Prime Evil

Trailer—Prime Evil

a movie

source: Prime Evil

Evil monks search New York City in the late 1980's for virgin sacrifices. Muddled movie by Roberta Findlay appears to have been shot about the same time as her film Lurkers since it has many of the same locations and much of the same casts. From the stand point of having some scenes of old New York this is good, but from any other stand point this really isn't worth your time. The problem is that the film's script isn't all that good. Its a stitched together affair with plot points from other films dropped in. The result is a kind of boredom that comes from a film that seems to have been made more for the money then it was for the love or need to make it. More dull then anything else it never generates enough interest to create any real scares because you really don't care. Watchable in a bad movie sort of way, its the sort of thing that is best seen only when going through a multiple film set since its not worth the time or the effort to see a film like this as a stand alone.

An ancient immortal band of Satan worshipers, who were once priests whom casted God away & killed their fellow priests who refused to join their shenanigans, have to appease their dark master by sacrificing their virgin kin every 13 years. Featuring a groan-inducingly bad 'big bad evil priest' & a vast assortment of other characters that you won't give two craps about, this stinker is a true chore to sit through. The occasional bare breast might keep you from falling asleep, but it's not nearly enough to keep you from losing all interest in the dreaded affair. Plus it has the worst hokey Satan puppet that I've seen in quite some time. Quite simply Prime Evil is simply Putrid. Eye Candy: Amy Brentano, Ruth Corrine Collins, Jeanne Marie & Miriam Zucker all get topless My Grade: F

Prime Evil tells of a satanic cult whose members can achieve immortality and invulnerability through the regular sacrifice of blood relatives to a hideous demon (that is about two foot tall and seems to be made of red rubber). Aged acolyte George Parkman (Max Jacobs) intends to prolong his powers for another thirteen years by taking the life of his virginal grand-daughter Alex (Christine Moore), and then wrest control of the cult from sinister leader Thomas Seaton (William Beckwith); but with Alex's boyfriend Bill King (Tim Gail) becoming increasingly suspicious of George, will the old man's wicked plans succeed? After spending the 70s producing and directing *, Roberta Findlay had a brief career making horror films, but in my opinion, it wasn't brief enough: a few months ago, I watched her horrendous '87 whorehouse horror Blood Sisters, and last night, against my better judgement, I checked out Prime Evil, and all the evidence so far suggests that the woman should have stayed in the 'bump and grind' business. Findlay simply doesn't possess the fundamental skill set necessary to make a decent non-* movie, her usual objective being to capture a juicy extreme close-up rather than to present a coherent story or obtain credible (non-sexual) performances from her actors (not that anyone from her dreadful cast looks capable of such an undertaking). A poorly developed script full of diabolical dialogue and precious little action doesn't help matters, of course, and with Findlay's visuals having that distinct porno quality (an effect helped no end by regular nudity from some suspiciously low-rent bimbos), the result is a nasty looking and amateurish yawn-fest that, although not quite as terrible as Blood Sisters, is still a chore to sit through. 3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for the topless tarts, the rubbish demon and a laughable decapitation.

A nasty sect of evil monks led by the sinister Father Thomas Seaton (dreadfully overplayed with shameless eye-rolling hammy brio by William Beckwith) sacrifice virgins every thirteen years in order to appease Lucifer and remain immortal for perpetuity. The sect plans on carving up sweet, but repressed goody-goody two shoes social worker Alexandra Parkman (the singularly woeful Christine Moore) on the altar. Brave nun Sister Angela (a hopelessly dire performance by Mavis Harris) infiltrates the cult so she can put a stop to these foul heathens once and for all. Misdirected with alarming ineptitude by Roberta Findley (who also did the surprisingly passable cinematography), with a hackneyed script by Ed Kelleher and Hariette Vidal (for example, the devil worshipers are your standard bunch of creepy folks in black hoods and robes chanting wicked incantations), a poky pace, a generic ooga-booga shivery and ominous score by Walter E. Sear, clunky dialogue ("He's not breathing; he wouldn't talk to me. My guess is he's dead"), a few clumsily staged fight scenes, a generous sprinkling of tasty gratuitous female nudity, and a last reel appearance by a laughably hokey rubbery puppet Satan, this admittedly lousy, yet still oddly entertaining tripe certainly possesses the right wrong stuff to rate as an amusingly awful clunker. The lame no-name cast all fail to impress with their uniformly atrocious acting, with top thespic dishonors going to Max Jacobs as Alexandra's scheming, diabolical grandfather George Parkman, the ever-foxy Ruth Collins as reformed junkie Cathy, Tim Gail as Alexandra's stolid assistant college professor fiancé Bill King, George Krause as hulking psycho lackey Ben, Amy Brentano as Alexandra's ditsy gal pal Brett, Jeanne Marie as bitter foul-mouthed teenage hooker Judy, and Gary Warner as drippy Detective Dann Carr. Ed French provides some nifty gore and gnarly make-up f/x. A deliciously cruddy Grade Z hoot.

I'm somewhat surprised by the bad reviews here; only in that I would GUESS someone who took the time to WATCH "Prime Evil" might well LIKE "Prime Evil." But there you go. I think the film is somewhat better than that. Findley's film is clearly meant to be absurd and is mostly played for laughs. A good portion, if not all, of the silly humor works. William Beckwith is certainly game as a the head bad guy, and Christine Moore is a winning presence who helps you hang in there to the end. Therein lies the problem, the film wears out it's welcome by about half an hour, and the comic cops who bring up the rear are more tiresome than amusing. Maybe Findley though She needed a lot of padding between the knockers and stage blood, but the film overplays it's hand. Again, a lot of this plays like a parody of the devil worshiping cult film that goes way back to "The Black Cat", and if your into this kind of stuff at all you might enjoy "Prime Evil."

The idea of murdering satanic Catholic monks totally turned me on, but what I saw here is just horrible crap! I'm a die hard horror fan, and I go out on a limb to make even the WORST horror films good, but this film was so BAD that I just wanted to kill myself after it was all over! This film is truly horribly boring and poorly acted and pinpoints exactly where low budget horror goes wrong. *out of****pretty bad low average bore

A group of evil monks surface in New York City sacrificing humans left and right to Lord Satan.Fortunately,a brave and determined nun infiltrates the sect in an attempt to stop the immortals' demonic sacrifices."Prime Evil" is truly horrible.The action is very dull and the acting is bad.The gore effects made by Ed French are occasionally pretty effective and gruesome.Still the film is horribly boring,so don't waste your time with this one!