Something Evil

Something Evil (1972) is an American TV horror film you can watch online on iFILM. Steven Spielberg directed it at twenty-five — one year before Duel, three before Jaws. Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin play a couple who move into an old farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania and almost immediately sense that something in the house does not want them there.

The wife starts noticing things her husband can explain away. Sounds with no source. A presence at the edge of the dark. Their young son begins behaving strangely. Ralph Bellamy plays a neighbour who knows more about the property's past than he lets on at first. The threat stays invisible for most of the runtime, which is precisely the point.

Shot quickly and cheaply for CBS, the film is more controlled than you'd expect from a director that young. Spielberg understood that the camera's angle and the cut — not the monster — are what unsettle. For anyone tracing his development, this is an oddity worth finding: the homework that preceded the masterclass. Stream Something Evil (1972) online on iFILM.