The Evil / Shudder

 Buono, to his credit, makes great use of his time. He was known for his gusto, exaggerated and blustery, often not an actor known for subtlety. But if he's to play the devil, he does so with an emphasis on how his words bite towards Crenna, how he doesn't bother or find discomfort in torturing this mortal man. He wants the crucifix that kept a door sealed, holding him captive destroyed, seeing Crenna as the kind of skeptic, atheist, man of little interest in the supernatural, God, or Satan, for that matter. Crenna's wife, a doctor who does believe in God, has the faith to help him reseal the door in the basement of a 200-room, recently-acquired, long-abandoned house (basically a castle). Crenna, in a moment of curiosity, removed the cross, allowing the evil of the devil to be free. Ultimately, volunteers who Crenna mentored come to the estate to help renovate, clean up, and make repairs to the house and its many rooms. Giggling Buono, reveling in his violent mischief, can be heard as Crenna's colleagues / friends die by the likes of electrocution, burn-by-fire, quicksand (?!), possessed crazed dog to throat, as well as, invisible abuse and ripped clothes. I love the house, though. Lots of rooms, just every corner and turn, more areas to explore. The walkthrough with the real estate agent (Milton Selzer; I know him from the Twilight Zone episode, The Masks) gives us such a tour of its continuous, ongoing, seemingly unending series of floors and rooms. I don't think the film ever quite utilizes such an incredible setting as The Shining or The Haunting did. I just wanted the director to take us all throughout it. But the plot needs to terrorize, conceal, and destroy the cast, so I never truly felt the vast scope of the location's depth, length, girth. Crenna is indeed a consummately serious actor, very stern, sober, practical, pragmatic, and almost unyielding in his unwillingness to accept these extraordinary events as they happen to and around him, while Pettet, just a beautiful actress I remember from Night Gallery, is very attune and aware of the ghost of a former owner of the building, looking to solve the mystery of their dilemma and get the hell out of there. I'm still rather firm-standing on **/*****. Not quite successful but has its moments. Gets too silly for my tastes, because it wants to be taken seriously, while I couldn't personally fully embrace it.