NAKED EVIL (1966)/EXORCISM AT MIDNIGHT
Director: Stanley Goulder
Image Entertainment

Previously dealing with subject of black magic in CURSE OF THE VOODOO (aka CURSE OF SIMBA), producer Richard Gordon decided to remain in this territory for his follow-up feature. Gordon and Steven Pallos decided to adapt Jon Manchip White's play "The Obi" for the big screen, giving it the more exploitive title of NAKED EVIL. Their big problem was the Columbia Pictures wanted the film done low budget and in black & white at a time when black & white was going out of style.

NAKED EVIL takes place in an English town mostly populated by African Americans. Two rival street gangs are causing havoc there, and now one of them is utilizing Jamaican voodoo via the "obi." The obi is a Jamaican death object made up of old bottles filled with graveyard dirt and cockerel feathers. When smashed or broken, a demon is released with deadly results. Most of the film takes place at a local academy populated by male Jamaican students, the stuffy English professosr, and an old West Indian janitor who is caught with dead chickens and other strange items in his basement room.

NAKED EVIL embraces exorcism years before it became into cinematic style, and although the backcover of the DVD states "historically preceded the black horror trend of the '70s," I doubt this had any influence on BLACULA or ABBY. The film has a nice sense of suspense, it's nicely acted and directed, but I find it a rather dull affair, wishing it was a bit better. Bernard Ebbinghouse provides a great score that's shamelessly played too infrequently throughout. The cast is mostly made up of unfamiliar faces, though British genre fans may recognize Anthony Ainley from THE BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW and THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, and Basil Dignam from THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT and GORGO.

NAKED EVIL had a hard time securing a decent U.S. theatrical run on its original release, so it was later picked up by Sam Sherman and Independent International. By that time the film was tinted different colors (much like II's HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS) in a desperate effort to hide its black and white origins. Before selling it to television, Sherman had new color scenes shot (circa 1980) with the likes of the late Laurence Tierney and Catherine Erhardt (CINDERELLA 2000). These new scenes are added at the beginning, middle and end of the picture, and try to explain why the rest of it is tinted. Channel surfers catching this on the USA Network in the 80s must have confused as hell! Sherman also retitled the revamped version EXORCISM AT MIDNIGHT.

Both NAKED EVIL and EXORCISM AT MIDNIGHT are included on this special edition DVD. NAKED EVIL is taken from the original Columbia negative and looks really good. It's letterboxed at 1.78:1 with Anamorphic enhancement. The black and white image is remarkably sharp, with very little wear an tear. I expected EXORCISM to look inferior, but it's equally impressive, letterboxed at 1.78:1 and Anamorphic. Despite the somewhat annoying tints, the image is crisp, and the newer color sequences also looks pleasing. The audio mix on both features is fine, but at times you might have a tough go making out some of the heavy Jamaican accents.

Extras include a commentary with Sam Sherman that's on EXORCISM. The talk ends about 41 minutes into the film, and for what it's worth, Sherman gives some nice details about shooting the new scenes in one day (on New York's Roosevelt Island), as well as details on how he and Al Adamson got to be associated with reediting and rearranging films. There are also two trailers for NAKED EVIL (both seem pretty identical except that one is battered pretty badly), an extensive promotional and production photo gallery, and an insert booklet with a lengthy excerpt about the film by Bryan Senn take from the book, Drums of Terror: Voodoo in the Cinema. The back cover states that there is a TV promo for EXORCISM, but I couldn't find anything of the sort. Look for a hidden trailer for the just-released DEVIL DOLL. (George R. Reis)

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