Cheap Good Against Evil & Satan's School for Girls (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Good Against Evil & Satan's School for Girls

A lot of fun, if you're a fan of the genre
SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS is an early 1970s TV movie with a familiar plot. An all-girls New England prep school (tellingly called The Salem Academy) is really a base of operation for ... Satan! (That should come as no surprise, considering the film's title.) And Satan likes to recruit young women for his coven. <
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>Sounds like a sexy movie, but since this is a TV movie, you don't see much skin. However, you see plenty of pretty faces. Such as future CHARLIE'S ANGELS Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd (though horror fans are more likely to remember Jackson from DARK SHADOWS). But the film's main star is Pamela Franklin. I'm surprised that a below reviewer called Franklin "an unknown actress," as Franklin also starred in horror's THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (and much else). <
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>The horror isn't gory, but there are some scary scenes, such as the death of one of the teachers. The print quality isn't too great. It looks to have been struck from a scratchy 16mm print that had gone out to TV stations. <
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>The second offering on this DVD, GOOD AGAINST EVIL, isn't even a TV movie. It's a TV pilot for a series about tracking down a girl raised to be Satan's bride. Because it's a pilot, the story ends on a cliffhanger (i.e., the hunt is about to begin). But since the pilot wasn't picked up, the series never materialized, so this cliffhanger will forever remain unresolved. <
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>These two "movies" are not objectively great, but you should enjoy them provided you are either (1) a horror completist, or (2) a hardcore fan of 1970s supernatural TV movies & series (i.e., GHOST STORY/CIRCLE OF FEAR, DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, THE INITIATION OF SARAH, RACE WITH THE DEVIL, and KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER). No, the "movies" on this DVD don't rise to that level of quality, but hardcore fans and completists will want to see them anyway. You can't beat the price. Even so, more discerning horror fans may wish to pass.

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Dull tedium best left forgotten
Being a fan of occult films this looked like a bargain to me. Not one but TWO films on one disc for one low price. Oh boy! And one of them looked like it couldn't help but be a lot of fun because it featured a couple of Charlie's Angels. <
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>But unfortunately instead of being scary, entertaining or even cheesy in a schlocky, good kind of way, all these two 1970s made-for-TV movies ended up being is just plain BO-ring. <
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>As soon as I got this I couldn't wait to check out "Satan's School For Girls". In this 1973 movie made a few years before Charlie's Angels got started Cheryl Ladd is still a teenager. She and Kate Jackson are joined here by Roy Thinnes of 60's TV sci-fi classic "The Invaders" fame, as well as that staple character actor of evil/snobbish/shady types on 70s TV, Lloyd Bochner. <
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>But the script is so weak and simplistic it's laughable. A girl's sister inexplicably commits suicide so the girl (not Jackson or Ladd but some unknown actress) goes to the school posing as a new student to investigate. Jackson befriends her, and Cheryl Ladd plays a minor character barely in the movie at all. Don't want to spoil what pitifully little surprise the predictable plot has, so just let me say how this dull script ever got made is beyond me. My comment on this one is "where's the story?" A total waste of time, even for Charlie's Angels fans. It just put me to sleep. <
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>Next I tried 1977's "Good Against Evil". A wee bit more substance here, but I didn't enjoy this one either because I found the main character so terribly annoying. <
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>The premise of the film is that a 20-ish fashion designer in San Francisco is actually a child conceived and raised by Satanists in order to bear the Devil's child. Of course she is unaware of this, and any boyfriends she has made in the past mysteriously keep meeting with fatal accidents. Then along comes her latest extra sappy boyfriend, a goody two-shoes type played by Dack Rambo, who I immediately developed a strong dislike for. <
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>He becomes the main character in the film, and it is never explained just why he does not meet with an unnatural death like the previous boyfriends. Perennial bad-guy actor Richard Lynch plays his nemesis, sinister Satanist Mr. Rimmin. <
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>It is clear that this movie was developed in response to some TV exec's desire to have a TV series to cash in on the then-recent success of "The Exorcist" and the subsequent occult interest boom that it spawned. Thus this movie even comes complete with its own white-haired, Scandinavian-accented exorcist priest -- a total Max Von Sydow rip-off. <
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>But between the very draggy plot and the very annoying main character, I found myself fast-forwarding through much of this film. In typical TV series pilot movie fashion the ending is left open, allowing for the possibility of the boyfriend and the priest's adventures continuing. But thankfully the networks saw fit to spare us that hellish fate and never went on to produce what would have been one yawner of a series. <
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>As for the DVD, the prints of both of these films are in terrible faded and scratched shape. <
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>Overall, I would advise staying far, far away from both of these worthless and unremarkable films. But if your curiosity still has the better of you, I would recommend renting rather than buying, since I am now left with a DVD of 2 movies which I don't really feel like ever watching again. Even one viewing was too much of a waste of time! <
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Wow, Satan Sure Was BUSY In The '70s!
GOOD AGAINST EVIL was a made for tv pilot film for a series that never got off the ground. It's sort of an emasculated hybrid of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. A baby is conceived through ritual rape, taken from her mother, offered to the devil, and raised by a secret group of satanists. As an adult (played by Elyssa Davalos), she is protected by those around her, oblivious to the fact that they are planted agents of satan. Along comes a guy (Dack Rambo) to fall in love with her and mess things up. Of course, the devil-folks (led by snakey Richard Lynch) don't take kindly to the idea, and set out to split them up by any means necessary. They kidnap the girl and take her to an undisclosed location. Meanwhile, a little girl gets demon possessed and draws Rambo's character to her. The girl just happens to be the daughter of his ex-girlfriend (played by none other than Kim Catrall), who tries to rekindle a romance with him, while getting an exorcism for her daughter! Dan O'Herlihy (Halloween 3, Robocop) is the exorcist. Unforunately, we'll never know how things turned out, as the series was never made. -SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS is a cheesey little gem, starring 2/3 of Charlies Angels (Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd)! A woman enrolls in the Salem Academy For Women after her sister is found hanging in her livingroom. Her sleuthing leads her to believe that one of the professors is killing girls (she finds out that others have committed "suicide" too) and making it look like they killed themselves. However, things are not as they appear. Something far more sinister is taking place at the academy! And I'm not just talking about the ultra-groovey '70s fashions either! All in all, a decent double feature...