Eternal Evil (1985)

Blue Man

Cast:

Winston Rekert is Paul Sharpe
Karen "Had to work on Double O Kid" Black is Janus
John Novak is Kauffman
Patty Talbot is Jennifer Sharpe
Vlasta Vrana is Scott

What the box says:

A bored television director is introduced to the black arts and astral projection by his girlfriend. Learning the ability to separate his spirit from his body, the man finds a renewed interest in his life and a sense of wellbeing. Unfortunately, the man discovers while he is sleeping, his spirit leaves his body and his uncontrolled body roams the streets in a murderous rampage.

Plot:

Director Paul Sharpe is having another astral projection, out of body experience, while his career circles around another commercial since he can't think of a new artistic movie. He explains all of this to his therapist, Dr. Carl, who isn't that impressed with his patient's projecting.

I'm not Treat Williams. No matter how many times you ask...

Paul and his wife, Jennifer, have a stranged relationship, and their son, Matthew, keeps drawing some sort of evil Blue Man.

Long ago, the Blue Men were in places besides Las Vegas... The family heads out to the country for a vacation at Jennifer's father's farm.

Dr. Carl is choked in what looks like some sort of astral projection. He's found hours later. Detective Kauffman is told of the strange things of Carl's death including the bones broken and how some of the organs look pierced. In decades before C.S.I., those kind of things would be awfully strange.

The family heads back home when they heard of Carl's murder.

Paul keeps having having astral projections of Janus. Later, another astral projection ensues of Jennifer's father.

After the funeral, Kauffman questions Paul. Later, Kauffman watches Paul's award-winning documentary about astral projection. An elderly couple discuss how they trade their bodies for newer replacements to keep living longer and longer.

Matthew is acting stranger and sensing bad things.

I'm about to go all Bill Mumy, Twilight Zone on you...

Kauffman checks on astral projection with a college professor who tells him about Janus. He starts looking for her.

At least, I'm not being chased by a Zunni fetish doll...

Paul's business partner's wife, Helen, starts hitting on him and reveals that Jennifer met with Detective Kauffman.

Matthew hears voices ordering him around the house to go to the basement and drink oil. Jennifer catches him moments afterward.

Hospital, Matthew is in intensive care.

Kauffman watches the documentary more and the hunch hits him.

Paul readies to fight Janus. Kauffman catches him before and they fight first. Paul finds Janus and realizes that she is possessed by one of the couple from his documentary. Kauffman shoots the goon. Janus rushes at Kauffman, but Paul shoots her.

Weeks later, Paul and Matthew are at the park. Paul meets Kauffman. Paul is going back into movies and learns that Kauffman is going to quit the police force.

Japanese Tea House, Kauffman is there and signs the bill something like Janus? Gotta have the shock ending...

What I say:

Eternal Evil tries to be more than just the typical 1980s supernatural horror movie. However, it doesn't work... It falls down low on astral projection of Astral Factor or dream horror of the lame Dreamaniac. At least, Eternal Evil isn't in the land of the the 1980s slasher flicks even if it was directed by George Mihalka who directed the original My Bloody Valentine.

A director who has been having to give up his prive works to work in commercials and has found his life is mostly a failure. He is met by a strange woman who introduces him to astral projecting and the strangeness ensues. Eventually, most of the people around him start to dying. Of course, the police detective is almost trying to do the "Columbo Searching for a Murderer" book. It's hard to keep track of the way things happened with the way the plot jumps around of the dreams and astral projections. Granted it was getting close to flashbacks inside of dream sequences.

Maybe, it doesn't look quite so washed out on another version besides the Millcreek 50 movie set "Pure Terror" version. For a 1985 movie, it looks awfully old and almost washed out as much as a 1970s TV-movie. This movie wants to be more than just a forgettable movie. Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to keep much interest. Movies like Evil Dead 2 or Shaolin Soccer tend to keep interest for most B-movie fans.

Quotable Dialogue
"Some lunatic to notion to travel outside your body. "
"Watch me, Dr. Meister..."
"Unwillingly... or willingly?"
"You talk to the dog, too?"
"You're father-in-law was becoming senile. He thought he was seeing ghosts."
Morals of the Story
In 1985, fat guys in diapers were added to improve diaper commercials.
Paint stripper doesn't make food taste better.
Dogs sense the evil of men.
A college professor is automatically an expert on academic things.
Housewives love real-life video games based on cleaning.