Pages

Thursday, September 14, 2023

TIFF 23: WHEN EVIL LURKS - Even Evil Is Born

 

The Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival has long been a showcase for the boldest, innovative, scariest, terrifying, look through your hands, blood-curdling horror of any given year. When Evil Lurks from writer and director Demián Rugna continues this tradition. 

Strange happenings begin to happen in a rural village. Two brothers come across a very disfigured, bloated, infected man in one of the houses. They decide to load him up in a pickup and drive him away from town. Somewhere along the way the body falls out of the truck. "Should we go back and load him up again?" "No, we gone far enough" Or have they?  

What sets When Evil Lurks is the brutality and banality of the violence. The violence is unexplainable. People are going mad. They then cause extreme violence to one another as well as the livestock of the village. Under Rugna's direction is shot selection is assured. He does not need to resort to shaky cameras or intense filters. The scenarios of horror and dread speak for themselves. 

There are many cliches when it comes to writing about horror films. What is seen cannot be unseen. The images will stay with you a long time after the end credits. Cliche as it is, with this film these sentiments are true. I hope no one gets possessed in your town.


No comments:

Post a Comment