Exploring the Sequels

# 14 976-Evil 2: The Astral Factor

Saved by the Hell: The College Years

The ceremonial traditions of high school graduation has, in most cases, been frivolous, fussy bullshit for an achievement literally anyone can undertake and in most cases have to. From teary eyed valedictorians to the stoned, bleary eyed underachiever rearmost in his class, both toddle or saunter out the same fretful door. Less a life accomplishment and more of an admonishment that life is coming to pick the feathers off the wings of your better angels if you let it.

For many a providential path is a collegiate track filled with the horrors of rooming with complete strangers. Shut ins who won’t shut up or shut ins who won’t say shit, to the developmentally arrested frat and sorority monsters of Greek life, or that one professor who’s just a PHD’d asshole.

976-Evil 2 picks up some time later in a different town of California at the local college (that looks to have been shot at a large high school) where we follow our lead student Nicole (Debbie James) as a serial killer has been terrorizing the student body with the dead bodies of fellow students. The college dean Mr. Grubek (Rene Assa), is the murderer at large and has amassed his own paranormal abilities by calling the same horrorscope hotline to hell that ultimately destroyed Hoax in 976-Evil. Nicole was Mr. Grubek’s intern and his obsession. After the drunken janitor (typecast drunk and my hobo king, Sir George “Buck” Flowers) becomes witness to his last killing of a showering coed, Grubek is arrested and held by local authorities while awaiting trial.

Grubek gets his one phone call and guess who he dials up. That’s right. A vile, grotesque, seller of lies and immorality only put on this earth to harm others…his attorney. Oh and he also calls the horrorscope again to get increased dose of those demon gains granting his professorial ass the ability to astral project (hey! the subtitle) his soul out into the material world to continue his spree while his corporeal body rests in his cell.

Spike (Patrick O’Bryan), our returning champion from part 1, rolls into town, now a fully grown, black leathered figure of christ on his bike, seeking out Nicole. As someone similar to Spike and insusceptible to such evils, he has been led to her by a potency he doesn’t understand (nor does the movie really care to explain). He and Nicole must team up to hunt down and defeat Grubek and the duress of hell once again, before the dean takes his preoccupation with Nicole to it’s inevitable end while demolishing everyone else in his path.

1988’s 976 Evil told the story from the vantage points of an unfortunate, isolated, religiously coddled outcast and his rebelliously spirited, damaged, yet good hearted cousin. To loosely observe these two one might conclude that the innocent drip Hoax, would be drawn to the warm gleam of good and the long haired greaser Spike, to the cold, inky darkness. But Hoax picked up the deceitful call to punch up and strike back. To gain agency in an ecosystem of suppression and persecution whether it be his Piper Lauriesque mother or fellow tyrannical peers in high school. Hoax was wrong in his choice but there’s room to empathize with his plight.

976-Evil 2 evokes a tale of an already wicked man with homicidal hobbies in a position of power, who seeks to further that authority on people in more feeble positions than he. The opaque nuances of what makes us good or bad are removed here for a straight forward villain we can’t connect with. Fun still, but less thematically interesting which mainly captures the spirit and straight forwardness of the first half of the movie. But like the hell frozen over finale in 976-Evil, thankfully, the second half of 976-Evil 2 uses it microscopic budget to conjure two surreal back to back set pieces that simply elevate this straight to video sequel to something a bit more special than it’s early 90’s birthed for a buck brethren.

Spike, in then modern California, searching for answers on how Grubek is able to continue killing from the confinement of jail, pulls up to an intangible brick bookstore that seems to exist separately from our modern markets in its own preternaturally dated plane of existence. Out of place and time. As if only Spike can see its gorgeously lit lamppost and black lettered sign embraced by late night fog, advertising its name, “Lucifer’s”.

Venerating and visually Victorian, Spike enters the threshold of possibly the Devil’s own Barnes and Noble. A store of the damned filled with ancient texts and unholy trinkets of alchemy and the darkest arts of magicians and demons alike. The owner, played by (in her prime) Bridget Neilson, assists Spike with the answer he seeks while never knowing if her flirtatious fawning is merely some midnight attraction of a lonely, gothic bookkeeper or an enchantment from some Nordic ice witch immortally confined to this space like a fairy tale, playing with her next meal. Through her, Spike learns astral projection is the key to Mr. Grunek’s locked cell break out and naturally projects his plan.

The next scene and tour de force that carries the movie from base camp to the peak of creative strangeness, reminds me why I love this era, this genre, and the accidentally artful discoveries it delivers compared to others. Nicole and her best friend Paula (Leslie Ryan), are hanging out watching Night of the Living Dead on tv (a shout out to horror movie tradition) but Nicole hates horror movies and is frightened. Nicole changes the channel and another public domain movie playing conveniently not around Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life is on as well. They playfully go back and forth switching channels until Paula gives in and agrees to just watch Jimmy Stewart in his most popular film. But while Nicole gets up to go to the kitchen to make popcorn Mr. Grubek appears on the television as a talking head, suddenly transporting Paula from her living room into the movie they are watching.

Seamlessly, Paula feels fully a part of the final scene with Jimmy and his family and friends learning the meaning of life. Bewildered, she approaches the characters but by the time Paula realizes the Christmas classic has been supernaturally juxtaposed with Romero’s zombie masterpiece it’s too late. Straight to video exploitation horror and soft core journeyman director Jim Wynorski (this man made The Witches of Breastwick, people) flexes with empty pockets and matches the visual spark of the similar in spirit but overall better movie Waxwork 2: Lost in Time (also 1992), in boss like fashion. This black and white nightmare of Wynorski imposing an actor into pre existing footage predates different and vastly more known and respected versions of the same gimmick in Oscar nominated films like Forrest Gump and Pleasantville by multiple years.

Nicole and Spike, after a dangerous car chase, must defeat Grubek on his own terms. Spike purposely puts himself in a position to astrally project his own soul and after a fight, takes Grubek out in a similar fashion as he did Hoax in the first movie knowing that one reluctant rebel’s sacrifice will demand no return on investment this time. But as the stars configure, shimmering in the night sky above the crime scene, we get the feeling Spike had to ride through hell to finally find a home he deserved. A bleak cliffhanger of an ending forecasts Nicole is the next chosen one to answer the call collecting a heavy burden and new cross to bear.

The 976-Evil series has been enjoyable enough that I wanted more adventures with Nicole and Spike, wayfaring place to place. Analog angels, battling the treacherous worldwide reach of the terrors to be found in technology and the hold it takes on us as we seek our own cravings for power, visibility, and a voice to project our screams.

Eventually, whether it’s 1992 before the internet caught the world in its web or the digital social demons demanding all of our attention today, this is no hoax. “Evil” always foresees what we think we need and will supply that spike in demand accordingly. Some of us can just hang up, while others may never get off the line. These movies are reminders that it’s not always set which we will be. All the while something vast and artificial yet dangerously intelligent, is learning and growing, idle within the fibers and metals of what you’re holding in your hand right now for its opportunity to reach out as well. It’s already calling but the only devil behind it is ourselves.

So take out your phone, text the number on your horrorscope with coupon code: SOCALLMEMAYBE666 and let 976-Evil 2: The Astral Factor give you an out of body experience with its horrorble low budget appeal. It’s a close call but I think I like this sequel even more than the first!

Next time we’re gonna get transported into a world of mad science, that gets a little messy, a little gooey, and a little bit tragic. So don’t bug me any longer cause we gonna get our Musca Domestica on with The Fly series!

Just don’t swat this one away when it hits your inbox.