Naked Evil is a black-and-white independent 1966 British horror film, written and directed by Stanley Goulder and starring Basil Dingnam, Anthony Ainley, Richard Coleman and John Ashley Hamilton.

It was released in the US with the black-and-white tinted so that it appeared to be in colour [citation needed] and was re-released as a television movie as Exorcism at Midnight, with a modified plot and new full-colour sequences featuring an American cast.

Inside, he finds an obi – a glass bottle filled with graveyard dirt and feathers – on his kitchen table.

Goodman tells Inspector Hollis (Coleman) that after 15 years in Jamaica, where he studied Obeah, he knows that the person was making an obi.

He takes Hollis to the hostel to meet its head, Jim Benson (Dingnam), who had been in Jamaica at the same time as Goodman.

Benson denies any connection between the desecration and the students, whom he calls 'the pick of the Commonwealth - highly intelligent and most of them scientists'.

Benson, his secretary Janet Tuttle, deputy head Dick Alderson, Goodman and Hollis take lunch with the students.

Hollis asks Anderson to have a word with a Jamaican student, Danny, who was detained by the police after a violent street fight.

Goodman, Dupree and Danny and go back to Amizan's hut, where his body lies on a table, covered with a sheet.

At the final explosion, Danny screams in fear as, even though they are inside the building, a gust of wind blows the sheet off the table.

[5] Naked Evil was sent to theatres in the UK as a supporting feature in 1966 but had only a short run as it was given 'little recognition' by Columbia Pictures and as such it 'duly vanished from sight'.

[5] However, the website of the BBFC itself says that Naked Evil was granted an A certificate on 17 January 1966,[6] meaning at the time that the film was considered 'more suitable for adults' than for children.

[11] The American releases of Naked Evil contains scenes that were tinted 'variously red, green, blue and amber', a process known as 'Evil Color'[5] or 'MultiColor'[12] Under either name, the gimmick did little beyond causing viewers 'occasional confusion and eyestrain'.

[14] As part of this, an uncredited Al Adamson was hired to direct new sequences for a re-edited version of Naked Evil.

[3] Working for Independent International, Adams shot approximately 15 minutes of new full-colour footage in New York City in one day at a cost of about $5000.

The new version utilised an American cast which included Lawrence Tierney, Catherine Burgess, Addison Greene and Robert Allen.

The additional sequences were used as a framing device, so that what remained of the original film, which had been cut by about 15 minutes, became a flashback, illustrating what a patient undergoing psychiatric treatment was telling a doctor.

The revision was then christened Exorcism at Midnight and sold directly to television, where it was frequently shown in late-night time slots.

[5][13][15] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Crudely conceived, woodenly directed black magic thriller.

[13] Senn himself finds good and bad in the film, writing that 'Director Stanley Goulder's clever staging and cinematographer Geoffrey Faithful's atmospheric lighting and camerawork weave a palpable spell of evil around the sinister events'.

But he goes on to say that 'Unfortunately, Naked Evil's rather schizophrenic construction tends to weaken the film's overall impact and undermines Gould's careful staging' in that 'the more mundane gangster scenes' and 'cheap nightclub sets seem dull and out of place next to the more fantastical Obeah angle'.

[13] While Hamilton writes that Naked Evil 'has moments of genuine quality', he also finds a 'tendency toward padding', as in the screen time devoted to Danny and Beverley's romance, the activities of 'West Indian' street gangs and a 'dull flashback, dragged out in slow motion'.