Fear No Evil (1969) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 20

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You can hear evil and see evil, but just don’t fear evil.

Fear No Evil is a simple Twilight Zone-esque made for TV film about the occult and the evil that men do unto each other. It features a number of stars and makes good work of the limited formats of the medium to tell an interesting, if not-too-scary story.

Before Viewing

The trailer promises “love beyond infinity.” The main character and his wife are encountering something strange with a mirror in their house. He doesn’t seem to believe what’s going on, but the wife is freaked out as she gets locked in a garage. There’s a scientist who is trying to help, and an old man that warns them they’re in grave danger. By the end of the trailer, the man is smashing a mirror. Let’s see if there’s really no evil to fear.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

Late at night, Paul Varney (Bradford Dillman) runs out of a building and into town acting like a crazy man. He bangs on an antique dealer’s door demanding to be let in. He buys an old mirror for $300 to be delivered to his apartment the next day. The next day his fiancée, Barbara (Linda Day), comes home to the mirror, which she finds curious. She lets Myles (Carroll O’Connor) in, who works with Paul at the technology research company Interspace. Myles has invited them to a party hosted by David (Louis Jordan), a psychiatrist who dabbles in the paranormal. At the party David introduces the guests to a mystical box of pain and asks who wants to open it. No one volunteers, so David opens it instead. It’s full of cigarettes, which they all chuckle about.

Paul leaves with Barbara in a rush. He keeps seeing weird visions in mirrors of his gaunt face beckoning him into the mirror. This distraction causes him to lose control of his vintage car and crash. Barbara is thrown free, but Paul is killed in the accident. David checks in on Barbara at the hospital later, when Mrs. Varney (Marsha Hunt) arrives to invite Barbara to stay at her mansion. She says they can share the pain of Paul’s loss together. In the room Barbara stays in, Mrs. Varney has placed the mirror, in which she see’s infinite reflections of the mirror and a black-clad Paul beckoning to her. She makes love with the reflection in the mirror, though in a trance-like state. The only proof of the encounter is a small trickle of blood on her neck.

David suggests she cover the mirror the next night, but it’s too much for her and she succumbs again. He drugs her into a state of hypnosis, where she reveals that on her wedding day she will be with Paul. David tells her that she needs to fight for her life. He makes a few inquiries about the mirror, and also speaks with Paul’s secretary who tells the doctor that he had an appointment the night before he died at the Metaphysical Research Center. There David discovers an audio tape with Paul’s name before being met by Ingrid (Katharine Woodville), who denies a meeting ever took place on the evening in question. That evening Barbara is locked out of the mansion and has a frightful experience in the garage, which closes by itself locking her inside. Mrs. Varney finds and comforts her, taking her back inside.

David’s mentor Harry (Wilfrid Hyde-White) listens to the audio tape which contains mention of a demon named Rakashi, Lord of Light, Lust and Blood. His knowledge is limited but he explains that the mirror shouldn’t be destroyed. Later, Myles confronts David warning him to back off his investigation. David takes it under advisement but continues anyway. He has the mirror removed from Barbara’s room, which makes her extremely agitated. Getting a call from Ingrid, David meets with her and takes her to Paul’s family crypt where he shows her the effects of the ritual she was part of; Paul’s dead body.

Returning to her room, Barbara finds a wedding dress laid out for her. Mrs. Varney suggests she return to Paul’s apartment where the mirror is so she can be with Paul forever. David presses Ingrid for more information on the demonologists that conducted the occult ceremony when Myles shows up, revealing himself as their leader. A flashback of the ceremony plays out the same as what was heard on the tape. They used Paul as a vessel in their Rakashi experiment, but he went mad and broke free, escaping into the night. David forces Myles to touch the symbols on a small mirror, the same way Paul did. Myles becomes possessed by Rakashi and tells David he will not win, but gives him the clue that, “beyond infinity, you could destroy me.”

David returns to the Varney mansion only to realize Mrs. Varney has told Barbara where the mirror is. Racing to Paul’s apartment David is too late. He sees a spectral form of Barbara in the mirror with Paul. Placing another mirror in front of the antique, he smashes the second mirror which causes the antique to shatter as well. Inside the landscape of the mirror, David sees the car crash being played back in a psychedelic fashion and warns Barbara that what she thinks is Paul, is not. She then sees the monster for what it truly is. He carries her out of the mirror and smashes the remains. Later, in the gardens of what is presumed to be a hospital, he tells her she is cured and it is time for her to leave.

“Trying to explain the unexplainable is a parlor game. By definition, it’s an exercise in futility.” – David Sorell

Fear No Evil was an NBC movie of the week broadcast on March 3, 1969. And at first blush it may seem a little clunky and stilted, which is partially true. Since this film was broadcast on television, it couldn’t have overtly horrific imagery or probably anything too scary. However there’s plenty of sexual innuendo, which is both cringeworthy and out of place. At the beginning of the film when Barbara, a 20-something, welcomes Myles, a late 40-something, into the apartment she introduces herself as a geisha. Geisha’s are Japanese hostesses trained to entertain men, which sometimes also have a sexual connotation. Myles compliments her by saying she’s “nice to watch,” which she chalks up to her having been an airline stewardess. Gross! The film gets lustier as it attempts to depict lovemaking between Barbara and the demon in the mirror that looks like Paul. This is more akin to films of the time that show two people, fully clothed, kissing passionately as the camera moves around them. Nothing completely out of the ordinary. Once she tells David about these dreams, or hallucinations, he refers to them as “erotic fantasies” which certainly is not the way they were depicted. But it does provide the audience with some framework to understand what was intended.

The filmmakers chose a more psychological and spiritual theme since creating anything with monsters, werewolves or vampires might come off as too hokey in a television setting. The occult was a big draw in recent years. Besides Rosemary’s Baby, which had a group of New York tenants attempting to put the spawn of Satan into a young woman, there was also The Witches (1966), The Crimson Cult (1968), and a slew of similar films from the early 70s. As the plot is revealed throughout the run time, the audience is left to wonder if perhaps the mirror is cursed, or what may be the cause of Paul’s mania. David acts as a paranormal detective, in the same vein as Kolchak the Night Stalker (a television precursor to The X-Files), and delves deeper into the mysteries of demonology and the strange goings on at the Metaphysical Research Center. Even though this is a television film, the suspense and tension are still evident. Maybe it’s not as strong as a Hitchcock film, but the mystery is intriguing, and the viewer’s ideas are probably more horrific than anything the writers could come up with.

One thing Fear No Evil does, which is interesting, is affects the connotation of what a demonologist is. Literally, the word means “study of demons,” which is what the group led by Myles is doing. They’re attempting to understand the demon Rakashi by inducing it into a body. But other films of the era, and beyond, often use the term demonologist as the name for one who fights off the demons, rather than bringing them into the world. The particular choice here to use that word conjures evil forces and malevolent spirits, which was probably the intent. And it was probably more interesting than creating the group as a coven of witches, or pure satanists. Myles, who is shown to be a strong man of science, might be seen as a strange choice to be the leader of this cell. He is shown working with lasers and even mentions later in his soliloquy that science is the “shrine” at which he worships. He wants to use science to better understand the dark arts. He also questions, specifically, if Satan was cast out of heaven as a fallen angel or as the victor in that particular battle. His diatribe claims that Satan gave science to the world, and since that is his own forte, he questions the responsibility to use it in the pursuit of power. Not just black magic, but power over life and death.

The film attempts to set up a false lead with Mrs. Varney as the main antagonist. There arises some suspicion that she might be involved in the group, responsible for her own son’s death as well as the continued torment of Barbara. She gives off that Angela Lansbury vibe as the mother from The Manchurian Candidate. Unfortunately, she’s just a regular kind of evil, and not a demonic one. Apparently, she never approved of Barbara or her relationship with Paul. Coming from money, her thoughts were that Barbara was a gold-digger, common and vulgar–as Barbara puts it. So, when Paul dies and she comes to see Barbara bearing an olive branch, the younger woman takes it. However, it appears that this was all a ruse. Mrs. Varney uses Barbara’s psychic distress, real or imagined, as a way to drive the woman further towards insanity. Mrs. Varney (who is only ever introduced this way), is apparently gaslighting Barbara for the big fall at the end. She is probably the one that locked Barbara in the garage, she set out the wedding dress for Barbara to find, and convinced her to go to the mirror in Paul’s apartment against the express wishes of David. She’s a horrible person, and definitely another “Evil” one should fear.

Fear No Evil and its sequel were meant to be a pilot for a television series following the same character called Bedeviled. The ideas presented here do create an interesting premise for a mystery-of-the-week type series, like Kolchak would become in the mid-70s. There’s a hint of The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery in the story as well, as the characters deal with paranormal elements that are not understood by science. The cast all does a passable job, but Louis Jordan really shines as the enigmatic David Sorell. His opening monologue about witches and demons, and the psychological trick he pulls on his party guests with the humidor is fun and also revealing. He points out to his friends, and the audience, that the words people use to describe things also hold power over them. If you’re into not terribly spooky occult films then this might be right up your alley.

Assorted Musings

• This movie of the week was followed in 1970 by Ritual of Evil, also starring Louis Jordan and Wilfrid Hyde-White as the same characters.
• Carroll O’Connor is better known by many as Archie Bunker from All In The Family.