Grindhouse Theater: The Evil (1978)

When a psychologist and his team of co-workers begin renovating an old dilapidated mansion, they have no idea of THE EVIL that awaits them. Strange occurrences lead to the discovery of a locked trap door, which, when opened, unleashes a force so powerful that it traps the entire group inside the house. From there on out it's a frantic race against time and a violent struggle for survival. This is a tale of terror and the supernatural which will continue to haunt you long after it's over.

The Evil (aka House of Evil) is an American horror film directed by Gus Trikonis and produced by Ed Carlin. It was written by Gus Trikonis and Galen Thompson. The film stars Richard Crenna, Joanna Pettet, Andrew Prine and Victor Buono. It was distributed by New World Pictures, which was originally founded by Roger Corman in 1970.

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A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.

In the film Lady of Burlesque (1943) one of the characters refers to the burlesque theatre on 42nd Street, where they are performing stripteases and bump and grind dances, as a "grindhouse".

The introduction of television greatly eroded the audience for local and single screen movie theatres, many of which were built during the cinema boom of the 1930s. In combination with urban decay after white flight out of older city areas in the mid to late 1960s, changing economics forced these theatres to either close or offer something that TV could not. In the 1970s these theatres were put to new use as venues for exploitation films, either adult pornography and sleaze, or slasher and dubbed martial arts films from Hong Kong.

Grindhouse films characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence or bizarre subject matter. One genre of film featured were "roughies" or sexploitation, a mix of sex, violence and sadism. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired cult following and critical praise. Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters. The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by the magazine Sleazoid Express.

By the 1980s, home video and cable movie channels threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard, New York City's Times Square and San Francisco's Market Street. By the mid 1990s, these particular theaters had all but disappeared from the US. Very few exist today.