At this point, people either love or hate the “found footage” sub-genre of horror that has come to popularity since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in 1999. Of course the genre has it’s roots from Ruggero Deodato’s exploitation classic, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, but it was BLAIR WITCH that made a ton of would-be movie directors think that that maybe…maybe they might be able to make a movie with whatever money that had in their savings account…or their parents saving account…or with a mortgage loan on their parents house—whatever, what I’m getting at is that “found footage” movies are cheap, but are they affective? BLAIR WITCH seemed to have left its audience split. Some people hated it and thought that it was not scary at all and hated that there was no pay off, some called it the most terrifying move they had ever seen. Since then, other “found footage” flicks have popped up like THE LAST BROADCAST, and the genre even went Hollywood with the J.J. Abrams produced, CLOVERFIELD—and still people seemed split. Either it’s the stupidest gimmicky thing ever—or it’s the stupidest gimmicky thing ever, but still very entertaining. I generally lean towards the latter…generally. I loved THE BLAIR WITCH and have defended it time and time again against people that slammed it. I still think it’s a very affective movie and the fact that there was no reveal at the end of the film still fucks with me to this day—in a good way. More recently, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY has jumped on the “found footage” bandwagon and was quite successful. To be honest…I didn’t really care for it. It had its moments—and I’ve seen both the original cut and the theatrical and I was still unfazed. This is coming from someone who loves the genre and was very excited for the film’s release and I even signed that stupid online petition to get it released in more theaters. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I guess I didn’t get it. I’ve seen “supposed” ghost footage on YouTube that was ten times more frightening. I’m also burnt out on the “paranormal thing” (I’m using a lot of “quoatations”—sorry, I hate when people do that) with the shitstorm of ghost hunter shows that have popped up over the years. While I’m not a firm non-believer in the paranormal, I do think that all those shows are bogus.
 |
|---|
When I first heard about EVIL THINGS from over at Freddy In Space (thanx to Johnny and his excellent connections for my screener copy) I was stoked—though I had not seen PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at that point. So needless to say after PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (which for the record I’m not saying that I hated, I just was expecting more), my anticipation for EVIL THINGS dwindled. When the screener came in the mail, it came in a manila envelope, which was stamped with CONFIDENTIAL in big red letters. At first I thought the IRS was after my ass (I filed my taxes…didn’t I?), then after some close examining I realized it was all part of a gimmick. My interest was sparked again (I loves me some gimmicks). Inside the envelope was piece of official looking paper from the “U.S Department of Justice” (again with the douchey quotations--damn it!), requesting my assistance in finding some missing persons that were last seen in the video that I had in my hands…my god…The U.S. Department of Justice needs my assistance and dammit—it’s my civic duty as movie reviewer to help in any way I can. Okay so the makers of the film had hooked me at this point. I gave the movie a spin and yeah, I was entertained. In fact I’ll go as far as saying it’s one of the best offerings from the genre that I’ve seen and I’ve about seen them all. Now with that being said (here it comes), it’s far from perfect, but luckily I wasn’t expecting perfection. It’s a loooooooooooooow budget movie, with no name actors, shot with a handheld digital camera and it’s the director’s first movie—anybody expecting to be blown away would be an asshole.
 |
|---|
I’m not going to give too much away, because just like BLAIR WITCH and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY it’s best to go into this movie not knowing much about it. Here’s a basic rundown of the plot; A group of twenty-something college students (2 guys, 3 girls) head to a remote country estate for the weekend in the dead of winter to celebrate one of the girl’s birthday and do what twenty-somethings do—which is drink and complain about life. On the way up they have to deal with road rage from a weirdo in a van, which sets up an incredible amount of tension for the rest of the film. The group finally makes it to their destination—at night. At first they think they’re lost (tension), but they eventually find the house to find out that the electricity is shut off (tension, tension). The owner of the house, an Aunt of one of the girls (who is loaning her the house while she’s on vacation) shows up and gets the electricity back on. The next day they go for a hike in the forest to see some caves (?) and they get lost (tension, tension, tension), and by the time the film’s oh-so-creepy ending the tension is wound so tight that it is in danger of snapping at taking the whole film down—but it doesn’t. When the film was over, I replayed the film in my head and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the ending. The rest of the film I was pleased with, the acting was actually really good, the pace was excellent, each character had their moment for us to get to know them and figure out their personality—oddly, some very subtle background score music creeps in which is usually a total no-no with this style of film—at first I was like, “Huh?”, but I’ve since decided it actually added to creepy ambiance of the film rather then take it away—so I’m cool with it. After a few days of reflection, I was happy with the ending—for one reason: It stuck with me. Like BLAIR WITCH there is no true payoff, but the final scenes of the finale are bone-fucking-chilling.
 |
|---|
To dissect this film to death would be an act of futility. It’s a simple shot on video horror movie that’s designed to creep you the fuck out—old school style like the campfire tales of yore—“…and the five people were never heard from again—bwa-ha-ha-ha!” (Man, did I just use the word ‘yore’ in a sentence? What am I, 70 years old?) The film was directed by Dominic Perez, his first film and I salute him. Reading his story at the film’s official website only makes me want to praise him more—live the dream, brother! If you’re interested in the film I suggest checking out the site. While the whole “missing persons” thing has been done before, and doesn’t really pack the same punch anymore—I give Perez credit for going all the way with it. I say forget the gimmick and just see the movie for what it is—a straight up horror flick that will make you double the check your dead bolt before you go to sleep at night.
EVIL THINGS trailer