Black Eve Tries to Tell a Generic Slasher Story Ever so Slightly Differently
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Black Eve sounds so much like so many other slasher movies, it’s laughable. It’s Halloween, and there’s a party in an abandoned mall. Gee, I wonder what could possibly go wrong?…
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
December 11, 2011
Release: October 29, 2010 (Canada), 2010-2011 (Various Festivals)
Directed by: Ryan M. Andrews
Written by: Ryan M. Andrews and Neil Green
Starring:
Eva James as Jewel
Neil Green as The Man
Emily Schooley as Pimp
Thet Win as Gangster
Veronika London as Nun
A group of friends decide to throw a Halloween party in an abandoned mall presently scheduled for demolition. A department store there where they plan to hold the party has a dark, violent past and is rumored to be haunted. Still, that doesn’t stop the group from hiring a DJ, throwing up various Halloween decorations, getting in costumes, and letting the liquor flow. Unfortunately for the guests, though, a mysterious, hulking man (Neil Green) is stalking the hallways and murdering the partygoers in an effort to add his own dark chapter to the store’s history.
Black Eve is an indie film that, on the surface, is basically the most generic of all slasher plots. The recipe is simple: take a bunch of generic, interchangeable twenty- or thirty- somethings, place into creepy location, add alcohol and sex, mix well with various weaponry used by some murderer. That’s not to say that slashers that follow this template are automatically bad or that the slasher genre is bad. In fact, the slasher can provide some of the most fun in the genre… provided the characters are interesting and relatable, the kills are inventive, and the story is interesting and well-paced. Heck, the story can even add new wrinkles and twists to that template in some cases and thus separate itself from the rest of the genre.
Black Eve does attempt to do those very things in some ways. Instead of just having the slasher wander around killing people during the party the tale is told through the broken-up flashbacks of a psychic girl (Eva James) who was drugged by her former high school schoolmates at the party. When she finally comes to, the party is already over, and she wanders the empty building, touching corpses to fill in the story and show how the various victims died. This is a very unique way to tell this story and is absolutely appreciated as is the performance of Eva James in general, easily the most interesting, most relatable, and best character in Black Eve. The movie also has an interesting, if fairly predictable, twist and a killer who has a few choice one-liners (my favorite being a character whispering the Our Father while hiding only to have the killer scream “Amen!” and drive an axe into their head from behind).
The problem is although some great attempts are made to be different they are never taken far enough to save the film. Sure, the ending’s great, but it feels like an ending too good for a movie this bland and generic. Sure, the killer has some great lines, but some of his kills have minimal build-up and tension and it takes too long to GET to the kills (76 minute movies should not take almost 20 to get the first kill), and, after a very gory first kill, many of the rest are either off-screen or look like they use a bit of CGI blood. Finally, while Eva James is GREAT in this movie the rest of the cast is so generic and interchangeable that Black Eve is swallowed up by how boring and grating they are. The characters besides her are so clearly cannon fodder that they aren’t credited with names, no no no… they’re actually credited by their Halloween costumes! She is too, but at least she’s referred to by name in-film!
One specific flaw utterly cripples the movie and even
adversely
affects some of the things done well; The killer doesn’t feel very
interesting, unique, or memorable when he’s killing people who have
next to no backstory and no apparent history with him. The plot and
storytelling style, as unique and interesting as they can be, still
don’t stop Black Eve from feeling bland and annoying when all
the characters OTHER than the psychic are unrelatable, bitchy,
unlikable, or some combination of the three. If we’re begging for
characters to die or for the killer to pop up, we don’t really care
about the characters or anything they’re doing.
Black Eve is a noble effort to tell a standard slasher story in a slightly different way that I respect for trying to be a little unique. Unfortunately, its great lead actress, good ending, and at-times-amusing killer are all wasted in a story otherwise filled with annoying, flat characters that only inspire apathy in the film as a whole. There are definitely worse slashers out there, but being better than something dreadful does NOT necessarily make you good.
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