The 1988 horror movie 976-Evil may focus on the tale of a haunted phone number, but the comedy-slasher hybrid owes a lot of inspiration to the Nightmare On Elm Street series—and was even directed by the star of that franchise, Robert Englund. Director Wes Craven’s Nightmare On Elm Street was a fresh new take on the slasher sub-genre when it arrived in cinemas in 1984. However, it was not long before the emerging sub-genre of fantasy slashers soon provided dozens of Nightmare On Elm Street ripoffs, including one directed by Freddy Krueger himself.
Krueger actor Rober Englund helmed 1988’s 976-Evil, a goofy horror-comedy that owes a creative debt to the Nightmare On Elm Street movies (particularly the sillier sequels). Telling the tale of two teens who stumble across the titular novelty premium phone line (actually a direct line to Satan himself). 976-Evil sees cousins Spike and Hoax stumble across the eponymous haunted phone number, which the popular and rebellious Spike soon loses interest in but the ostracized and shy Hoax sees as a way to wreak vengeance on his bullies. Like Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (also scripted by 976-Evil screenwriter Brian Helgeland), the most memorable moments from 976-Evil are the inventive kill sequences that Hoax uses the number to carry out and the reality-bending antics that the demonically-possessed teen pulls off.
976-Evil takes the silly killings of the Nightmare On Elm Street sequels and fuses them with a more substantial story than those critically-derided efforts. However, despite being arguably better-realized than many of the lesser Nightmare On Elm Street movies, 976-Evil was not met with kind reviews from critics upon release. With the antihero being able to reshape reality around his will and using this talent to murder his former tormentors, the Robert Englund-directed horror is clearly inspired by the director’s most famous acting role but 976-Evil still manages to come up with some compelling ideas of its own.
Before 976-Evil's killer phone line offers them a direct link with the devil himself, Spike and Hoax are fairly average ‘80s movie protagonists. Like Stephen King’s Carrie, the withdrawn Hoax has a religious mother responsible for much of his social exclusion, and like the movie adaptation of Carrie, 976-Evil saves one of its most brutal fates for her. Being ‘80s movie teens, Spike and Hoax use the number to pull off some initially harmless pranks at first, before Hoax inevitably takes things too far and gets his bullies brutally murdered. While the kills are not quite as expensively and impressively realized as the most ambitious murder sequences in the Nightmare On Elm Street movies, they are more comical and cathartic since viewers have a reason to root for Hoax more than Freddy, whose brutal kills were often meted out on undeserving (and, in the case of Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, outright lovable) characters.
The goofy humor and effects-driven kills of 976-Evil are taken straight out of the later Nightmare On Elm Street sequels (which were released around the same time), as are the one-liners that precede each death. Interestingly, Englund resisted the urge to play the big-picture villain Mark Dark, and the werewolf-like appearance of Hoax’s possessed villainous form is not particularly reminiscent of Freddy. However, his methods of murder and manipulating his surroundings owe a lot to Craven’s creation, with Mark turning his home into a frozen tundra and impaling bullies on pitchforks. Like Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, 976-Evil also cut a plethora of scenes before its cinema release. However, unlike that heavily edited sequel, the scenes cut from Englund’s movie were mostly non-violent character beats and few creepy moments or gory murders trimmed due to violent content.
Where both the original Nightmare On Elm Street and its sequels told a tale of generational vengeance, 976-Evil is a simpler story of being careful what you wish for. The tone is more blackly comic than Craven’s movie and its followups and the morality is a little more complicated, as viewers begin the movie rooting for Hoax and end up horrified by his murderous antics. The classic setup of teens soon regretting their decision to mess with forces beyond their control owes more to Creepshow and the successful horror anthology series Tales From the Crypt than it does to slasher cinema. There, karmic justice is not usually the order of the day and the only sins the victims have committed are typically underage sex and drinking or, in the case of Freddy Krueger’s victims, having the wrong parents. As a result, 976-Evil is both less brutal than the Nightmare On Elm Street movies and more complex, despite borrowing a lot of their successful formula.
Although 976-Evil was far from a critical darling upon release, the movie did merit a sequel four years after its release. Robert Englund did not return to direct this one, leaving the job to Chopping Mall’s Jim Wynorski. A veteran who helmed over 150 movies in his lengthy screen career, Wynorski said he wasn’t a fan of 976-Evil II: The Astral Plane, and for good reason. With a knotty plot involving horoscopes, more astral projection than Netflix’s ridiculous Behind Her Eyes, and the return of Spike but not Hoax, the sequel failed to find the same balance of fun and scares as the original 976-Evil. However, Englund did return to directing with 2008’s straight-to-DVD Killer Pad. A deeply dumb but fun horror comedy, Killer Pad eschewed 976-Evil’s attempts at straight horror in favor of broad comedy and light, parody-oriented jokes. Starring Mean Girls scene-stealer Daniel Franzese, Killer Pad remains Englund’s final directorial effort to date and was met with tepid reviews upon release, earning neither the initial scorn nor the eventual cult reception that were both enjoyed by 976-Evil. As a result, despite its similarity to his far more famous Nightmare On Elm Street movies, 976-Evil is likely to always be the horror star’s most famous effort behind the camera.
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