Fiend (1980)

"There's something sinister next door, Marsha." - Gary

aka: Deadly Neighbour
A killer with supernatural powers moves to the suburbs.
Starring: Don Leifert, Richard Nelson, Elaine White, George Stover, Greg Dohler

Link to IMDB

Mr. Longfellow

The movie begins as a mysterious spirit floats into a graveyard and reanimates a corpse. This zombie man then kills a lady and absorbs her soul energy, thereby restoring his body and mind to normal. His name is Mr. Longfellow, and the next thing he does is buy a house in the suburbs.

A few months pass and Longfellow has been living a seemingly normal life, teaching violin lessons from his basement, but the neighbours are starting to realize that Longfellow is a very strange man.
A married couple, Gary and Marsha, are getting annoyed with the loud violin music always coming from next door, and Gary decides he's going to confront Longfellow and maybe get some information on the man.



Gary eventually discovers that Longfellow is interested in the occult and other spooky subjects, but what he doesn't know is that Longfellow has been killing people and stealing their souls in order to maintain his normal appearance.
When a local kid is murdered, Gary begins to suspect that Mr. Longfellow is involved, so he starts researching the paranormal and spying on Longfellow in attempt to uncover the truth of what his neighbour is really up to. This only serves to put Gary and the whole community in more danger!

Gary                                        Marsha

This is a Don Dohler film, a man infamous for his creative Do-It-Yourself low budget movies that are completely amateurish and yet always somehow compelling. Fiend is not one his most memorable movies but it still held my attention with its inherent weirdness, especially the character dynamic between the arrogant Longfellow and the determined Gary.

Longfellow claims another victim

The general tone Dohler was trying to create is a tense gothic dread, and although the creepy synthesizer score does much to build that atmosphere, it doesn't give you the sense of any real horror. There is a real lack of scares or suspense here, and the supernatural elements do not get enough attention.

It's an odd little movie that gave me some good laughs, and you can tell it was made with genuine care. Unfortunately, there's just not much action or thrills compared to some of Dohler's other films.


Be sure not to miss:
- The "violin music" coming from Longfellow's house is just synthesizer screeches that sound nothing
like a real violin.

Internet review:
"It's kinda awesome without necessarily being any good." - M. Beeson

Should I watch it?
Dohler fans should see it, but others might find it too dry.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Fiend gets...