Something very strange and sinister is going on at a gloomy, moldy, dilapidated Los Angeles boarding house run by endearingly batty landlady Karen Black. Lots of residents who check in check out permanently so Ms. Black and her dead, but still present wheelchair-bound husband (who speaks with Karen telepathically from beyond the grave) can continue to collect their welfare and pension checks without having to spend extra cash feeding and housing the poor folks. Said tenants are a colorfully kooky bunch played by a game cast of genre favorites hand-picked to please the horror fans: Martine Beswicke as an edgy, intense psychic, Bert Remsen and Virginia Mayo as a bickering elderly couple, screenwriter Mikel Angel as a perpetually sloshed stewbum alcoholic, Michael Berryman as a creepy peeping tom, and the astonishingly cute'n'cuddly Debra Lamb as an adorably waifish mute dancer. Popping up in fun secondary roles are Arte Johnson as a meddlesome Social Security worker, Yvette Vickers as a shrewish neighbor who's always complaining about the odd foul stench emanating from Ms. Black's basement (hmm, I wonder what that could be?), Robert Quarry as a doctor, Anthony Eisley as a cop, and Hoke Howell as a friendly mailman.
Ace veteran cinematographer Gary Graver directs with a sure playfully wiggy touch, keeping the tone of this cheerfully macabre horror black comedy amusingly off-kilter throughout. Meanwhile, the pace clicks away at a solid steady tempo, the photography is impressively polished, and the lashings of mild gore and gratuitous nudity ensure that on a pure exploitation level this lightweight diversion is satisfying enough. But ultimately it's the uniformly lively and enthusiastic performances that make this amiable fluff so entertaining. Karen Black in particular brings a disarmingly wacky charm to her juicy nutjob part, making her character so totally personable in her ditzy loopiness that even the fact that she's a killer does nothing to lesson her daffy appeal. Sure, "Evil Spirits" certainly isn't the kind of film anyone will ever hail as a bona-fide cinematic masterpiece, but it's nonetheless still a perfectly enjoyable little Grade B fright flick just the same.
Ace veteran cinematographer Gary Graver directs with a sure playfully wiggy touch, keeping the tone of this cheerfully macabre horror black comedy amusingly off-kilter throughout. Meanwhile, the pace clicks away at a solid steady tempo, the photography is impressively polished, and the lashings of mild gore and gratuitous nudity ensure that on a pure exploitation level this lightweight diversion is satisfying enough. But ultimately it's the uniformly lively and enthusiastic performances that make this amiable fluff so entertaining. Karen Black in particular brings a disarmingly wacky charm to her juicy nutjob part, making her character so totally personable in her ditzy loopiness that even the fact that she's a killer does nothing to lesson her daffy appeal. Sure, "Evil Spirits" certainly isn't the kind of film anyone will ever hail as a bona-fide cinematic masterpiece, but it's nonetheless still a perfectly enjoyable little Grade B fright flick just the same.