When Evil Lurks (2023)


Demián Rugna is a director I knew was going to do great things.  Terrified may have been low on actual plot but the images and ideas presented made up for that.  With When Evil Lurks Rugna returns to the horror genre, something that he is obviously quite good at.  What he has come up with this time is one of the best horror films in recent years.  That doesn't mean I'll want to see it more than once.

Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimi (Demián Salomón) are brothers living in a rural part of Argentina outside of a small town.  One night they hear gun shots and the next morning, upon investigating, they find a man cut in half.  It turns out he was a cleaner, a person sent from the Ministry of Health to deal with a possessed person, or "rotten".  This happens to be Uriel (Pablo and Gonzalo Galarza), the oldest boy of a woman living on a neighboring farm belonging to a man named Ruiz (Luis Ziembrowski).  Because a rotten can't be killed by firearms without putting the executioner at risk Ruiz has Pedro and Jimi help move Uriel out of town to dump in the middle of nowhere.

This does not stop what they fear will happen, which is an outbreak of possessions.  Pedro goes into town to rescue his children and ex-wife Sabrina (Virginia Garófalo) before things spiral out of control, but her and her new husband Leo's (Federico Liss) distrust of him leads to failure.  It turns out dumping Uriel was the worst thing they could do.  Still, Jimi knows an ex-cleaner named Mirtha (Silvina Sabater) that may be able to help save what's left of the town and Pedro's family.

This is one of those movies where it becomes clear early on that things are not going to turn out for the best.  There are two major scenes that would never make it into an American horror film, and the whole thing is an unrelenting dark affair.  The setting is some time after a rash of possessions almost ended civilization and, though things have gone pretty much back to normal, it is obvious almost everyone is living on the edge of sanity.

Unlike most modern horror films this was not made to thrill audiences but, instead, to present a dark, foreboding world in which these events could take place.  It is true that the characters often do not make the best decisions, but behind the decisions they make are attempts at denying what has happened, prolonging petty jealousies or trying to deny what has happened.  It is made clear by Mirtha that a certain detached and cold logic needs to be used in combatting those who are possessed, something that Pedro is unable to do because, little by little, everything he cares for in the world is taken from him.

The acting is superb, as is Rugna's directing.  Occasionally some of the practical effects look like the rubber mannequins they are, but the key scenes work and the ending is about what one would expect.  While words like masterpiece get tossed about a bit lightly when it comes to this movie it is a remarkable take on the usual possession trope, adding a bit of a folk horror sheen and science fiction in the mix.  It all works and, though I hope it is not a series of sequels to this, I will be interested to see where Rugna goes next. 

When Evil Lurks (2023)
Time: 99 minutes
Starring: Ezequiel Rodríguez, Demián Salomón, Silvina Sabater, Luiz Ziembrowski
Director: Demián Rugno


 

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