''976-EVIL II'' (also known as ''976-EVIL 2: The Astral Factor'') is a 1992 American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of supernatural film and horror film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common them ...

directed by

Jim Wynorski Jim Wynorski is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He is known for making B movies, softcore pornography, and exploitation films, such as '' The Witches of Breastwick''. In 2009, the documentary '' Popatopolis'', directed by C ...

. The film is a sequel to the 1988 horror film ''

976-EVIL ''976-EVIL'' is a 1988 American supernatural horror film directed by actor Robert Englund in his directorial debut, and co-written by Brian Helgeland. It stars Stephen Geoffreys, Patrick O'Bryan, Jim Metzler, Maria Rubell, and Sandy Dennis. T ...

''. It was referenced in '' Invasion of the Scream Queens'' (1992).

Premise

Leonard "Spike" Johnson ( Patrick O'Bryan) returns to battle the

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

in a small

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

college town A college town or university town is a town or city whose character is dominated by a college or university and their associated culture, often characterised by the student population making up 20 percent of the population of the community, bu ...

. Someone is killing college students at an alarming rate. A pretty student, Robin, learns that her dean, Professor Grubeck, is a ghost, using

astral projection In Western esotericism, esotericism, astral projection (also known as astral travel, soul journey, soul wandering, spiritual journey, spiritual travel) is an intentional out-of-body experience (OBE) in which a subtle body, known as the astra ...

and a satanic 976 " horrorscope" hotline to kill students.

Cast

* Debbie James as Robin * Rene Assa as Mr. Grubeck * Patrick O'Bryan as Leonard "Spike" Johnson * Philip McKeon as Taylor * Leslie Ryan as Paula *

Brigitte Nielsen Brigitte Nielsen (; born Gitte Nielsen; 15 July 1963) is a Danish actress, model, and singer. She began her career modelling for Greg Gorman and Helmut Newton. She subsequently acted in the 1985 films ''Red Sonja'' and ''Rocky IV'', later retu ...

as Agnes *

Rod McCary Rod McCary (born April 15, 1941) is an American commercial, film and television actor. McCary was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and attended Cathedral High School. While sidelined from football with a broken collar-bone he decided to appear i ...

as Dr. Jamison * Paul Coufos as Stone * Karen Mayo-Chandler as Laurie *

George Buck Flower George Albert "Buck" Flower (October 28, 1937 – June 18, 2004) was an American actor, writer, producer, assistant director, production manager, and casting director. He was sometimes credited as Ernest Wall, Buck Flower, George "Buck" Flower ...

as Turrell * Sigal Diamant as Barmaid * Joy Ballard as Stripper * Yavone Evans as Reporter * Eric Anjou as Detective * Angela Gordon as Cashier * Christopher Garr as "Skeech" * David Rogge as Keith * Lou Bonacki as Neelan * Chuck Montalbano as Gross * Ace Mask as Lemisch *

Monique Gabrielle Katherine Gonzalez (born July 30, 1962), also known as Monique Gabrielle, is an American model and actress. Gabrielle was selected as the '' Penthouse'' Pet of the Month for December 1982, and has appeared in a variety of mainstream and adult film ...

as Lawlor * Deborah Dutch as Commercial Wife * Ronald Green as Commercial Husband * Mindy Seeger as Nurse

Production

The film was directed by

who had gained a reputation for making a number of sequels, such as '' Deathstalker 2''. "People would just come to me and ask," said Wynorski. "And I always said 'yes'. I wanted the money and the experience. There were only a couple of films that I turned down. I always wanted to make a sequel only if the previous film was bad. There wasn't much point to a sequel if the previous release was really great. I wanted to make a sequel that was better than the first one." Wynorski later said "I hate that film... It was tough to make. I was handed a script and I didn't think it was very good." The only part of the film he liked was a sequence where a female student was meant to be sucked into a

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

machine. This was too expensive to film so Wynorski came up with the idea, based on a dream, where he recreated a scene from '' It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946). He could do this because that film was in the public domain. "For me that's the one stand out aspect of that film, 'cause it's so weird," he said. The film featured

in a small role. Wynorski met her at a party and they played pool together. Wynorski challenged her to a wager - if he won she would do a day for him for scale on his next picture; if she won he would "put on a maid's outfit and clean your house. And she was up for that. We had a good game, it was close but I won." So Nielsen did a day on the film. Wynorski said she did "an ok job... she wasn't difficult to work with. She was working for pretty big bucks at the time and she was working for scale and she didn't really come in super prepared and we had to go over her lines but in the end she did a great job."

Home media

The movie was released in April 1992 on

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

Vestron Video Vestron Video was the main subsidiary of Vestron, Inc., a home video company based in Stamford, Connecticut, that was active from 1981 to 1993, and is considered to have been a pioneer in the home video market. The name is now used for a collecto ...

. A DVD was released in the UK. In the U.S., the film was released on DVD by Lionsgate as part of an 8 horror film DVD set.

References

External links

* *
Smithee Awards entry
{{Jim Wynorski 1992 direct-to-video films Direct-to-video horror films Telephone numbers in the United States CineTel Films films 1992 horror films 1992 films Films directed by Jim Wynorski American direct-to-video films American sequel films Direct-to-video sequel films Supernatural slasher films American supernatural horror films 1990s American films 1990s English-language films English-language horror films