 
A juvenile delinquent
named Spike (Patrick O'Bryan) lives with
his crazed religious fanatical Aunt Lucy
(Sandy Dennis) and his nerdy cousin Hoax
(Stephen Geoffreys) since his parents
have passed away. He sees a flyer in his
magazine about a horrorscope as the
number to call is listed as 976-Evil he
calls it and gets the scoop on what will
happen. Suddenly it rains fish and his
aunt thinks that it's a miracle from God.
Spike doesn't know what to think about
what has happened and calls the
horrorscope thinking that it might help
him. Yet, he almost gets himself killed
as he realises that he might be making a
deal with the devil. Hoax finds the flyer
and dials it up. He gets heavily invovled
with the horrorscope to get even with his
school bullies and get the girl of his
dreams come to him which is of course
Spike's girlfriend Suzie (Lezlie Deane).
Things turn really nasty for him as he
gets carried away as he accidentally
kills Suzie with his voodoo magic using
his pet tarantula. He turns nasty and
then he slowly becomes posessed as Satan
uses his body to kill the bullies, his
mother and then he to tries to kill Spike
but Spike tries to get some help from a
detective named Marty (Jim Metzler) to
save him from the 976-EVIL telephone line
and to try and rescue Hoax from his own
posession from Satan.
A neat film with
interesting topics. Some scenes were
borrowed heavily from the film
Carrie like with the shy nerd
being picked on by bullies and living
with his religious fanatical mother. Its
a very still type of film with not too
much goings on in it which is good as you
can concentrate on the story unlike most
films of these types.
The acting is
really good. This marks Stephen
Geoffreys best performance. It's a
shame he moved onto gay pornography as I
guess he found that it paid better. He
was excellent with his lines, emotions
and energy in general. His best scenes is
when he slowly becomes possessed by the
devil showing his evilness towards others
before the sound effects of his voice
coming in. Although he was good in Fright
Night he can definetely beat his
part in that film compared to this one.
Sandy Dennis is very witty is
the fanatical Aunt Lucy which brings
humor to the films darkness.
Patrick O'Bryan also did very
well as a tough but kind hearted toughie.
Lezlie Deane
does a quick flash while showing off her
tattoo.
A bullies face is
slashed by claws formed on Hoax's fingers
Two other bullies have their hearts torn
out
The third bully's hand is cut off
The fourth one is stabbed through a sharp
electrical light.
A torn up stomach of Aunt Lucy is
revealed in her bed.
Yes you got it!
Freddy Krueger himself Robert Englund
directed this piece and what a splendid
job he did with it. He was making it both
dark and Freddy Krueger type humorous
with the jokes etc. Had great shots on
the actors.
I loved the eerie sound of the phone
ringing when the devil is about to
sacrifice a members life that was a
regular on the 976-EVIL line.
The story gets really exciting when he
coaches Stephen Geoffreys who plays the
nerd Hoax turns evil and starts killing
but then the story has many leaky holes
as there's not enough suspense when the
terror really starts except for when the
gates of hell from beneath the ground
opens up as there's great camera shots on
it and neat effects too.
I also liked the scene where it was
raining fish and when a car turns on
automatically after the 976-EVIL line
tells Patrick O Bryan's
character Spike to look both ways before
crossing the street. He shows great
reactions to this too.
I enjoyed the
composing of Thomas Chase and Steve
Ruckner using nice chilling
classical music throughout the film.
Hoax:
Once you've been to hell, everything else
pales in comparison!
Pet
Parrot: [After possessed Hoax
slashes and kills his mother and blood
splatters onto the sofa]
[Repeated Line]
Pet Parrot: Not on the couch! Not
on the Couch! *squawk
Hoax: [Possessed Hoax reaches
into the cage and squeezes the bird to
death] That's what the plastic's for,
asshole!
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