Summary
- When Evil Lurks is a Spanish-language horror film that tackles the terrifying concept of demonic possession, offering a truly spine-chilling experience.
- The film features stunning cinematography and authentic production value, creating a visually appealing and immersive atmosphere.
- The makeup and special effects in When Evil Lurks are incredibly well-done, resulting in grotesque and nightmarish characters that will haunt your dreams.
The new Exorcist film may have been a box-office disappointment, but that doesn’t mean demonic-possession movies are dead (no pun intended). From the supernatural series to anime, big-screen scares come in all shapes and sizes, it seems, but if done correctly, films that specifically tackle the crazed notion of demons taking hold of human bodies and minds are perhaps the scariest. Enter When Evil Lurks, a new Spanish-language feature from acclaimed writer-director Demián Rugna (Terrified). It’s an excellent new addition to the nightmare-inducing subgenre of cinema, arriving just in time for Halloween.
‘There’s No Point in Praying’
Right off the bat — and for especially those familiar with Rugna’s filmography — we sense that When Evil Lurks will be a visual treat. After some gunshots ring out over a series of title cards, the film opens on two grown-up brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jaime (Demián Salomón), as the camera weaves across their property. The sort of deep-focus look evokes an eerie vibe as we slowly pick up on plot points.
Those who want laughs to accompany their Halloween frights should turn away — there are no smiles from either brother across the film’s duration. They live out in a remote, rural community and go to investigate the aforementioned gunshots at a neighboring farmhouse, where they see a family sheltering a morbidly obese and rotting man named Uriel. It’s a horrifically tragic sight that still haunts me as I write these very words.
Interestingly, the various characters across the film often refer to allegedly possessed humans like Uriel as “the rotten,” a noun use that might just spread like wildfire once more moviegoers get to see When Evil Lurks. Another term that might catch wind is “cleaner,” in reference to an exorcist. As Uriel’s family tells the brothers, they reported him a year ago to the police, but police scoffed and no one came. A “cleaner” was supposedly en route the night before but never arrived — remember those gunshots. What to do?!
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First, their neighbor Ruiz tries to bring himself to kill Uriel with his shotgun but can’t do it — not just on a moral level, but also because you’re not supposed to use guns on a demon. Duh! Then, the brothers try to drag Uriel’s rotting body off the property and out to the middle of nowhere, but it vanishes en route after they swerve their truck to avoid hitting a conveniently placed pedestrian in the middle of the road. But “evil lurks,” let’s not forget, which means that back on Ruiz’s property, the demon has partly remained and taken the presence of one of the goats in their herd. This is arguably the film’s centerpiece moment. We’ll leave it at that, without giving away too much. But the next time you see an axe, you may just move around it with extra caution…
Seemingly ignoring proper exorcism etiquette, the bickering brothers part ways temporarily as Pedro goes to retrieve his family. The kicker? He is divorced with a restraining order, and his kids live solely with their mom. No matter — Pedro must save the day, of course. Evil also “spreads” in addition to “lurking,” which means that even though Pedro strips down to burn his current clothes that have been exposed to demonic forces, that doesn’t mean a curious family dog at his ex’s house can’t wander over and give the clothes a good ol’ sniff. As it’s happening on-screen, you might just say out loud, “This can’t end well.” But we won’t spoil the horrific surprises here.
‘Rule No. 7: Don’t Be Afraid of Dying’
Shudder
There’s an old expression: “The dead don’t die.” This couldn’t ring more true in a masterful horror feature like When Evil Lurks, as we witness certain principal characters get physically mauled by possessed humans and/or animals — but we later see these victims walking around town like everything’s fine.
The body count of possessed entities piles up, making for a terrifying third act that sees the brothers travel across the countryside with Pedro’s kids to pick up their grandmother, who lays out the seven deadly sins — ahem, I mean “rules” — to follow when dealing with possessed spirits. Some of these include: Don’t involve electric lights, and don’t involve animals when trying to rid the evil from your world. Oops, Pedro’s dog already got involved. But they journey on. Pedro wants to get to the city for help, but Jaime decides they must pay a visit to the isolated home of his former lover, an aging “cleaner” named Mirta (played to perfection by Silvina Sabater).
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It’s hard to watch the final sequences of When Evil Lurks without fearing death — but the character of Pedro’s mom wouldn’t be happy. Her seventh rule is later revealed to be, “Don’t be afraid of dying.” As the demonic spirits take hold of some of Pedro’s immediate family members, we watch with increasing anxiety as he, brother Jaime, and Mirta prepare to face the wrath. It is the mind that the evil ultimately occupies, and an interesting and perhaps controversial move that this film makes is having Pedro’s older son Jair have autism, which confuses the demonic spirit as it struggles to navigate the different way this particular brain operates. One could argue it’s just clever storytelling, and on a larger scale, When Evil Lurks succeeds on several other levels. The aforementioned camerawork is masterful, for one, which is complimented by authentic production value; it’s refreshing seeing Pedro and others operate well-worn cars whose background settings don’t look green-screened, for example.
Plus, modern makeup in cinema has come far, and the grotesque way in which characters like Uriel are done up will instill nightmares. In effect, I’d say mission accomplished for the makeup team. The hard R-rated violence might make the movie theater audience rowdy. Just don’t bring your kids. Like I said, I’m still having nightmare after experiencing When Evil Lurks. Maybe I shouldn’t have watched it by myself…
From IFC Films, When Evil Lurks will release on Shudder October 27.
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