When Evil Lurks isn’t just a grim and nightmarish cautionary tale – it’s also insanely fun, filled with I-can't-believe-they-went-there moments.
starts with a bang. Well, two bangs, to be precise. The film opens with brothers Pedro and Jimmy awoken by a pair of gunshots that pierce through an otherwise quiet night in their sleepy rural town. The two then set off to investigate the noise, only to come across a rotting subhuman bathing in his own fetid fluids and excrement.
Pedro and Jimmy immediately recognize the threat at hand. Clearly, this isn’t their first rodeo. They know exactly how to proceed: get this creature as far away from their community as possible. As they haul the swollen being into their pickup truck, it becomes evident that this is something much more sinister than your regular creature feature. Indeed, this bubbling monster is infected with something unspeakable that will continue to spread and spread until it is too late.
At times, the singularity of Rugna’s world feels like a double-edged sword. While a lack of exposition is always refreshing in a film, and in this case makes the story feel that much more authentic, there are times inthat leave viewers a little too deep in the dark. Particularly in the third act, there are moments when characters act in ways that are distractingly mystifying. Still, the film maintains a familiar and human enough undertone to feel uniquely relatable throughout.
These shocking moments shine even brighter when juxtaposed with the understated stylization of the film. Mariano Suárez’s cinematography is refreshingly restrained, and through limited, stagnant camera setups, he positions his characters in a stark and eerily real world. Similarly,manages to escape the trap of punctuating every jump scare with a deafening musical cue. Instead, the score simply accompanies the viewer through the film’s emotional beats without being manipulative.
In a world where horror flicks are churned out at the speed of light, it can be hard not to feel bogged down by the sheer volume of scary content that feels derivative, unimaginative, or otherwise lacking in substance. Which isn’t to say that recent years haven’t provided their fair share of refreshingly thoughtful and original horror, but still: When a filmmaker finds a way to talk about fears that have existed for literal centuries, that’s something to celebrate.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'When Evil Lurks' calls back to the times when possession movies kept you guessingArgentinian director Demián Rugna outclasses the competition, including that new high-profile 'Exorcist' sequel, with his own unpredictable demon thriller.
Read more »
Evil Does Not Exist review: it doesJapanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi found international acclaim with Drive My Car. His follow-up is, at first, a simpler movie. But a last act twist takes it to a darker, more sophisticated place.
Read more »
Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘terror’ following bombing of Ukrainian village that killed 52: ‘Absolute evil’Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Russian bombing of a village shop and café in Hroza that left dozens of civilians dead.
Read more »
Evil Does Not Exist in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Unsettling Follow-Up to Drive My CarEvil Does Not Exist, Hamaguchi's follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car, is a shorter journey, at once more direct and more elliptical.
Read more »
Ukraine live briefing: Zelensky says deadly attack is ‘absolute evil’; Biden planning major speechThe Russian attack on a grocery store in the village of Hroza, near Kharkiv, killed at least 51 and was one of the war’s deadliest missile strikes.
Read more »