Evilspeak (1981)

Evilspeak is a 1981 horror film by director Eric Weston. Clint Howard, brother of Ron, stars at Stanley Coopesmith, a disgruntled orphan abused and bullied by nearly everyone at the fascistic military academy he is enrolled. For reasons seemingly not extending beyond the fact that he is kind of odd-looking, Stanley is treated like shit by his fellow classmates, his soccer coach, the principal of the academy, even the pervy Reverend. One of the various abuses inflicted upon him is the task of cleaning the chapel basement, a moribund cellar which houses "Sarge," a brutish drunk that, like everyone else in this zip code, has a bone to pick with Coopersmith (why Sarge lives in the basement is never explained beyond the fact that he likes his drink). While cleaning this moth-ridden cellar, Stanley stumbles upon a satanic crypt, revealing the a plethora of demonic literature. Pushed too far by his evil classmates (they throw his hat away, as well as "pants" him in front of a pretty girl), Stanley - using the aid of a primitive computer - Stanley decodes the Latin Satana and completes a Black Mass, causing the partial resurrection of Esteban, the founder of this chapel (a Spanish satanist, banished from Spain during the Inquisition). At the end of the film Stanley fuses with Esteban and, in a genuinely thrilling and bizarre climax, butchers his soccer coach, the Reverend, as well as his loathsome classmates with the aid of a gigantic broadsword, newfound levitation powers, and an army of bloodthirsty pigs. Stanley's main tormentor, Bubba, has his still-beating heart ripped from his chest by a zombified Sarge, while the Reverend meets an untimely end after a ceramic spike from the chapel crucifix animates and embeds itself in his frontal lobe.

This film, despite some odd structural problems that suggest post-mortem tinkering, is quite enjoyable. Howard, and particularly Don Stark as Bubba, deliver inspired performances, giving the bullying scenes a kind of awful realism. However, what really redeems this film is the ending. It is truly balls to the wall and I watched with glee as Coopersmith eviscerates the slimy staff and student body of the military academy. No expense seemed to have been spared in the low-budget thriller's climax as crucifixes exlplode, flames fill the halls, and animatronic pigs savage the bodies of rotund freshman.

Overall, an exciting, if sometimes confused, 80s horror gem.