With the emergence of everyday computers during the 1980's, came the natural fear of just what they were capable of. Evilspeak may not contain the most ridiculous use of blending technology with the supernatural ever committed to film, but it does demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how they actually work. Apparently, you can key in a question or a Latin sentence, and you will receive an answer or interpretation. Of course, with Google now the most omniscient tool since the Almighty himself, computers are now capable of doing just that. In Evilspeak, it is used in an attempt to summon Satan, but how exactly is unclear.
Social outcast Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard) is a young cadet at an American military academy, where his chubby appearance, lack of football (soccer) skills, and general idiotic behaviour make him the subject of bullying. Whilst cleaning the church cellar, he comes across the diary of Father Esteban (Richard Moll), a Spanish Satanist who existed during the Dark Ages and who is glimpsed in the opening scenes sacrificing a woman. Using his trusty computer, Stanley interprets the diary and discovers that it contains a recipe to perform a Black Mass - a black magic ritual he plans on using against his classmates.
Similar in subject matter to Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976), Evilspeak fails to engage as De Palma's iconic horror did due to bad writing and a lack of any engaging back-story. Howard is impressive as Stanley, playing the bumbling goon well enough to get him on our side, but for the most part, the film aimlessly and bloodlessly ambles on, occasionally throwing in random supernatural events such as deadly pigs attacking a naked secretary in the shower (naturally). When the climax comes, it is a satisfyingly bizarre collection of blood and guts that cemented it's classification as a 'video nasty', and the effects aren't bad at all. However, this comes too late and Evilspeak never manages to become anything other than an occasionally amusing oddity with an amiable performance from it's lead.
So we find ourselves again in the heady, glossy '80's. A film that would delight any 10 year old; special, fast, shiny cars in high-speed races on Arizona desert roads. What more could a boy ask for? Well, in the case of The Wraith, we also have a supernatural avenging spirit.
A gang of leather-clad "punks" lead by mullet-wearing Parkard (Nick Cassavettes), 'bothers' teenage drivers, and forces them to race for the possession of their cars. And they don't play fair. Packard is obsessed with Keri (Sherilyn Fenn), and believes that she belongs to him. We are offered glimpses of backstory in an incident where she was caught with Jamie Hankins, and the gang murder him. At the same time that Jake (Charlie Sheen) arrives in town, a visible apparition of possible alien origin arrives in a futuristic-looking sports car: A wraith with the intent of avenging his death (yes, he is the spirit of Jamie; revenge is his motivation).
What proceeds is a series of repetitive kills, as the wraith races with the gang and blows their car (but not their bodies) to smithereens. In a different decade, this post-Knight Rider-like ghost-revenge flick, could have been less, well, 1980's. It focuses more on the fast-car elements, and less on the spiritual nature of post-death revenge. It's not a bad film, just very predictable and as I previously mentioned repetitive. There are hammy turns by Randy Quaid (Sheriff Loomis), and Eraserhead-haired geek, Rughead, by nerd regular Clint Howard. This adds nothing to the film, except for decade-cliche.
The film bizarrely had a poster that was directly descended from the Back to the Future (1985) promotions (i.e. a figure exiting a vehicle with bright-white light emitting from the drivers door). The wraith itself is clearly lifted from the Japanese Manga character introduced in 1985, The Bio Booster Guyver (which was also turned into a Hollywood film in 1991). The costume almost identical.
