CANNON MONTH 2: Force of Darkness (1985)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Force of Darkness was not produced by Cannon but was released on video by Cannon Screen Entertainment Limited in the UK.

Conrad (Mel Novak, who still appears in direct to streaming movies to this day) is a serial killer that has split personalities, or so the medical field would like us to believe, but the truth is that he’s possessed by a demon. Gloria Ramsey (Loren Cedar, who also shows up in Down On Us) watched him kill her lover,  Dr. Rogers (Gordon Rigsby), but the prints on the murder weapon are heres and she has no alibi. Detective Ben Johnson (Doug Shanklin) believes her, but soon he finds himself up against the, well, force of darkness that lives within the walls of Alcatraz.

Directed by Alan Hauge doesn’t have many other credits other than appearing as himself in Search for Haunted Hollywood. Writer Jack Baylam has even less credits, much like so much of the cast in this movie.

This may be the most Christian Exorcist clone I’ve seen. Cast member Eddie Hailey, who played Murry, was a born again Christian who was one of the stars of the Christian Broadcast Network’s Another Life, a religious soap opera. He’d lead the cast in a half hour prayer service each morning. Mel Novak is an ordained Christian pastor who performed the funerals for Chuck Connors’ son Jeffrey Alan Connors and Tim Burton’s father Bill Burton. Want even more evidence? The soundtrack came from Jim Stipech, who also did the music for the anti-abortion movies The Silent Scream and Eclipse of Reason. No, not that Silent Scream.

There’s literally nothing else out there on this movie. It’s as if it barely exists.