🎥 VHS Vault: 976-EVIL (1988)

"Don't pick up the phone."

Pull this one off the shelf and you can practically smell the cigarette smoke from your local mom-and-pop video store. 976-EVIL is one of those tapes that practically dares you to rent it, its box art promising supernatural chills and late-night thrills. With Robert Englund (yep, Freddy Krueger himself) in the director’s chair, this flick has that greasy, neon-soaked charm of the late ’80s horror boom. Just dial in and prepare for some demonic long-distance charges.

 

📚 Vault Fact File: 976-EVIL 

• Directed by: Robert Englund
• Screenplay by: Rhet Topham, Brian Helgeland
• Starring: Stephen Geoffreys, Patrick O'Bryan, Jim Metzler
• Filming Location: Los Angeles, California
• VHS Release: New Line Cinema (1989)
• Cult Legacy: Despite mixed reviews, it has a dedicated fanbase and spawned a sequel
• Did You Know? The film's title refers to the 976 telephone exchange, a now-defunct premium-rate number system popular in the late 1980s

⏪ Rewind or Fast Forward?

This one’s pure VHS cheese, and that’s part of its charm. The effects are rubbery, the pacing is a bit clunky, but Englund’s twisted fingerprints are all over it. Horror hotline possession? Only in the ’80s. Rewind if you’re craving neon-drenched nostalgia with a side of camp; otherwise, fast forward to his sharper work behind Freddy’s glove.

🎥 WATCH IT

Dial into terror. Stream 976-EVIL now on Amazon Prime Video. 

Watch the official trailer for 976-Evil: