Fiend, Rogue Spirit Kills Maryland Women

Maryland again! Yep, this means we have another Don Dohler film. Low-budget and fun. Many may criticize the acting in Don Dohler films but I think we can all agree that the acting in his films is better than anything George Clooney or Mila Kunis has ever offered up. Today we look at 1980's "Fiend." This horror epic comes from a time when the Baltimore Orioles were competitive and the name Brooks Robinson ruled...and Cal Ripken, Jr. was merely a prospect.

A rogue spirit enters the grave of a dead music teacher, Mr. Longfellow (Don Leifert). The corpse of Longfellow is re-animated and claws its way out of the grave. This is bad news for the lovely Angie (Lydia Vuynovich), who has arrived at the cemetery for some pre-marital sex with her beau. The decomposing fiend sneaks up on our Maryland beauty and strangles her. Sucking up her life-force, the rotting fiend changes into a normal looking music teacher. Longfellow spends the next couple of months sneaking up on more Maryland beauties, strangling them, and keeping his youthful appearance. He will move into a quiet suburb, but must continue hunting nubile women in order to keep looking youthful.

Gary and Marsha (Richard Nelson and Elaine White) live next door to the fiend. Gary is a grouchy sort who loves Pabst Blue Ribbon. Longfellow annoys him as he teaches music in his basement. Marsha doesn't care as she isn't a grouch. As more women are found dead near their neighborhood, Gary begins to suspect Longfellow. Uh oh...a little girl is killed beyond Longfellow's backyard and this convinces our grouch that he is the killer...but he doesn't have proof. This happens to all of us...but as suburbia makes Longfellow the fiend complacent and sloppy, more witnesses arise that may be able to finger Longfellow as the killer. As Gary increases the level of his juvenile investigation, the lovely Marsha enters Longfellow's cross hairs.

Some may claim this film is slow moving, but the last 10 minutes are genuinely heartbreaking and frightening. Will Gary's shoddy investigation into his neighbor get the nubile Marsha killed? What would happen if Longfellow took the life-force of  someone other than a nubile beauty? Is this film a statement from Don Dohler that American suburbia is destined to trap all of us into having our life-force sucked out? Will the Baltimore Orioles ever climb out of the American League basement? Fans of Don Dohler will love "Fiend," and Yankee fans will have to admit that the last ten minutes of this film are scarier than any Oriole clean-up hitter.