A demonic creature enters rotted corpse in a graveyard, assuming the identity as head of a violin company, needing the lifeforce of human victims to prolong it's existence. Without the human lifeforce it needs, the corpse would quickly degenerate, returning to the grotesque state it was once before the demon took it over. As Longfellow(..portrayed by Don Leifert, an effective bit of casting, I thought), the demon stalks and strangles victims, maintaining human form as long as it can feed without interruption but when a concerned snooping neighbor, Gary Kender(Richard Nelson) finds him suspicious, this creature's reign of terror could very well be jeopardized.Without the monetary benefits of major Hollywood studios, director Dan Dohler does what he can with limited resources available. Using red animated cells, Dohler shows Longfellow's glowing hands as they wrap around the throats of unfortunate victims, until his whole body eventually emanates. Dohler has latex make-up applied to Leifert's face, while also dying his hair to show how the body regresses, until he finds another victim to feed energy from. There's a room with an altar, and candles, coordinated off with a black curtain inside Longfellow's basement where he slices apart photographs of victims he killed(..for some odd reason, he keeps his knife in a box). The film gets rather repetitious as Longfellow follows after victims, assaults them, and leaves their bodies falling in a heap to the ground. We see Longfellow's means for maintaining an existence(..his long-suffering secretarial taskmaster, Dennis Frye, played by Dohler regular George Stover often performing his duties while Longfellow can go about his malevolent activities)and Gary's sleuthing, seeking to find the one responsible for the murder of the little girl neighbor behind his own house. This is quite a family affair as Dohler casts friends and relatives in various roles, shooting scenes in his own house and neighborhood, every bit a labor of love(..actor/producer Stover has said that Fiend is Dohler's favorite film of those he has directed).With Marsha(Elaine White), Gary's beloved wife, against her better judgment(..Gary's always insists her lock the doors for personal safety, and Longfellow actually murdered a girl behind their house for petesake!), entering Longfellow's house(..he calls for pain medication, hoping to draw her into his lair for her lifeforce), Dohler obviously sets up his big suspense sequence where the threat covered extensively in the newspapers regarding a series of killings in the area, hits right at home. One would have to question such a decision to enter such a rather unpleasant fellow's home without talking it over with Gary(..who is away asking a kid about what he saw in regards to witnessing Longfellow's murder of his employee). The ending is as bizarre as the opening, showing the demon in it's original state(..where it came from and goes to is anybody's guess)before entering the corpse. This wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be, mainly because Leifert's Longfellow is such a reprehensible creep, he remains an effective heavy throughout.

Despite his reputation of being one of the worst horror directors that ever lived, I personally always felt a strange respect and admiration towards good old Don Dohler. Both "Nightbeast" and "The Galaxy Invader" qualify as terrifically cheesy entertainment (if you fancy low-budget exploitation cinema, of course) and I even daresay this "Fiend" is his absolute finest achievement. Sure, "Fiend" is a slow-paced film with a total lack of logic or explanation, but simultaneously it's a truly spirited film with likable performances, better-than-average effects and (unintentionally?) clever undertones. The movie opens with a written definition of what exactly is a fiend and immediately after we witness how a demoniacally possessed reddish cloud enters a grave on a forsaken cemetery, possesses the corpse of a recently deceased music tutor and causes the body to emerge. Where did the evil cloud come from? Don't know… Why did it enter that grave specifically? Who cares…? What purpose will the walking and continuously rotting fiend now fulfill? Why even bother to contemplate about that? The fiend, Eric Longfellow, settles himself in a seemingly quiet Baltimore suburb but, unfortunately, he has one little problem to take into account. His body decays over and over again, so he frequently needs to recharge his vital batteries by strangling innocent victims – preferably young women – he picks up from the streets. His neighbor with too much free time on his hands suspects Longfellow to be involved in the unsolved murder spree and starts his own private investigation. "Fiend" is often too slow and tedious, but the delightfully cheese and clumsily shot murder sequences compensate for a lot! Whenever Longfellow strangles a new victim, his face and hands bath in a funky red glow and once or twice you even notice how his decomposing face revitalizes itself, which was really well-done. Unintentionally or not, "Fiend" also works as a parody on the typical life and relations in suburbs. The neighbors are noisy and suspicious towards newcomers and, at the same time, Longfellow himself wondrously depicts the prototypical social outcast. Every neighborhood has one like that, the strange guy your mom warns you not to go near or the bastard that never returns the ball when it accidentally falls in his garden. Don Leifert, who starred in practically all of Dohler's movies, is simply terrific as the emotionless corpse. I read in an article that Leifert was going through a rough personal period and struggled with an alcohol addiction at the time of shooting. Well, this is perhaps the only time that depressions and the effects of alcohol abuse contribute something good to someone's acting career. My advice would be to disregard the low rating, skip reading the bashing reviews and forget everything you heard about Don Dohler as a director. This film is a lot of fun too watch, Dohler's direction is actually quite steady and the script contains a handful of dared twists (child's death, for example) and a shocking finale. "Fiend" is a genuine smörgåsbord for experienced B-movie/cinematic trash fanatics.

I saw this movie in 1982. I still remember it because it ranks as the worse movie i have ever seen. Bar none. The scene with the girl going down the stairs lasts 10 minutes with 342 different angles. After a while, i wanted the fiend to jump out just to get it over with. This movie looks like something i might make in on my street with my friend. I asked for my money back from the video store when i returned it. And after they reviewed the file, they returned my money. First and last time that happened. ROFL. Truly awful. They want more lines so om gonna give them some. And here is another. I got nothing more to say... Wow, they want 10 lines. Here is another.

"Fiend" is definitely one of the better examples of low budget "z-grade" horror. When I put this on, I expected it to be one of those "so bad it's hilarious" horror films, and even though the first scenes initially had me in fits of laughter, it's not one of these films.Once you've seen 5 minutes of the atrocious acting, jumpy editing, bad frame composition, laughable special effects and poor lighting and colour matching, its humour wears off. However, it actually creates a surreal and dreamy atmosphere reminiscent of the classic "Night Of The Living Dead" that will linger even when the film is finished.The story revolves around a married man trying to prove that his neighbour, a "fiend" that is an evil spirit in the body of a corpse who must feed on the living to retain his youthful appearance, is responsible for the spree of murders that have been occurring in the neighbourhood."Fiend" will brilliantly draw you into that neighbourhood yourself and make you suspend your disbelief and the unnatural dialogue and amateur acting soon appears normal as you become a part of the surreal world the film creates.The surreal atmosphere, predictable yet intriguing story, and climatic ending make "Fiend" a forgotten gem that I'd recommend to all fans of low budget horror.