WHEN EVIL LURKS - Still 1
Courtney Howard // Film Critic
WHEN EVIL LURKS
Rated R, 1 hour and 39 minutes
Directed by: Demián Rugna
Starring: Ezequiel Rodríguez, Demián Salomón, Isabel Quinteros, Silvina Sabater, Luis Ziembrowski, Marcelo Michinaux, Emilio Vodanovich, Virginia Garófalo, Paula Rubinsztein, Desirée Salgueiro.
While many horror movies put the fear of God – or the devil – into us, there are only a few that chill us to the bone with their incredibly dark and wickedly bleak sentiments. Demián Rugna’s WHEN EVIL LURKS is one of those chosen ones. Grotesque and gnarly, this examination of humanity’s dark side is centered on two brothers as they attempt to prevent evil from being born into this world. Trouble is, it’s already here. I screamed. I gagged. My heart was palpitating right up to the very end. Whether you’re meeting it on a completely superficial level, or digging in deeper, confronting its religious-tinged brutality and sobering meta-context, the provocative portrait painted is terrifically horrifying.
It begins on a dark night when farmhands Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmi (Demián Salomón) hear gunshots in the nearby forest. When morning comes, their investigation yields a bifurcated corpse and its possessions strewn about. Maria Elena (Isabel Quinteros), the resident closest to the gunshots, hired this person to “cleanse” the soul of her elder son, whose engorged, pungent, pus-oozing body has been possessed by the devil and is due to birth evil soon. However, rules dictate that they’re not allowed to kill it with an act of violence – specifically a gun – lest they want to unleash Hell itself on everyone in the world.
Facing a major conundrum, and with the devil’s insidiousness acting as a contagion, they and landowner Ruiz (Luis Ziembrowski) decide the best course of action isn’t to wait for the authorities to show (as their past inaction has led to where they are now), but to move the rank man to a remote property away from humans. Yet fate has other plans when that body disappears somewhere on the road to the dump site. Shortly thereafter, havoc ensues when Ruiz falls prey to the nefarious forces afoot and kills a goat, which causes his pregnant wife to kill him and then herself in a horrific manner. Pedro and Jimmi, meanwhile, get wise and flee town. But not before the devil starts playing tricks on their minds – and those of their fractured family members.
Rugna demonstrates a gift for crafting scares that serve to unnerve, crawling deep under the skin. They’re not utilized solely for shock value, although there are plenty of well-earned, well-paced jump scares. Rather they’re primarily a gateway to show a sinister underbelly of society. Political and religious metaphors permeate the narrative, from government authorities turning their backs on people desperately needing protection (who happen to be poor workers) to the church-like followers – here cast as literal naive children – blindly following the orders of an evil leader. The frightening filmmaker even plays on Catholic iconography here and there, mostly evident in the third act. Rules of the world are clearly laid out and followed precisely. We glean – during the dispensing of the seven rules – that these brothers have a helluva task facing them if they want to escape. Themes of futility and apathy are woven throughout.
That said, some of the imagery on display, while well-intentioned from a narrative and thematic standpoint, is highly triggering. Homicide and suicide make for a jarring scene. Shooting a somewhat sacrificial barnyard animal as the catalyst for unlocking humanity’s malevolence is one thing. But it’s quite another to use Pedro’s abrasive ex-wife’s family dog Roger, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier/ Pitbull mix (which carries an unfair reputation for being aggressive) to show a dog-on-youngster mauling. It’s disturbing, for sure, but also a highly manipulative tool to prey on parents’ fears, and leads to further stigmatization of these breeds.
With uncompromising vision and gutting potency, Rugna’s feature haunts your soul long after the credits roll. It leaves room for a sequel in a non-sequel-baiting way. After all, evil is always lurking in the hearts of men.
WHEN EVIL LURKS opens in theaters on October 6 and streams on Shudder on October 27.
