Not the best horror film that you will watch, but it is significant as Robert Englund's director debut.

It's a typical story of a nerdy teen (Stephen Geoffreys) with a whacked out mother (Oscar-winner Sandy Dennis looking a lot heavier than I remember her), who keeps getting his head shoved in the toilet by the school bullies, and just wants to be cool like his cousin Spike (Patrick O'Bryan).

He manages to find a way to reach out to the dark side and get revenge on everyone - well, almost everyone. His goofs in his first attempt to scare his cousin's girl (former Cowboy's cheerleader Lezlie Deane) and kills her. If you have a thing about spiders, you may want to fast forward through this part.

He perfects his craft as he changes into a satanic beast. The makeup and special effects were really good. The only problem I had was the length of time that it took to get here. The movie was pretty boring up to this point. Maybe Englund will do better as he directs himself later this year.

Of course, there is a sequel where Spike returns to battle the evil.

Anyone that telephones 976-EVIL for their horoscope gets more than their bargained for, with every phone call comes a demonic presence, and for Hoax, it's a chance to deal with those that bully him.

Better than the score would suggest, it has a good story, a decent cast, and a few scares. Very much of its time, so if you're a fan of horror from this era, you'll enjoy it. Atmospheric, perhaps a bit trashy, it has a definite appeal.

It definitely has the Robert Englund signature all over it, it has that nightmarish vibe, with those unmistakable surreal horror sequences.

Plenty of green screen special effects, plenty of dry ice, some good make up, don't expect a visual feast, but for the time they did a decent job with the production of it.

If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that the voice on the phone was that of Roger Jackson, aka Ghost face from Scream.

Stephen Geoffreys is perhaps the best known face here, and arguably the best in the film, good to see that he returned to acting after a stint in the adult entertainment business.

7/10.

Some moments work better than others and the film takes a trip to bizarro world towards the end and you stop caring, but for Robert Englund's directorial debut, 976-Evil has more style than expected and at least two great performances from Stephen Geoffreys and Sandy Dennis. Geoffreys is great as the put upon high school dork who gains his confidence due to demonic possession and Dennis swings from the rafters as his campy religious freak mother. Also worth seeing for some great effects even if it seems like this movie got the MPAA on a bad day. Even the so-called uncensored version feels like it was cut to ribbons.