Evil Town

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

Evil Town
Directed byEdward Collins
Larry Spiegel
Peter S. Traynor
Mardi Rustam
Produced byJoan Kasha
William D. Sklar
Peter S. Traynor
Written byRoyce D. Applegate
Richard Benson
Larry Spiegel
StarringJames Keach
Dean Jagger
Robert Walker Jr.
Doria Cook-Nelson
Michele Marsh
Christie Houser
Hope Summers
Lynda Wiesmeier
Music byCharles Bernstein
CinematographyBob Ioniccio
Bill Mann
Edited byDavid Blangsted
Jess Mancilla
Peter Parasheles
Production
company
Production Company: Mars Productions[1]
Distributed byNew World Pictures
Starmaker Video
Trans World Entertainment (TWE)
Release date
June 2, 1987
Running time
88 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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. It was released in the United States on VHS in November 1987.[10]

References
  1. "Evil Town (1987)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  2. "Evil Town". Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  3. 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 9780933997165.
  4. Bowker's Complete Video Directory 2002. 1. R.R. Bowker Company. R.R. Bowker. 2002. p. 458. ISBN 9780835244787.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0415591/
  6. Mick Martin, Marsha Porter (1994). Video Movie Guide 1995 (revised ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN 9780345391964.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  7. Weldon, Michael (1996). The Psychotronic Video guide (illustrated ed.). Macmillan. p. 191. ISBN 9780312131494.
  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 9780345369451.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  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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