976-EVIL (1989)

Plot Outline: Leonard, a rebellious teenager, lives with his religious and domineering aunt. But he finds a card with a 976 horoscope number on that gives him advice on how to avoid being run over in the street. But when the card falls into the possession of his aunt's wimpy son, Hoax, he uses it to extract his revenge on the bullies who picked on him at school and tries to win the girl of his dreams.

The Review: Robert Englund's directorial debut is a pretty bog-standard mess of a horror film which doesn't quite know what it wants to be. On one hand you have a Nightmare on Elm Street style of horror film with fantasy and reality seemingly coming together. But on the other hand you have a straightforward 80s revenge slasher with an unlikely character taking revenge on someone. The concept of the film is pretty ridiculous and it is never fully explained in the film, leaving the viewer wondering just what the hell the 976 number was about. Englund chooses to shoot a lot of the film in poorly lit and dark areas too so for quite a lot of the time, it's very hard to see what is going. The ending also sucks - it's a mess of special effects, blue screens and over-acting. Speaking of which, that is also pretty horrid too. Stephen Geoffreys played the annoying friend in Fright Night and he is almost as unbearable here. I think it's just his voice which annoys the hell out of me. But even when he turns evil, you can't take him seriously enough to be going around killing people. Patrick O'Bryan had the whole Kevin Dillon from The Blob thing going on which bombs horribly as the rebellious hero. And the rest of the cast makes for an unappealing time (if only Englund had chosen to act instead of direct!).

Final Verdict: Sorry Robert but although I think you're a really good actor, your only directorial effort blows big time. At least he hasn't done anymore since. Stick to what you're good at!

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