Thanks for the memories!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fresh and Exciting

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Dr. Yale Carrington (Lloyd Bridges), his wife Maggie (Pat Crowley), and their daughter, Cindy (Eve Plumb) begin being stalked by chronic gum-chewing Rapist / murderer, Teddy Jakes (William Watson). After seven years, Jakes has gotten out of prison, where Dr. Carrington helped to put him. Jakes is now hellbent to avenge this delay in his pursuit of the criminal lifestyle. Of course, the law can't touch him, and the Carrington's must find a way to survive. Ominous acts start right away, making it all too clear that Jakes is serious. He also makes sure to do little things that are creepy, but not illegal. As Jakes' attacks escalate, can anything be done to stop this madman? A made-for-TV remake of CAPE FEAR (w/ some added twists and turns), THE FORCE OF EVIL has loads of suspense, along w/ an effective atmosphere of lurking dread. It always feels like Jakes could strike at any moment! Jakes himself is pretty scary, in a ruthless, unpredictable way. Watson plays him w/ gleeful menace. Bridges plays the regular person, pushed to do whatever it takes to protect his family and himself. Originally a part of TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, this movie fits right in w/ that series. EXTRA POINTS FOR: The "special delivery" scene! Eve Plumb fans rejoice! She's in more than a few scenes, and she's good!...

This TV movie, or should I say pilot episode, has the look and feel of your average 1970s cop show rather than something more like the Twilight Zone (which I was under the impression it was something like Twilight Zone).I love a lot of the 1970s made for TV movies because they had some good one back then - of course there were some bad ones too and this movie I would put in the latter category.I just could not get into this one. I like Lloyd Bridges and the other actors are fine too but the overall look and feel really messed up what should have been an eerie atmosphere. Instead, we have cold, sterile looking 1970s police show - and that is not "me".I'm not saying this is an awful film, I'm only saying I could not get into it like I was hoped to do.2/10

Taken for what it is, a 1977 TV movie, "Force of Evil" is above average entertainment. I'm not going to kid you though, believability is not one of it's strong points. Lloyd Bridges plays a doctor, and while Lloyd Bridges may not be able to tell when someone is dead, a doctor definitely should. The entire last half of the film pivots on this point, and drags everything down a notch. The acting is scattered, although William Watson is memorable as the villain "Teddy Jakes". There are definitely some scenes, such as the mom and daughter discussions on the houseboat, that I could have lived without. I actually rate this less than IMDBs 7.7. To me it's a 6.0 at best, because it seriously challenges believability. - MERK

Back in the late 1970's I saw a movie on late night TV that was really creepy. It has stuck in my mind for almost 30 years. I have been trying to find out what the name of it was and see it again for a long time. It was about a doctor that had testified in a trial years earlier and sent this creepy guy to prison. Now that he's out of prison he wants to get revenge on the doctor and proceeds to torment him and his family.A few years later I watched a movie I'd never heard of before called Cape Fear, which was made in the early 1960's. Strangely enough it had the same exact storyline as that movie that had been haunting me. Obviously Cape Fear was the original and the one from the late 70s was a remake.In the early 1990s I heard they were making another remake of Cape Fear. Maybe I'd finally find out something about my mystery film? With all the hoopla about the second remake, I never saw any mention of the first one from the 1970s. I realized that the film I saw was probably very obscure and was probably a made for TV movie.Eventually I got on the internet and found out about IMDb. Surely I could finally find out about that creepy movie that I saw so many years ago. I looked up Cape Fear and only the remake from the early 1990s was listed. That seemed really strange, because Cape Fear was a well known film and I thought some movie buff would have already put a connection to the remake I saw under "Movie Connections". No such luck.A few years ago I was looking through the catalog of a company that sold rare VHS tapes and I read the description for something called "Force of Evil". I realized at once that I'd found it! This was that movie that I had been searching for, for almost 30 years. I got on IMDb again and saw that it was a made for TV movie as I had thought. Interestingly enough it was a Quinn Martin production and was narrated by William Conrad. That made sense as I recalled the distinctive narration it had when I originally saw it. It starred Lloyd Bridges and even had one of the Brady Bunch girls in it - Eve Plumb.I managed to get a copy on VHS and re-watch it again at last. It was as cool as I had remembered it. It does indeed have virtually the same exact storyline as Cape Fear, even down to the houseboat near the end.So cool to know the name and see it again after all those years!