Evil Town

Evil Town

Directed by	Curtis Hanson Larry Spiegel Peter S. Traynor Mardi Rustam
Written by	Royce D. Applegate Richard Benson Larry Spiegel
Produced by	Joan Kasha William D. Sklar Peter S. Traynor
Starring	James Keach Dean Jagger Robert Walker Jr. Doria Cook-Nelson Michele Marsh Christie Houser Hope Summers Lynda Wiesmeier
Cinematography	Bob Ioniccio Bill Mann
Edited by	David Blangsted Jess Mancilla Peter Parasheles
Music by	Charles Bernstein
Production company	Production Company: Mars Productions^[1]
Distributed by	New World Pictures Starmaker Video Trans World Entertainment (TWE)
Release date	June 2, 1987 (1987-06-02)
Running time	88 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Evil Town is a 1987 American zombie horror film directed by Curtis Hanson, Mardi Rustam, Larry Spiegel and Peter S. Traynor.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] Evil Town was the last film with the actor Dean Jagger.^[5]

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Synopsis

The film depicts an evil scientist's (Dean Jagger) campaign to achieve eternal youth, through synthesizing a drug derived from human pituitary fluid. In extracting the fluid, he creates mindless zombies from the donors. Because the local town residents are in on the plot, to achieve immortality, they help the scientist, by abducting visitors who come through town.^[6]

Cast

James Keach as Dr. Chris Fuller
Dean Jagger as Dr. Schaeffer
Robert Walker Jr. as Mike
Doria Cook-Nelson as Linda
Lynda Wiesmeier as Dianne
Michele Marsh as Julie
Christie Houser as Terrie
Dabbs Greer as Lyle Phelps
Regis Toomey as Doc Hooper
Lurene Tuttle as Mildred Phelps
Richard Hale as Lester Wylie
Hope Summers as Mrs. Wylie
E. J. André as Earl

Production

The film went into production in 1984 and went through numerous re-writes and re-edits before release in 1987.^[3] It is made up of footage of several older films, with major footage coming from the unfinished Dean Jagger film God Bless Dr. Shagetz (1974). When the pieces of the various older films were patched together, there was inclusion of some new footage, including some with Jillian Kesner and nude scenes with Playboy Playmate Lynda Wiesmeier.^[7]

Pre spin-off

When beginning work on Evil Town in 1984, director Mardi Rustam liked the story enough to make his own version, which he released as Evils of the Night (1985),^[7]^[8] two years before the release of Evil Town.

Reception

Cavett Binion of All Movie Guide called it a "silly horror film" and noted that it was an assemblage of parts of earlier films, including an unfinished one from the 1970s, and that it was "spiced up with some gratuitous nudity courtesy of former Playboy playmate Lynda Wiesmeier". While remarking that the editor's efforts to maintain continuity were commendable, he concluded that "the end result seems hardly worth the effort".^[9]

Release

The film was scheduled for release on June 3, 1987, but due to the high level of anticipation for the movie, many theaters began showing it on the evening of June 2, 1987^{[citation needed]}. It was released in the United States on VHS in November 1987.^[10]

References

^ ^a ^b "Evil Town (1987)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
^ "Evil Town". Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
^ ^a ^b Jay R. Nash, Stanley Ralph Ross, ed. (1988). The Motion Picture Guide 1988 Annual: The Films of 1987. Jay R. Nash, Stanley Ralph Ross, James J. Mulay, Daniel Curran, Jeffrey H. Wallenfeldt (illustrated ed.). Cinebooks. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-933997-16-5.
^ Bowker's Complete Video Directory 2002. Vol. 1. R.R. Bowker. 2002. p. 458. ISBN 978-0-8352-4478-7.
^ "Dean Jagger". IMDb.
^ Mick Martin; Marsha Porter (1994). Video Movie Guide 1995 (revised ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-39196-4.
^ ^a ^b Weldon, Michael (1996). The Psychotronic Video guide (illustrated ed.). Macmillan. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-312-13149-4.
^ Evils of the Night was shot in June of 1983, but not released until 1985. If Rustam shot "additional scenes" for Evil Town in 1984, he would have been borrowing the concept from his own yet-to-be-released Evils of the Night. Mick Martin; Marsha Porter (1990). Derrick Bang (ed.). Video Movie Guide 1991 (6, revised ed.). Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-36945-1.
^ Binion, Cavett. "Evil Town 1987". All Movie Guide. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
^ "Evil Town (1987) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved 2013-09-06.