Fear No Evil (1981)
Andrew Williams (Stefan Arngrim), an eighteen-year-old high-schooler of some brilliance but also of a withdrawn nature. His classmates make life difficult for him, his father is afraid of him, and he has put himself at odds with everyone in his vicinity.
Likely because he is the reincarnation of Lucifer.
There are three archangels who have been reborn to stand against him, which is fortunate. Unfortunately, only two of them are aware of it.
We start the tale a few years earlier, when Father Damon (the Archangel Rafael) kills a man he is convinced is Lucifer. But evil has a way of not staying dead, especially in the movies. Lucifer comes back as Andrew, born in 1963 into a Catholic home where they will come to understand that there is something very wrong with their boy.
Fast forward to 1980, and Andrew is a senior. Columbia, Harvard, and Yale would all have him, but he has no use for college, his peers, or anything else, for that matter. His father has turned to drink and abuse; he thinks Andrew is evil and has no better way to deal with it. Honestly, his father is a huge jerk from the word go.
Then there is Margaret, the sister of Father Damon. She sees the signs of Lucifer’s return and is under the impression she and her late brother were two of the archangels meant to put a stop to it. The third is Julie, an Andrew classmate who is quite unaware of her true self. It is a bit convoluted, to be honest.
On top of that, you have zombies, a haunted island fortress, demonic transformations, a Passion play gone horribly awry, some punk rock, resurrection, glowing crosses, and Lucifer about in full dramatic makeup like a methed-up Dr. Frank N Furter. And more special effects that an Earth, Wind and Fire video. It is not exactly subtle.
Frank LaLoggia, who would go on to do Lady in White, wrote and directed this as his first feature. For a low-budget affair, it is wildly ambitious. LaLoggia has no intention of making a run-of-the-mill Antichrist picture; he wants a religious epic, a Gothic tale, a story of teenage rebellion and a horror film all in one. He did not always succeed. Though I prefer a film to overreach and fail rather than phone it in and call it a day.
Stefan Arngrim gives a performance as Andrew that is cold and still. He says little and looks at people with a good deal of contempt and resentment. In the early going, he is more sympathetic than those around him. His mother loves him but can do nothing to shield him; his father torments him out of fear; his classmates do what they can to torment him. They have already made up their minds he is a monster before he has even taken to his supernatural side.
LaLoggia puts together a fine soundtrack from the Boomtown Rats, the Ramones, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols and the like that lends the school scenes an energy at odds with the solemnity of the religious fare. You get the sense of a film made at the crossroads of old religious fears and new ones concerning punk and social mores, with the Satanic Panic on the horizon.
And in the final act, any pretense of restraint is dropped entirely.
The special effects are as wonderfully cheap as they are effective. LaLoggia may have had certain visions for some scenes, but the film does not have the funds to realize them; instead, you are left with smoke, colored lighting, and some rather frantic editing, all delivered with complete sincerity. You know what? it still works.
I saw this when it was new, yet very little of the plot has stuck with me over the years. I could put my finger on the Satanic horror vibe and Andrew, but nothing about the high-school play or the reincarnated archangels, nor how odd things get in the final act. Perhaps because Fear No Evil is less a movie in the conventional sense and more like four horror movies in a trench coat. It is part *The Omen*, part Catholic nightmare, part low-budget epic, and part high-school supernatural drama. To say it lacks focus is an understatement.
I would be hard-pressed to call it a great movie, or even a good one. But still it was a fun one.
Jackson, IL Connections
So Darren Vale is pretty much my homage to Andrew Williams and Fear No Evil. No. He is Andrew with the serial numbers filed off. Like I have said before, sometimes embracing the cliché is the way to go.
Now this movie also has archangels, something I have not used in Jackson even though they are something that would work fine in any NIGHT SHIFT game. Honestly, I have not given them a thought really. I don't think they belong, to be honest. Jackson is hometown horror where the responsibility of fighting the forces of darkness belongs to ordinary people. Well...normal people and some supernatural people.
October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
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