Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Demián Rugna
Starring: Ezequiel Rodríguez, Demián Salomón, Luis Ziembrowski, Silvina
Sabater
Writer/director Demián Rugna's When Evil Lurks is
a horror movie dealing with the theme of possession. Nothing new there,
but Rugna's film differs from others in one significant way. Possession
horror movies usually feature protagonists who are cynical and agnostic
at first until they're forced to admit that supernatural forces are at
play, at which point some sort of religious figure is usually called in
to save the day. The protagonists of When Evil Lurks have
no such doubts. The film is set in a sort of alternate Argentina where
most people accept that possession is real, with those who become
possessed labelled as "rotten." The authorities are even on board with
this, employing "cleaners" who specialise in performing exorcisms.
The movie opens with the discovery of the butchered corpse of one such
cleaner on land owned by farming brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimmy (Demian Salomon). This leads them to the nearby home
of an indigenous family, where they're greeted with a gruesome sight.
The family's eldest son is confined to his bed and is in a bloated,
pus-ridden state. Turns out he's been hidden away by his family for the
past year. Assuming the young man is a rotten, Pedro and Jimmy team up
with their neighbour Ruiz (Luis Ziembrowski) and load the
rotten's oozing mass onto a pickup truck, planning to dump him far away
from their village. When they arrive at their destination, they discover
the human blob has disappeared. Figuring it's someone else's problem
now, the trio return to town, but that's when the trouble starts.
And what trouble! Rugna lays on an intense parade of horrors as an evil
force takes over the town, causing a spate of violence. Rugna is
shockingly democratic in his doling out of terror, with children,
animals, and a pregnant woman all mangled and torn apart before our
eyes. Think of the intensity of the opening 10 minutes of Zack Snyder's
Dawn of the Dead remake. This is what you get for most of
the film's first half!
Unfortunately, the film can't sustain its chaotic energy and the second
half becomes mired in exposition and mumbo jumbo as the brothers, along
with Pedro's sons and his mother, seek the assistance of a former
cleaner (Silvina Sabater). Various rules are introduced regarding
how to deal with the threat and the methods the evil might employ
against its targets. The problem is how the film presents these rules in
the manner of a spoilt kid who keeps changing the rules of a game
they're losing, seemingly making them up on the fly. This results in the
audience being told what we should be scared of or apprehensive about
rather than simply scaring us or making us apprehensive in an organic
way.
Like the worst superhero movies, much of
When Evil Lurks seems more interested in laying down a
path for possible further instalments than in keeping focus on telling
its own story. That said, now that the rules have been established,
perhaps a sequel could be better able to focus on the sort of
outlandishly violent thrills that make up the highlights of Rugna's
frustrating film.
