Evil Town

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Evil Town
Evil Town FilmPoster.jpeg
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.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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]

Contents

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

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]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Evil Town (1987)". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  2. ↑ "Evil Town". Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  3. 1 2 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.
  4. ↑ Bowker's Complete Video Directory 2002. Vol. 1. R.R. Bowker. 2002. p. 458. ISBN   978-0-8352-4478-7.
  5. ↑ "Dean Jagger". IMDb .
  6. ↑ Mick Martin; Marsha Porter (1994). Video Movie Guide 1995 (revised ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN   978-0-345-39196-4.
  7. 1 2 Weldon, Michael (1996). The Psychotronic Video guide (illustrated ed.). Macmillan. p. 191. ISBN   978-0-312-13149-4.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ Binion, Cavett. "Evil Town 1987". All Movie Guide . Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  10. ↑ "Evil Town (1987) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
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