Evil Judgment

Evil Judgment

Evil Judgment

It's never a good sign when a mid-80s slasher movie/thriller lays lingering on a shelf for several years and ends up being obscure and unknown. There were (too) many similar movies back then and it's difficult to stand out in the crowd, I know, but if a film is so forgotten like "Evil Judgment" it's usually for a good reason. And yet, any slasher flick that features two grisly murders before the opening credits have even finished screen receives my full attention and the benefit of the doubt! The film also remains intriguing after that, with a sequence at a sleazy diner where an elderly customer urinates in a bowl of soup (allegedly because the soup also tastes like urine) and where a woman insists to her friend, the waitress, that she should consider becoming a prostitute because it pays much better. Career advice, always nice! The waitress discusses the idea with her boyfriend, who's an errand boy for the mafia, and he promptly throws her out of the apartment. Naked. That persuades her to give prostitution a chance. Her friend takes her to a fancy mansion for a threesome with a rich customer, and only then the bizarre slasher/murder mystery plot shifts into gear. I won't elaborate on the plot too much, but it's convoluted and predictable at the same time. It's also original but boring at the same time, and it's silly but strangely compelling at the same time as well. Those are some very contradictory descriptions, but "Evil Judgment" simply is that kind of unfathomable early 80s low-budget horror flick. Just to illustrate how uneven the script is: Janet's nitwit boyfriend Dino goes from being a heartless jerk, who throws her out of the door naked, to a caring and semi-heroic dream lover who's the only one who believes her and even helps solving the mystery. Why does she go back to someone who treated her so badly in the first place? There isn't any suspense in this Canadian exploitation flick, and in terms of gore and bloodshed it also doesn't deliver like an 80s horror movie should. The handful of throat-slits are reasonably graphical, but there's practically nothing else. Everything else that could possibly improve the viewing experience is missing here as well (acting, photography, soundtrack, set pieces...). I never heard about writer/director Claudio Castravelli before, but I noticed that - in 1971 - he also made a movie that is called "Up Uranus". I will make it my life's mission to track that one down.

source: Evil Judgment

This was actually an OK film! The character development was a little sloppy, but the plot was actually complex and kept my interest. Janet, a blonde waitress, is trying to make it as a dancer in the big city, but the money just isn't flowing fast enough. Her prozzy friend April suggests she try hooking because she can make an entire week's salary in one night. What?! I had to put my knitting down when I heard that. An entire week!? And to think I've just been giving it away. Janet's first night as a proz turns into a nightmare when her friend and current john are murdered, apparently by a mad man with Mother Mary complex who must punish the impure. A subplot involving the mafia and a corrupt police is also presented, yadda yadda, but back to my new found entrepreneurial idea.... A whole week's salary!? As shown in this fine film, the only possible drawback would be being murdered whilst on the job. But if I were to show my Red Umbrella/SWOP membership card, I'm sure I could avoid any trouble.

"A bloody trail of seemingly senseless murders leads a terrified young girl into a nightmarish web of police corruption and deadly, psychopathic madness!" We haven't had a killer judge on our site since we talked about Lindsay Shotneff's - working as Lewis J. Force - Night After Night After Night. Made in 1981 but not released until three years later, this is one of those movies where I have to use my scale of "Is it a giallo or a slasher?" It does have some attempts at fashion - which I'll get to - but it's grimy and near artless, with no attempt at a great soundtrack or color palette. So let's say it's a political conspiracy/woman gone wrong slasher, a hybrid that is pretty much a rarity. There are also innumerable scenes of people eating in this, including one scene in a diner where a loud old homeless man dislikes his soup so much that he stands up and urinates in it before starting a fistfight. One of that place's waitresses - Janet (Pamela Collyer, Meatballs III: Summer Job) - has no money and a controlling low-level mobster boyfriend named Dino (Jack Langedijk, who was in the 2000 version of Left Behind). Her friend April (Nanette Workman, who sang backup for the Stones on "Honky Tonk Woman" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want") suggests that hey, maybe she should try some hooking. After all, April has all of these fabulous outfits - her housecoats look like something Ric Flair would wear to defend the belt against Tommy Rich in Greensboro - and smokes all the time, so why not? Janet shares this idea over pillow talk with Dino and gets thrown out of bed naked, so she decides to stop being controlled and start selling her body. Is this going to become a slasher soon? Just as I think that, a mental patient (Walter Massey, Happy Birthday to Me, Zombie Nightmare) kills a doctor and nurse and runs into the night. Back to Janet being a hooker. Now, her friend April has brought her in to sleep with a rich client who looks like Rip Taylor and acts like Evelyn Quince. They're attempted - and creepy - menage a trois is interrupted by the lights going out and the maniac killing everyone but our heroine, who the police blame for the killing. So in the question of giallo vs. slasher, Janet must now become the detective and solve this. However, she is not a stranger in a strange land and the fashion sense of this movie remains horrid, so we are still in slasher country, even if the mysterious killer has on black leather gloves. Oh and hey - the cop who accuses our protagonist of the crimes is slasher vet Roland Nincheri (Visiting Hours, Terror Train). Suzanne DeLaurentiis, who produced the film D-Railed that we covered last year, is also in this.