Evictors, The (1979)

In mid-summer 1928, a representative of Shreveport Union Bank attempts to deliver an eviction notice to a rural Louisiana farmhouse belonging to the Monroe Family. Because he has failed to do so on previous attempts, the bank officer brings heavily-armed Federal agents this time.

A confrontation ensues between the family inside and the agents of the law, with the Monroes cut down in a hail of bullets.

In 1942, real estate agent Jake Rudd (Vic Morrow) sells the long-vacant Monroe house to a young married couple, Ruth (Jessica Harper of Suspiria fame) and Ben Watkins (Michael Parks). Rudd doesn’t share any information about the house’s violent history, but Ruth soon learns that former owners were murdered in the house in 1934.

Later, she hears from her wheelchair-bound neighbour, Olie Gibson (Sue Ane Langdon) that another couple died there as well, in 1939. The husband was electrocuted and the wife was burned alive.

Soon, Ruth begins seeing a strange intruder, wearing overalls, lurking around the house at night. Ben’s job often takes him away, to Shreveport, but he asks the town sheriff to patrol near the house, and then teaches Ruth how to use a gun. Ruth, however, wants to move.

Unfortunately, neither the police nor the weapon can prevent the strange, obsessed intruder from waging a campaign of terror and death on the Watkins and their house.

The Evictors was one of the last films to be released by American International Pictures (AIP).

Ruth Watkins
Jessica Harper
Ben Watkins
Michael Parks
Jake Rudd
Vic Morrow
Olie Gibson
Sue Ane Langdon
Mr Bumford
Dennis Fimple
Preacher Higgins
Bill Thurman
Mr Buckner
Jimmy Clem
Mr Wheeler
Harry Thomasson
Mrs Bumford
Twyla Taylor
Mrs Mullins
Mary Branch
Mr Mullins
John H. Meyer
Mr Rhinehart
John Milam
Mrs Rhinehart
Roxanne Harter
Sheriff
Foster Litton
G-Man
Owen Guthrie

Director
Charles B. Pierce