Evil Things Keeps Hold of the POV Handicam Concept
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Evil Things is filmed directly by one of the victims, this film chronicles the last hours of some terrorized teens who disappeared mysteriously.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
June 30, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release: July 11, 2011 (U.S. DVD)
Written and Directed by: Dominic Perez
Starring:
Leanne Melissa Bishop as Cassie's Sister
Gail Cadden as Aunt Gail
Laurel Casillo as Cassy Crawford
Morgan Hooper as Mark Schaefer
Ryan Maslyn as Leo Pugliese
Elyssa Mersdorf as Miriam Dearing
Miriam (Elyssa Mersdorf) is about to turn 21, and her very best friends plan a weekend trip to the country home of one of her college friends to drink beer, hike, eat cake and generally celebrate. As the story goes, these kids head off, reach the house where they meet the owner Aunt Gail (Gail Cadden), and then are never heard from again. Then an anonymous source delivered a video that chronicled the events of the evening. Presumably that video was then made into a movie and delivered to us.
In the beginning we learn that the reason the entire trip is recorded is that one of the friends, Leo (Ryan Maslyn) is a film student – it’s a good thing to have some context since this concept has been used quite a bit of late. Back in the days of The Blair Witch Project this was a relatively new idea for a feature film, and Cloverfield took it a bit further in terms of budget and scope… but since then it’s been used many times, mostly successfully, but gosh… I am getting a bit tired of it. But I digress…
The starting footage gives some hints to what is to come as a van seems to be following the crew as they drive through the snowy mountainsides. Then it would speed up and pass their car, then slow down forcing the kids to pass again, then flash headlights in the kids’ rear view mirror. It gets a bit scarier when that certain van continues to appear wherever they stop for gas, to get dinner, everywhere. What is the source of the interest this van driver has in the celebrating coeds? More than anyone wants to know.
Evil Things is a good character-driven film that has lots of great creep factor. This one was obviously created on the cheap, and that fact alone may turn off those who crave the big budget films that have a lot happening - Evil Things just does not have a lot happening. The chills are psychological and situational rather than overt and dramatic. I like that sort of thing personally, but don’t negatively judge those who are not quite as fond.
The acting performances are generally pretty good, primarily because these actors are just kids being kids off for a weekend romp. It’s hard to tell how much of the dialogue is strictly scripted and how much is improvisation toward a general concept they are supposed to portray, and that is a good thing. Obvious scripting in a film like this can be just as unnatural as bad improve, though bad improve is more annoying. The flow of the conversations and dialogue is a feather in the cap for the performers, but mostly the director Dominic Perez. The story and goals of each scene are all good and the story moves along at an appropriate pace.
The ending of Evil Things is where I have the most trouble. If I think through it the conclusion makes sense, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything just kind of ended. I didn’t need someone suddenly being hurled into the camera or a CGI monster emerging from the hardwood floors, but a bit more build up to a climax of some sort would have been a nice touch.
The bottom line is that Evil Things is generally well done with a good story and genuine tension and suspense leading to a few good scares, but suffers a bit with a ho-hum ending and over-used filming technique. Those who enjoy a psychological ride will like this film while others who long for shock-scares or dramatic kills will be sorely disappointed.
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