Good Against Evil (1977) (TV)

I congratulate whoever pulled the plug on the television series, 12 October 2005

It's a romantic story that's as old as time – boy meets girl, but girl is destined to wed Satan. Seriously, that's pretty much the whole plot. A girl is born and raised to make the perfect bride for Satan. Her whole life has been carefully planned and mapped-out for her. So when love enters her life, those who have worked to protect her must put a stop to this new threat.

Good Against Evil is a 70s television movie that looks like a 70s television movie. Acting, sets, and other technical aspects are just what you would expect if you grew up in the 70s huddled around the television waiting for the Movie of the Week. Most everything in the movie is safe and sanitized and ready for general consumption. The exorcism scene, the supposed highlight of the movie, is subdued in comparison with others that have been dramatized on film. In fact, the whole movie could be described as subdued. It's incredibly slow-paced and predictable. It doesn't take a psychic to spot the twists and turns in the plot. And the ending is about as jarring a finale as I've seen. It seems that Good Against Evil was meant to become a regular, weekly television series. So the movie just abruptly ends with several unanswered questions and was to be continued in the next episode. The problem is there never was a next episode.

The exception to almost everything I've written is the opening scene of the baby girl's birth and the death of her mother. In comparison with what follows, it's quite creepy. It's a dreamlike sequence that doesn't look or feel like the rest of the movie. Had the movie followed the tone of the opening set-piece, it might have been a much better movie.

3/10