Evilspeak (1981)

 Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard, in one of most memorable roles) is the brunt of every kind of bullying and cruelty at the Catholic military academy for which he attends due to losing his parents to an automobile accident. Why the faculty, students, and janitor just seem hellbent on tormenting Stanley despite no warranting the kind of meanspirited energy dealt his direction isn't as important in the film as us sympathizing with the poor kid (Clint was 21 at the time but plays him younger despite balding so young and looking older than he was). Diana Prince, Darcy the Mail Girl, for Joe Bob's Last Drive-In, gets "put on the spot" to reveal why she felt Howard just seemed to be so effective as a character actor mentions the emotional vulnerability he seems to really bring to even his more disturbed characters in his resume. I think you definitely see that when Stanley gets a cooked steak from one of the few characters in the film kind to the kid: a cook named Jake (Lenny Montana), showing Stanley a mama dog and pups. One of the puppies seems to be unable to grow, the cook sort of writing it off. But Stanley sees the pup as a friend in need of a break, of someone who understands how hard it is to survive when so much is against you. Tears in his eyes, Stanley conveys exactly what many of us connect with...if you have felt disregarded, rejected, outcast, bullied, harangued, talked down to, tripped, had your pants pulled off, looked down on, accosted, devalued, tossed aside, lied to just because, and made fun of, Stanley Coopersmith is a character that can be identified with and understood. Perhaps we wouldn't summon demonic power through the steps of Esteban's Satanic book, but we can relate to his rage and fury, recognizing just why he's fed up and can't take anymore shit.

Don Stark is the very symbol of a certain kind of bully. He's the guy who looks for something to hurt you even if or especially if you have done nothing to deserve it. Stark's Bubba Caldwell is mean simply because he can be. There is a certain thrill Bubba gets out of inflicting misery and pain on someone with little ability to counteract that blunt weapon of nastiness at his disposal. I hope you have never met someone like Bubba in your life, but I think way too many of us have. There is a certain patch of mental real estate a monster like Bubba occupies in your psyche. He will always be there and the scars of trauma left behind can't be burned away no matter how much we might want to clean the mind's emotional soil of every blade of grass he or she left behind. Bullies have a type of damage they can inflict, often, such as in the film's case, with help from others who want to impress them. Bubba has a few cohorts who seem to take equal pleasure in making Stanley's life a living hell. So why not go to hell as Stanley does to visit upon all his enemies the wrath they so richly deserve. While I don't think Bubba got as much as he dealt, at the very least, he was removed of something he had nothing of: the heart. 

The film's driving force is Stanley's revenge. We watch scene after scene, minutes to minutes, for nearly an entire film of Stanley's mistreatment by every part of the school's hierarchy. The priest named Reverend Jameson (Joe Cortese) knows Stanley's bullied and turns a blind eye to it. And for a priest who should be particularly sympathetic to Stanley's lot in life, he's cold and indifferent. He holds his temper in when Stanley is stumbling about in a cathedral basement, but clearly Reverend Jameson would love to just tear into him. There is no love in his heart for Stanley. No sympathy. Jameson's forehead nail from a statue of Christ seems fitting. This during a soccer game speech to the team, the very team who never provided anything to Stanley but discouragement and debasement. The coach (Claude Earl Jones) who never worked with Stanley to help him improve in soccer; more or less, the coach encourages Bubba and his cohorts to find a way to get Stanley kicked off the team. The head of the academy, Colonel Kincaid (Charles Tyner), looks for ways, it seems, to punish Stanley. He tells Stanley he'll whip him into shape to be a proper soldier, but all we ever see is Kincaid belittling the student. There is no humanity or a paternal strength in Kincaid...just viciousness and scorn. Even Hamilton Camp's Hauptman fails to seize upon the enthusiasm for the work Stanley conveys, though he at least sees potential in him. And, all the while, Bubba and his crass, scummy dirtbag buddies can, without impunity, consistently bully Stanley over and over again. Stanley is told to do clean up in the basement, feed the pigs while moving about in the slop of the pen, endure criticisms by the teachers and staff, with even RJ Armstrong's janitor, Sarge, unloading vitriol and contempt his way. One scene has Sarge with a hammer threatening to attack Stanley over a missing crowbar. Example after example, practically everybody in Stanley's life besides Kowalsky (Haywood Nelson), a fellow student who is too outnumbered to help, lets him down or offers nothing of positive value to improve his life at the academy.

So when the possessed Stanley, having the human blood needed to complete the demonic ritual to bring about Esteban's spiritual uprising, an Apple II computer assisting in deciphering Latin from the Satanic book found deep in the bowels of the Spanish cathedral the academy/church is built upon, all the pomp and circumstance of sword cleaving heads from bodies and giant pigs devouring bloody red flesh makes total sense. The finale is all about Esteban granting Stanley the great revenge, complete with levitation, wielding that sword of wrath. Camp gets spiked on the chandelier, Claude is removed of his head, Stark loses his heart, RJ is twisted around, Tyner's head is split apart, and the rest of pig stew. It is full of sound and thunder and I'm all about it! I wish Stark's death was more epic and visceral because no one gave Howard's victim such agony as he did: I guess I wanted him rendered into mincemeat.

Evilspeak was a great addition to Joe Bob's Last Drive-In because Clint Howard was such a treat. Interviewed by Joe Bob during the 2021 Pandemic era, Howard had plenty to say about his long career, cult status, acting style, the film itself, the production, and what it was like to take pitches from The Fonz. There were anecdotes about Andy Griffith, his toupee, acting style, and just how much was cut from the film (that I wish was restored!). Even asked by Joe Bob to Clint was why we never got the Evilspeak sequel!