temperatures into a church with her. A nosy priest is murdered, a few childish looking pentacles are scrawled around and a cheap dime store hypnosis gimmick is all it takes to steal Jesica away. Why Lynch didn't just keep her with him to begin with is anyone's guess. Anyway, Lynch then decides to distract Andy with an ex-girlfriend whose daughter has been inexplicably possessed by the devil...a plot twist which serves no other purpose than to showcase a very lame exorcism scene, complete with shaking bed. Nothing is resolved, nobody wins and the movie just sort of stops with several large threads still dangling in the breeze.

This is a terrible movie, which is a shame because it could have been okay. The cast is pretty decent and the acting really isn't all that bad. It's just poorly written, clumsily plotted and apparently filmed by a very depressed insomniac. Unless you're a very big fan of Lynch, or you're curious to see what Kim Cattrall was doing before writing sex books, skip this mess of a movie.

"What you call Hell, Rambo calls romance!"

[kurtmoulton · 1/10 · 21 May 2007]

Thanks to the Dollar Tree's DVD double features, I only had to pay $.50 for this '70's made-for-TV experience. With stuff like this and "The Star Wars Holiday Special", I'm surprised TVs even sold in the '70s. If nothing else, this movie serves as a representation - a time capsule, if you will - of what the decade was all about: groovy guys living in vans, Mary Tyler Moore-esquire women, and Satan. I'm not going to bother describing the movie's plot and just mention my favorite scene. It's when the hippie hanging out in the fortune telling booth gives the heroine, Jessica, her fortune and she glibly reads some pseudo-apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo about the coming of the Antichrist and the destruction of the world! Huh?! Neither she nor her mellow boyfriend find that unusual? Imagine sitting around with friends in a Chinese restaurant. You've finished dinner and everyone is opening their cookies and reading their vague but positive fortunes and you get one that prophesies the End Times. Wouldn't that raise some eyebrows? But Jessica and Andy are too much in love to be bothered by such things. This movie also stars Kim Cattrall. I didn't realize how old she is. Has she been making awful movies since the silent era?

Anyway, if you're looking for some cheesy fun for not a lot of money, I recommend digging through your local dollar store's movie bin for this and other forgotten films! I don't know if you'll be glad you did, but it's better than being ripped-off seeing a new bad movie in the theater!

Excessively Sprawling Story Cannot Be Satisfactorily Organized During Its Initial Episode.

[rsoonsa · 3/10 · 19 October 2006]

This was meant as a pilot film, being an initial sequence for a projected television series that did not come about, and it is quite clear why it was not found to be acceptable, since it is immensely uninventive, with both its format and attitudes plainly copied from William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST, released but a few years prior, and the 1968 ROSEMARY'S BABY, directed by Roman Polanski. Two primary threads are woven into the narrative, the first relating the efforts of one Mister Rimmin (Richard Lynch), who is in fact Astaroth a Grand Duke of Hell, to breed with a young woman, Jessica (Elyssa Davalos), who has been reared and protected by a coterie of Satanists from infancy through her 22nd year (the present), with an objective to produce a child that will rule the world in favour of The Forces Of Evil. Since Satan and his court, whose acolytes are legion, may readily mate with any number of women at any time that they choose, there seems to be little point in Rimmin tarrying for Jessica. However, such flaws in logic are matched with those of risible continuity issues. The second principal theme in the plot is of the soap opera variety, a blithely groundless love affair between Jessica and a young man, Andy (Dack Rambo) whose romantic role in Jessica's life upsets the Duke of Darkness no end. His attempts to interfere with the budding relationship of the young lovers is empty of those cunning components that are requisite for films of the "Thriller" genre. The original television airing was for only 72 minutes, and the reason is revealed by an ongoing spate of orchestral crescendi along with fades indicating arrival of commercial interruptions. The release in the DVD format adds about 25 minutes, with little overall improvement, because of uninspired parallel editing that fails to engage a viewer with either of the contrasting story lines. There is even an exorcism here, in spite of its having little significant connection to the narrative but rather a bit more with the Friedkin film that it partially apes. Direction seems to be unfocused, and few able acting turns are to be found; nonetheless Richard Lynch, playing Astaroth as earthling, is impressive as ever. The film ends abruptly, with some lead-in dialogue to subsequent chapters that did not occur, an unsatisfactory finish to a work that is rapidly paced, easy to watch, and easy to forget. There are a good many such minor productions being reissued with fresh packaging to cash in on the burgeoning popularity of DVDs. This one should probably have remained wherever it was mouldering.

not bad, now can we finishing filming the movie

[darciemirandadom · 4/10 · 23 December 2006]

This was not a bad effort. The movie was actually interesting and had some suspense to it. I first saw this movie years ago, and thought the TV station cut it off to go to other programming. Well I saw it again about a year later hence, that's it the movie abruptly ended without further explanation. Sort of like the director, cast, and crew just didn't show up again....and that was it. At least now I know it was suppose to be continued in a TV series. This too me is still the strangest ending, if you care to call it that, of anything i've ever seen to date. Memo to the director- maybe if you would have thought of an end , or better yet at least created one...you might have made it through say ... 2 weeks into the new season.

GOOD AGAINST EVIL (Paul Wendkos, 1977; TV) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 31 August 2011]

Following his move to the United States, Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster found steady work in TV where thrillers and horrors could be turned out cheap and fast. Having made a mint back home with a mix of DIABOLIQUE (1955) and PSYCHO (1960), Sangster now turned his attention to two major diabolism films of the era: ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) and THE EXORCIST (1973). The result, however, is a dismal failure – for which his own, frankly, lousy screenplay is largely to blame!

For the record, I have watched countless rip-offs of both films by this point but I do own at least one virtual copy of the former (THE STRANGER WITHIN {1974}, coincidentally also a TV-movie) and as many as 5 other 'possession' films – ABBY (1974), THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW aka THE SEXORCIST (1974), THE POSSESSED aka DEMON WITCH CHILD (1975), THE EXORCIST III: CRIES AND SHADOWS aka NAKED EXORCISM (1975) and THE POSSESSED (1977; TV). By the way, director Wendkos had earlier helmed a stylish diabolic chiller himself i.e. THE MEPHISTO WALTZ (1971) but, here, he is cramped by the under-lit TV look (even if the film frequently changes locale for the sake of variety – starting in 1955 New York, then cutting to present-day San Francisco and moving to New Orleans for the climax) and, as I said, a plot that is half-hearted, under-nourished and downright confusing! What is more, the whole works its way to a major cop-out of an abrupt ending – having been intended as a pilot to a prospective series but it was understandably not picked up – so that the central premise is pretty much left hanging!

The notion of having upper-class types revealed to be Satanists is a pretty tired one by now: meeting every once in a while – here to present the Devil with the child that, upon growing up, is to bear his offspring – to honor their master (whose disciples conveniently keep a statue of the Horned One secured in their private place of worship). That said, after the opening sequence (which recalls Hammer's own TO THE DEVIL…A DAUGHTER {1976}, albeit not Sangster-related), the horror element is so underplayed that it seems to interrupt the blossoming romance between the girl (Elyssa Davalos, who looks too sweet to suggest the evil that is supposed to lurk underneath!) and hero Dack Rambo. Interestingly, having preceded this with THE LEGACY (1978) – another Sangster-scripted mix of diabolism hits – it was amusing to note the interchange of components between them (for instance, horses and cats are involved in both, the girl is unaware of who she is while the boyfriend is an interloper, etc). Another moment that harks back to the Hammer legacy (pardon the pun) is the death-in-the-belfry of the priest (from Dracula HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE {1968}) – which follows one of the few effective moments in the film under review as Davalos throws an instant and unexplained chilly darkness over a church upon entering.

Richard Lynch is always good value for money in this type of fare, but he is given little of substance to do except look sinister and make the occasional invocation to the dark forces (at one time, this occurs inside a cave!) – curiously enough, while he plays the leader of the cult here, he had also been a Christ-like alien in Larry Cohen's GOD TOLD ME TO aka DEMON (1976)! Still, why he seems so reticent to eliminate Rambo's character is baffling – he attempts to make the hero forget Davalos by throwing him back into the lap of a former girlfriend (a young Kim Cattrall): the fact that this leads directly to the introduction of Dan O'Herlihy's exorcist figure (since Cattrall's child is decreed as possessed simply for having drawn the sign of the demon Astaroth) seems to me a gross miscalculation on the villain's part! O'Herlihy's sudden appearance – in a state of agitation to boot – in the last act takes the film into its obvious center-piece, which is the battle for the soul of a little child: it does not matter that she has little to no bearing on the main plot but, then, the staging is so tame (indeed lame) that one is amused by the entire scenario, especially as the girl remains calm and composed all the way through it! I was literally thrown into fits of hysterical laughter when Rambo goes up to check on the priest and finds him at the mercy of an invisible hand suffocating him with a pillow!! With Lynch admitting defeat soon after the Devil is expelled and the unlikely team of Rambo and O'Herlihy keeping up the search for Davalos (while Cattrall offers herself in case the hero just happens to fail in his ultimate quest!), the film just ends: had one been completely unaware of its pedigree, we could say that the script was suggesting that the fight between Good and Evil is a continuing struggle and not easily won...

Not 'that' bad, but not that good

[elevator_opratr · 5/10 · 12 May 2005]

I didn't hate this as much as some of the comments here, but it's nothing to write home to mom about either.

The weirdest part was the ending. It just ended! Talk about an unsatisfied feel! Upon reading up on the movie, I learned it was meant to be a pilot for a series, and I guess that dumb ending was meant to be picked up. Unfortunately, I think the writers shot themselves in the foot in that the movie and the ending was so odd, it never wound up living past its first show! Good only if you want to see a creepy, low-budget horror flick on a lonely night, and you don't mind an ending that's as weird as the VCR getting unplugged halfway through.

Be careful criminals!

[tchibwaa · 8/10 · 10 November 2023]

You only need to use the internet to know there is good and evil. Unfortunately god is used to violate innocent people.

Throughout this movie god is used to violate. Yes, it is god that is evil and good. A struggle to be law obeying and a struggle to observe wrong being acceptable.

This movie is superior to TV movies yet it's a TV movie. It's similar to The Amityville Horror which is a 1979 movie most know of.

An unfortunate accident leads to a love story that leads to another example of love. Her fear of harm that the illegal device god might use, causes a drift away than back.

Down at New Orleans held a lure that god uses to let them know the power of the illegal device of god.

This movie starts at San Francisco and abruptly diverts viewers away from New Orleans. You might think they were planning to make a sequel. They knew they had made a descent movie.

Entertaining enough occult horror TV movie

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 17 October 2015]

Good Against Evil is a 70's American made-for-TV film, more specifically it was a pilot to a series that never was. This factor explains its strange open-ending which leaves one crucial plot-strand completely unresolved. It owes a pretty obvious debt to The Exorcist (1973) and to the 70's thirst for occult horror in general. It tells the story of a satanic group who brutally manage the birth of a little girl in the 50's. 22 years later she starts stepping out with a journalist completely unaware of her evil guardians. These occultists once again step out from the shadows to put a stop to this liaison, having already pencilled the girl in as the bride of their evil demon Astaroth.

This is obviously a bit of an anomaly in the sense of it being a pilot with no real resolution. I found this initially quite baffling but to be honest it didn't really bother me too much. In fact, the oddness of the finale makes for quite a distinctive and unusual ending. The content on the lead up was fairly run-of-the-mill occult horror stuff, with several scenes that take ideas from other movies from the time. But I felt it sort of worked quite well on the whole and thought the opening segment set in the 50's was especially well done, particularly in how they played upon how sinister the nun's with the big hats can appear. Admittedly, the film sort of loses momentum once it switches to the story of the little possessed girl in a segment that owes a huge amount to The Exorcist. But up to that point I honestly felt pretty involved in this one. On a side note, it is worth pointing out that the current poster image used for it here on IMDb is hilariously misleading; it makes it look like it must be a sexploitation flick. I can only imagine the disappointment that many people had if they bought this film on the basis of this cover.

I can take it or leave it

[KDWms · 5/10 · 16 May 2003]

Yup - it's other-than-nice, neat ending allows for follow-up activity. The acting is capable; but the storyline ain't too original: a woman's baby is gonna be the devil. Okay - maybe it's a LITTLE different in that, after conception, the disciples say that the parents must no longer love each other. Well, we'll just keep moving the brain-drained mom around and hurling obstacles at the dad. As of this writing, I thought that I'd break the tie of positive and negative comments, but - wouldn't you know it - my vote was a five: right down the middle. How's that for non-committal? To date, however, more balloters are above the half.

Actually a very good TV horror movie pilot

[Katatonia · 26 September 2002]

This is actually a really good TV horror movie. I viewed it in a cheap DVD horror set i found recently. It could be compared to the Exorcist with Linda Blair in some respects, but the plot is quite unique and interesting. It gets much better in the second half of the film and makes you wonder what's coming next in the story line. I hated when the movie ended since it left the doors wide open for a TV series. It could very well have been a great supernatural based TV drama series and it's a shame that it obviously never came to fruition.

Don't Waste Your Time

[gsh999 · 2/10 · 1 April 2006]

Put me to sleep. Literally. Typical made-for-TV rubbish. Not scary or interesting. Just very boring. Only the director's mother would post a positive comment on this one. There are really no special effects. More of a love story than a horror movie anyway. I can't believe they put this on a DVD. Please make it go away! They were thinking about making a series out of this?! LMAO! Don't make the same mistake I did. Use the hour and a half to meditate. I'm being generous giving it a 2/10 because I'm in a good mood. Somebody please get rid of these stale garbage made-for-TV movies!! There are two superhot actresses in this one including a young Kim Catrall but only in dowdy TV-movie clothing. BARF!!

I'm so glad this never went to series

[dbborroughs · 3/10 · 13 August 2008]

Pilot film for a series that I don't think ever happened that should have worked because it was written by Jimmy Sangster. The basic premise was to have Dack Rambo and Dan O'Herlihy as a detective and an exorcist go around and fight the evils kicked up by the evil Richard Lynch.

It's a mess. The need to be for TV and to set up an episodic series meas that nothing is ultimately gripping or resolved. Tension isn't created so much a phoned in at carefully timed breaks for commercials. Released on tape and DVD as a feature you never stop seeing it for the TV movie that it is.

Avoid even at 99 cents.

Interesting but ultimately lifeless telepic pilot.

[DigitalRevenantX7 · 4/10 · 5 May 2016]

New York, 1955. A pregnant woman is abducted & taken to a deserted hospital where she gives birth & is then killed. The child is consecrated to the demon Astaroth & is marked as the future mother of the Antichrist. Twenty-two years later, the child, now a young fashion designer in San Francisco & named Jessica Gordon, meets up with a man who accidentally runs into her car. They begin dating. But the mysterious disciples that watch over her consider the man, named Andy Stuart, is a threat to their plans. Headed by Mr. Rimmon, the head of the Astaroth cult, they send a guardian to keep an eye on her but he is killed by a bolting horse. Andy & Jessica decide to get married but the priest selected for the wedding discovers Jessica's link with the demon & tries to warn Andy. Rimmon learns of this & abducts Jessica, erasing her memory of Andy & their time together, kills the priest & empty Jessica's home & business, taking her to New Orleans. Andy, never one to give up, travels to New Orleans when he discovers that the daughter of an old friend is possessed by Astaroth. Along with another priest, Father Kemschler (an expert on exorcisms), Andy manages to hold an exorcism to save the child.

Good Against Evil was one of the last of a spate of telefilms made in the 1970s as knock-offs of the original trilogy of demonic films such as Rosemary's Baby, THE OMEN & The Exorcist. This film would be one of the very last entries in this subgenre & was an ill-fated attempt at making a new television series based on this template.

The film, being a 1970s telefilm, is dramatically flat, overly talky, has dodgy pacing & the visual effects budget is almost nonexistent, resulting in almost no visual effects, except for the climactic exorcism, which uses simple tricks that require no effort (more on that later). The script comes from Jimmy Sangster, a prolific writer whose specialty is in making thrillers where the main character is being driven crazy (& one script involves a person driving themselves crazy), & who tries to try a new direction in this one. But his script, while interesting, is nothing more than a hodgepodge of old ideas coming from a decade before & hold no weight in the narrative sense. This being a telefilm, the concept has an open ending & resembles one of those old 1970s thrillers that make a virtue of hopping between exotic destinations (although the most exotic Good Against Evil gets is a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco & a hospital in New Orleans).

That said, the film is nothing short of being mediocre, although there are times when the film becomes slightly interesting. Richard Lynch, as the central villain of the show, has a creepy presence that almost overwhelms the main characters' motivations, although he only appears at odd intervals. The acting is quite good, especially from Lynch & Dan O'Herlihy as the exorcist (although not enough to save the film from functional mediocrity) & has an early appearance from Kim Cattrall. As for that exorcism scene, the sight of O'Herlihy standing in the middle of the child's room unfazed while off-screen stage technicians pretend to be demonic forces & toss the furniture around him is absolutely hilarious.

The Exorcisn't

[Jonny_Numb · 1/10 · 6 January 2004]

"Good Against Evil" is a boring little stinker that time forgot...until it was resurrected on DVD (as part of the "Fright Night" 10-movie pak). Clearly a made-for-TV production, it is so lacking in action of any sort that the best reason for viewing it is to induce sleep. Dan O'Herlihy enters far too late to redeem this dull-as-a-doornail production, doing his best Max von Sydow impression as the priest who attempts to perform an exorcism. How "Good Against Evil" flew by the radar of The Satellite of Love is beyond me.

zero/10

A series that never was

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 5 December 2018]

Originally airing on May 22, 1977, this attempt at a weekly series comes from director Paul Wendkos (The Mephisto Waltz, Secrets, Haunts of the Very Rich) and Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangster (The Legacy; Scream, Pretty Peggy; Horror of Dracula; The Revenge of Frankenstein).

I was really excited about the potential of this one, which promises from its Amazon listing that writer Andy Stuart (Dack Rambo) teams up with an exorcist named Father Kemschler (Dan O'Herlihy!) to battle Satan and a group of devil worshipers led by Mr. Rimmin (Richard Lynch!).

Seems like Rimmin has been after a girl named Jessica from the moment she was born, as her mother was drugged and attended to by nuns who took her baby away the moment it was born. Her mom was then killed by a black cat and Jessica is raised by his people, with her origins kept a secret.

When Andy and Jessica hook up and decide to get married, she's unable to even get near the altar. That's because she's been promised to the demon Astaroth and must be kept a virgin until the beast comes back and puts a devil baby in her womb. Now, the cult that has been behind every moment of her life must keep her a virgin by cockblocking Andy at every turn.

I was totally prepared for pure 1970's Satanic bliss, only to find myself in the midst of a relationship drama for much of the films first half. Sure, there was a flashback where a woman imagined a nearly nude and totally burned up Lynch - he came by those scars the hard way - attacking her. I was thinking - is this the TV movie version of Enter the Devil - only for cruel reality to make me learn differently.

That said, there are some good moments here, like a woman being killed by her own housecats under Rimmin's command. And Elyssa Davalos as Jessica has plenty of great qualities that make her a wonderful horror heroine in distress. And while she's top billed when you look this film up, Kim Cattrall makes a short appearance.

I wanted to love this. It has all the elements that you would think would lead to magic. Yet it can't put them all together. Sometimes when you deal with the devil, you don't get what you wanted.

The men in my life die

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 15 July 2017]

The film opens in 1955 with the birth of a daughter under dubious circumstances. The mother dies, it is a cat thing and we jump 22 years later to Jessica (Elyssa Davalos) a dress designer in San Francisco, a dead Satanic give-away, although Jessica doesn't know anything about this. It would seem the Dark Lord could simply occupy a willing person that designated someone who grows up clueless and doesn't want the gig. I don't write this stuff. Andy (Dack Rambo) runs into Jessica and falls in love in about three dates (not 10) and realizes something is wrong because of an old building has a draft and enlists the help of a couple of priests...cheaper than fixing the furnace.

This was a TV pilot film for ABC in 1977 which would have had a long train of "Exocist", "Omen" and "Rosemary's Baby" type episodes without Ave Satani, Tubular Bells, or Carmina Burana. The music made the films. This film was boring as hell. Available on some multi-film discs.

crafty Gothic romance

[Cristi_Ciopron · 6/10 · 9 November 2015]

'Good against Evil' is actually an exciting movie, much better than reputed, and well crafted, its storyline offered indeed a possibility of progress, by bringing in the older priest, a very striking look (better than v. Sydow, in an equally conventional part), so there was the opportunity to continue the storyline (as emphasized by Rambo's teaming with O'Herlihy); there are also silly and clumsy, unintended funny moments, I do not mean the banal look of the attacks (fear can be shown like this), but the exorcist fighting with a pillow, or sipping a drink and looking self-important and conceited, which diminishes his dignity, so some slapdash. As a Gothic romance, it belongs to a now forgotten TV genre, named Gothic soap opera, which also accounts for the cardboard characters. Its eeriness works, I liked the cityscapes, perhaps the profanation of the church would of worked better as an evening scene, and with more characters.

The script emphasizes that the plot is at least as much about love, as about the occult. This pilot has been meant to establish a story, which it does, convincingly, it's soap opera with occultism; it deals with Satanism as a cult, a '70s topic, and understandably so. An equally good series could have followed. The leading actor should of been a success with the female audiences, so we'll leave it at that. But the cast is very good: Lynch, O'Herlihy, Kim Cattrall.

The veteran of the cast was O'Herlihy, who still had some nice roles ahead. Here, he does a colorful exorcist, though with the aforementioned silly moments.

Dull

[preppy-3 · 22 December 2003]

I saw this on TV back in 1977 when I was in high school. The next day me and all the other kids in school were ripping it apart. It's a predictable yawner about a kid being the Devil's child...or something like that. The exorcism at the end has certainly got to be one of the most BORING ones ever filmed! And, since it was a TV movie, no violence, no blood, no skin...no NOTHING! This even has a silly ending to pave the way for a TV series (which, thankfully, never came about). It might be enjoyable to watch with a roomful of friends to tear apart...but it just might put everybody to sleep. Add to this some truly terrible acting and you've got a worthless movie. Avoid.

Boring!

[filmboychris · 1 April 2003]

This is a real waste of time. Only 74 minutes long, but seems much more, a dreary, sanitised "Exorcist" style plot is trotted out in typical seventies TV movie style. That means no violence and very little action as a group of satanists plot to stop their chosen disciple from falling in love with any man who will stand in the way of her union with the god Astoroth. Even Hammer's "To the devil a daughter" which was weakly plotted along similar lines, had more going for it than this tedious offering. Too much chocolate box romance and too little horror sinks this one. Not suprisingly, this pilot movie didn't launch a series. I guess the producers realised that there wasn't much they could do with the format of a priest and a lovesick man mooning around the country looking for his lost love and throwing in the odd exorcism every week .A few TV movies from the seventies managed to stir up some shudders, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, The Night Stalker, Gargoyles, Trilogy of Terror spring to mind, but this anaemic offering deserves to remain anonymous.

Zero value!

[RodrigAndrisan · 26 September 2021]

Elyssa Davalos is very beautiful. Richard Lynch is neither as fierce as usual nor too convincing. For me was just another waste of time.