Prime Evil (1988) is classic Roberta Findlay. It’s sleazy and low budget. Findlay characteristically makes the most of limited means to create a film of Satanic terror that looks far more lavish than it has a right too. Prime Evil, like The Lurkers (1987), focuses on a woman whose family is mixed up in a cult. Female agency and power is what sets these Roberta Findlay horror flicks apart from the rest.
Both Prime Evil and The Lurkers were written by the team of Ed Kelleher and Harriette Vidal. The plots of each film overlap to varying degrees but The Lurkers is, perhaps, better written. It also has the distinction of being more psychologically complex than Prime Evil. The Lurkers, despite its low budget, is an affecting examination of generational traumas. Prime Evil, on the other hand, is merely a genre exercise that barrows freely from films like Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and To The Devil A Daughter (1976).
In spite of its generic simplicity Prime Evil is one of Roberta Findlay’s best looking and most stylized feature films. Dolly shots, zooms, and gradual pans foreground physical location in a way that other Findlay productions do not. If A Woman’s Torment (1977) represents Findlay at her most intimate then Prime Evil represents Findlay at her most glossy and formally complex. The close-ups of A Woman’s Torment are a stark contrast to the mobile camera of Prime Evil.
Bad guy William Beckwith embraces the inherent campiness of his rogue priest and adds a layer of menacing fun to the proceedings. On the whole Findlay gets nuanced performances from her actors. The cast walks that thin line that balances campy fun with legitimate terror. Findlay never gets her due as a director of actors but films like Prime Evil and A Woman’s Torment indicate that in this department FIndlay possessed a real talent.
But Prime Evil never transcends its genre trappings. Even an homage to Cat People (1942) cannot elevate Prime Evil. The plot of Prime Evil is convoluted and far too ambitious. Findlay directs the hell out of what she’s given to work with but that only succeeds in suggesting a film that would have required an additional $50,000 to make. In the pantheon of horror films that revolve around Satanic cults like The Devil Rides Out (1968), Prime Evil is but a subpar entry.
