''Evil Town'' is a 1987 American

zombie A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...

horror film directed by

Curtis Hanson Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His directing work included the psychological thriller '' The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'' (1992), the neo-noir crime film ''L. ...

, Mardi Rustam, Larry Spiegel and Peter S. Traynor. ''Evil Town'' was the last film with the actor Dean Jagger.

Synopsis

The film depicts an evil scientist's (

Dean Jagger Dean Jagger (November 7, 1903 – February 5, 1991) was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King's ''Twelve O'Clock High'' (1949). Early life Dean Jeffrie ...

) campaign to achieve eternal youth, through synthesizing a drug derived from human pituitary fluid. In extracting the fluid, he creates mindless zombies from the donors. Because the local town residents are in on the plot, to achieve immortality, they help the scientist, by abducting visitors who come through town.

Cast

James Keach James Keach (born December 7, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the younger brother of actor Stacy Keach Jr. and son of actor Stacy Keach Sr. Early life and education Keach was born in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Mary Cain ( ...

as Dr. Chris Fuller *

as Dr. Schaeffer *

Robert Walker Jr. Robert Hudson Walker Jr. (April 15, 1940 – December 5, 2019) was an American actor who appeared in films including ''Easy Rider'' (1969) and was a familiar presence on television in the 1960s and early 1970s. He became less active in lat ...

as Mike *

Doria Cook-Nelson Craig Theodore Nelson (born April 4, 1944) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Hayden Fox in the sitcom '' Coach'' (for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series), Deputy Ward Wilson in the 1 ...

as Linda *

Lynda Wiesmeier Lynda Ann Wiesmeier (pronounced WEES-myer, May 30, 1963 – December 16, 2012) was an American model and actress. She made her film debut in ''American Pop''. Wiesmeier was selected as both cover model and Playmate of the Month for the July 19 ...

as Dianne * Michele Marsh as Julie * Christie Houser as Terrie *

Dabbs Greer Robert William "Dabbs" Greer (April 2, 1917 – April 28, 2007) was an American character actor in film and television for over 60 years. With nearly 100 film roles and appearances in nearly 600 television episodes of various series, Greer ...

as Lyle Phelps *

Regis Toomey John Francis Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898October 12, 1991) was an American film and television actor. Early life Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, and attended Peabody High ...

as Doc Hooper * Lurene Tuttle as Mildred Phelps * Richard Hale as Lester Wylie * Hope Summers as Mrs. Wylie * E. J. André as Earl

Production

The film went into production in 1984 and went through numerous re-writes and re-edits before release in 1987. It is made up of footage of several older films, with major footage coming from the unfinished

film '' God Bless Dr. Shagetz'' (1974). When the pieces of the various older films were patched together, there was inclusion of some new footage, including some with Jillian Kesner and nude scenes with

Playboy Playmate A Playmate is a female model featured in the centerfold/gatefold of ''Playboy'' magazine as Playmate of the Month (PMOTM). The PMOTM's pictorial includes nude photographs and a centerfold poster, along with a pictorial biography and the "Play ...

Pre spin-off

When beginning work on ''Evil Town'' in 1984, director Mardi Rustam liked the story enough to make his own version, which he released as '' Evils of the Night'' (1985),Evils of the Night was shot in June of 1983, but not released until 1985. If Rustam shot "additional scenes" for Evil Town in 1984, he would have been borrowing the concept from his own yet-to-be-released Evils of the Night. two years before the release of ''Evil Town''.

Reception

Cavett Binion of All Movie Guide called it a "silly horror film" and noted that it was an assemblage of parts of earlier films, including an unfinished one from the 1970s, and that it was "spiced up with some gratuitous nudity courtesy of former Playboy playmate Lynda Wiesmeier". While remarking that the editor's efforts to maintain continuity were commendable, he concluded that "the end result seems hardly worth the effort".

Release

The film was scheduled for release on June 3, 1987, but due to the high level of anticipation for the movie, many theaters began showing it on the evening of June 2, 1987. It was released in the United States on VHS in November 1987.

References

External links

* * * {{Curtis Hanson 1987 films 1987 horror films American zombie films Films directed by Curtis Hanson Films scored by Charles Bernstein 1980s English-language films 1980s American films