MY CALL: This is one of those horror movies that has the mildly zany flavor and style of a NOES sequel (like NOES 3-5-ish). Maybe that’s your taste. It’s certainly mine. MORE MOVIES LIKE 976-EVIL: I’d actually recommend against moving on to the very inferior 976-Evil II (1991). Instead, I’d suggest The Horror Show (1989), Prom Night II (1987) and Prison (1987) for more NOES sequel-like horror. Since this is more about the effects of the call and less about the calls themselves, I’ll not be suggesting One Missed Call (2003, 2008), The Ring (2002), Unfriended (2015).
Two high schoolers living in the religious household of their aunt, Hoax (Stephen Geoffreys; Fright Night, The Chair) and his cousin Spike (Patrick O’Bryan; 976-EVIL II) seek excitement and freedom. Spike calls in on a magazine ad for his “horrorscope”—976-EVIL. A raspy voice (Robert Picardo; Legend, The Howling) narrates what sounds like any old horoscope with a dash of ominousness. But when Spike doesn’t act as his horrorscope suggests, he receives taunting calls from random payphones. Zany things swiftly ensue, including raining fish which is investigated by Modern Miracle magazine reporter (Jim Metzler; Waxwork II, Children of the Corn III).
Eventually Hoax finds the magazine ad and calls for his own horrorscope which leads him to his crush, who happens to be Spike’s girlfriend Suzie (Lezlie Deane; Freddy’s Dead, Girlfriend from Hell). Hoax goes all in, performing a Satanic ritual to win her over after she rejects him. Succumbing to the infernal influence, Hoax begins to lose his hair, breaks out in a rash, and grows some really gnarly claws.
From the cold open death scene, the horror stunts and shenanigans kick off adequately. Victims burn in telephone booth hellfire, get facially impaled with shards of shattered glass, and some cats eat their owner’s mangled body.
Director Robert Englund (Freddy’s Nightmares, Killer Pad) injects NOES nightmare sequence flavor into many scenes of this movie. Once Hoax begins his change, the effects get more interesting as he becomes more demonic in appearance, wild personality, and gains supernatural power. We don’t see things on screen that we’d like (e.g., gory moments and kills), but even the aftermath is somewhat pleasing. Hoax is hokey in a silly “Sequel Krueger” kinda’ way that works, and it begs some forgiveness for the gore that we are denied. By the end, Hoax looks like a rock’n roll demon elf and his house turns into a gateway to an icy Hell.
You know, the death scenes are generally on the weaker side (since we mostly just see the aftermath and not the on-screen death). But the gore and monster make-up effects are swell in precisely that 80s nostalgic way that I enjoy, even if a bit lower budget than I prefer, and the story and characters worked well for me, too. This was a pretty fun re-watch. Strongly recommended to fans of 80s horror, Freddy Krueger and the somewhat wacky NOES sequels.