Decidedly original, meticulously tailored suspense, confronting and masterfully written.
It is independent and relatively lower budget films like this that leave me in awe of the creative process of film. This isn't necessarily the film for those looking for 'big scares', but it is particularly tense, well paced and undoubtedly dark with many very vivid scenes of violence. The writing is a definite strong point of this film, writer-director Demián Rugna is an absolute talent, and this movie has secured his oeuvre on my to-watch list.
There were some fairly unsubtle context dumps, but not after giving a chance to piece together the narrative for yourself. It does frequently fall into the territory of 'protagonist makes repeated terrible and frustrating decisions', but given the development of the protagonist (such as his responsibility as a parent, and his continual personal failings towards his family) this is entirely fair. The momentum unfortunately lags in the third act, with an ending that I found to be somewhat anticlimactic in nature.
While not a criticism (again, it links to themes), those with a particular aversion to depictions of child abuse or violence may want to skip this one.
The only strength of the movie is its willingness to go to extreme extents of showing us some dark and disturbing gore. The plot however is so underdeveloped and the characters are not interesting at all.
Checking out When Evil Lurks is recommended if you enjoy dark, suspenseful, and extreme horror films. That being said, you might want to seek elsewhere if you're searching for a horror movie with a well-developed story and cast of characters.
This movie was overhyped as being the scariest movie of the year and frankly, I wasn't scared at all.
The idea behind the movie was a completely fresh take and this, I enjoyed. However, being that it was a low budget film I felt they couldn't portray that idea well enough. The dialogue was incredibly frustrating and intentionally created tense moments by the characters constantly in panic and arguing with each other. This creates tension in the viewers, although not executed well at all.
Towards the end of the movie, the writing takes a massive cliff dive as characters make dumbfoundedly stupid decisions. This immediately pulled me out of whatever world this movie was trying to immerse you in, as I say out loud "Well that was dumb". Near the end, two characters have a chance to stop this evil but instead, the guy decides to do what he knows he shouldn't which is leave to another room to grab an axe, which left the only person who could have stopped everything in harms way. This scene was just so incredibly stupid. Then, the end is just that he has to live with his mistakes?
The end was just dull to me. The movie has a lot of shock factor, which it does well. Though overall, I just felt as though it wasn't that special.
A very dumb movie with full of dumb people
this movie is nonsensical and very dumb. so many unlogical dialogues and the writing is terrible as well.
WOW, what an unexpected Argentinian gem of a movie, unfiltered with no care for pg rating nor tailoring to a minority crowd, it does not rely on unnecessary jumpscares, horror movie cliches or tropes either. a must-see horror movie of the 21st century!
A lot of the movie was good, but it just had such terrible character decisions that really took away from the quality of the film. It made me really frustrated.
Absolutely shocking moments of gore with awesome practical effects. They really show everything too, doesn't shy away from killing kids and animals in the worst imaginable ways. The story in between these moments are incredibly boring to me though. Annoying dialogue, frustrating decision making and unnatural character interactions—or is it culture shock?! I doubt it cause it's awful, I hope nobody thinks like these characters. The superstitions and religious beliefs are also overly exagerated to the point of becoming comedy. Too much melodrama and exposition in the third act. A frustrating watch. It's too bad because I really enjoyed the beginning of the movie and the epic gnarly gore scenes.
This film offers an intriguing perspective on possession, complemented by impressive makeup and practical effects in the majority of its scenes, although some portrayals of possessed children towards the end could have been better. However, it falls short in exploring various missed opportunities and unresolved plot points. Additionally, some characters appear underdeveloped, and certain decisions appear as irrational/stupid in a way that not even fear or despair would justify them.
Just to mention a few points from the top of my mind:
At some point we see that the devil has difficulties manifesting the possession on autistic people, this interesting fact is simply thrown away a few minutes later.
What explains Jimi not being possessed after driving over his possessed sister-in-law?
How the kids at the school (terrible acting, btw) moved all those bodies? Including Uriel.
One of the rules “to not get infected” mentioned in the film is to not hurt the possessed, but Pedro slaps the shit out of a little possessed girl????
Everyone seems to know the rules, but they conveniently forget them?
I ain't never seen anything quite like this
A total waste of time. Absolutely terrible.
Meh. Not scary at all. Just boring and dumb.
There's only one word to describe this film: Gross.
This is the best horror movie of 2023!
Definetely not that regular, boring possesion movie.
The entire movie is so frenetic, a lot of blood and gore. Great scenes that made my eyes shine :smiling_imp:
The worst film I have seen so far this year. Awful.
Worst acting and ending.
I really wanted to like this film. The kills were graphic, practical, and really well done. I liked that they went where most horror films tend to shy away from and that lead to a sense of dread where no character felt safe. Unfortunately, those scenes can't make up for the shortcomings the rest of the film has. Every character, but especially the main character, is extremely frustrating to watch and make the dumbest decisions. They list the "7 rules," but no one really adheres to them, despite knowing them. The number of times people kept saying, "I saw someone possessed, but I'm not really sure what I saw" or characters responding to ones who saw the possessed with "Are you sure? You were probably imagining it," despite them all acknowledging that possessions are real and have spread in major cities already. The movie builds up this world, but most of the characters spend so much time dismissing it all. We see a character get their face bitten into by a dog and drug down the street by it, but then we see them later on perfectly fine. I assumed that this was a false vision created by the evil spirit to mess with the main characters' minds, so that was the reason everyone was skeptical to what was being seen and that things might not be what they appear. If we see a horrific thing, it may be real, or it might not be. I was convincing myself that the frustrating decisions being made would make sense in the end. By the end, though, everything we saw ended up being real. Why did the little girl appear fine, but every other character who died horrifically stayed that way for the rest of the film? The one character who was competent and knew what to do, who the main characters seek out for help and guidance, is then ignored by them and ultimately meets a frustrating end. There is a great film in the bones of this movie, but it gets buried by excessive exposition, idiotic decision-making, and world building that ends up not mattering to the characters and, thus, the audience. I don't need my horror movies to have a happy ending. I enjoy ones that end with the main character ultimately losing to the villain, despite their best efforts. This is not that movie. No character gave their best effort, and this ending just feels like I wasted my time watching this. I set myself up by getting fooled by a cool premise and opening first 30 mins or so. If you are interested in seeing the awesome kills, try YouTube or Reddit, but don't bother slogging through this whole movie for them.
You HAVE to watch this with subtitles, even if you speak Spanish, as most of the actors just slur the words and you just don't have a clue what they are saying. You're left to wonder if they know they are in a movie and that people will have to be able to hear and understand whatever they are trying to convey. Most Argentinian films fail to achieve this.
Subtitles were not available to me (as a Spanish person, I didn't think I would need them!), so as a result, this movie was a whole lot of nonsense.
A good possession movie with a good story.
So for me it is a big disappointment, the beginning is boring, towards the end it starts to be a bit interesting, and the conclusion itself is again about nothing. There is quite a bit of blood, but that doesn't make up for the boredom, a horror film needs an engaging plot and it lacks that
There are a few interesting scenes here but not enough to carry the film. As of this comment Rotten Tomatoes sits at a 97% critics rating and 81% audience score. This is actually more interesting than the film itself.
Pretty awesome horror film, deserves a spot on the same shelf with the evil dead.
Lots of great concepts going on, lots of intrigue, though suffers from poor pacing. For the material and high stakes this movie presents, it really knows how to bore you between events.
Main character is quite possibly the worst main character ever though. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but every decision he makes results in people dying because he refuses to listen. By the end, had 0 sympathy lol but I’m not sure that was what the audience was supposed to feel.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘When Evil Lurks’:
Well, these characters went about things ALL sorts of wrong, didn’t they?
Major points here for shock value and practical effects. They didn’t really hold back, for sure. There were some pretty incredible visuals and I can honestly say this was probably one of the more unpredictable horror movies I’ve ever seen.
What stops this from being superb, in my opinion, is the mythology. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it. You can do so much with it — and they did! But it felt incomplete and contradictory at times. Quite a few holes. For one example, why did the first little girl come back appearing unscathed, while the mother didn’t? And the differences between the “rotten” and “possessed,” along with the seven rules, didn’t seem entirely clear. Lastly, from the looks of the ending, they should’ve just done the deed at the start of the film. Because everything seemed pretty chill and finite at the end. It was the in-between that did them all dirty. No?
I personally think this is the best horror film of the year. It definitely holds up as one of the most disturbing. It’s an Argentinian film with a brilliantly insane story. Watch at your own risk.
My gut reaction to this movie was that it was just really messed up, playing more in the disturbing realm than scary. Don't get me wrong, there are some intense scenes that do feel unpredictable and horrifying. But it's just so bleak. However, since I watched it, I often find myself returning to it. The movie is very effective at creating a visceral and lasting impact. Someone else I know mentioned it is an exploration of the domino effect that rash men can have, and viewing it from that lens, I feel like I appreciate it a lot more now.
Mostly gore and not scary at all
Definitely one of the most gruesome horror movies I've seen, but I feel like somehow the grotesque and violent scenes enhance the story rather than make it feel over-the-top. I also enjoyed the story overall, and the structure of it made sense. There are also some nice details in this movie that I honestly didn't catch on the first watch.
Not just a bunch of “for the sake of it” jumpscares like every other horror movie. The plot is decent and the story is continuous, did not move around. Pretty good tbh, no goosebumps moments though.. just a ‘horror’ movie, not a ‘HORROR’ movie.
After seeing an overwhelming amount of online praise for this film, I may have had too high of expectations for this one. There was some really good imagery but the characters/motivations and plot felt a bit off for me. Still thought it was good but not game changing.
Decent low budget horror movie.
The gore and great practical work is what really makes it stand out, if you’re into it of course.
Unfortunately where it lets itself down is the plot with the final act also being very underwhelming. The decision made by the characters at times were annoying and frustrating.
I’ll give it more than it deserves. I’ll follow the authors. I liked the feeling of hopelessness, even the heroes may not have understood right away, but having missed the patient at the beginning, they already guessed that this was the end. Well, the idea is nothing, it looks fresh. In the end, of course, it was deflated. Budget more to detail the world?
I feel like I should have liked it more, coming from the director of Terrified (2018) that I rated 9... But I couldn't help myself from being continuously distracted with the frustrating characters and the male protagonist in particular that embody everything I despise with the macho man. He's a deadbeat dad, bulldozing his way through life, unable to communicate, even more unable to listen to anybody else, can not plan or think ahead at all and has exactly zero impulse control. The first half with everybody screaming in dragged out Latino soap acting style did not win any favours either. That said, there are some moments that are absolutely amazing that I'm not going into as to not drop any spoilers. Maybe I'll give it another shot some day, now that I know what to expect.
This was a great time. A new take on the zombie/exorcist genre, with fun world building and lots of unanswered questions. The acting is good, and the practical effects rocks! There is a lot of gruesome depiction of animals and kids getting hurt, so be aware - but it was very entertaining, and even though the story was a little all over the place - i loved it. Very interesting in my opinion
Nice surprise from this Argentinian production
You're thrust into a world with it's own rules around the supernatural. Don't bother making sense of it; just enjoy the horror lol
Stupid Main Character. Stupid Script.
This was a film with guts. It wasn't afraid to go places and break taboos in new ways to unleash utter chaos. The second half of the movie is a little less crazy because it goes over board with fleshing out the lore, but the first half is just one "did they really just do that?" moment after the next. As soon as that bit with the dog happened , I knew I had to be ready for anything.
The brothers being bumbling idiots trying to help, but always making things worse gave it a little Evil Dead feeling. The inventiveness of some of the gore also reminds me of Evil Dead. This is darker and less comedy driven even if there are a few funny moments sprinkled in to stop the tension from being murder on the audience.
The fact that this movie is in a language besides english might make it hard for sum use subtiles
If you want some hope: this movie is not for you. It's a very good surprise, I was a little lost for the first 15 minutes. Take a look, you'll understand what I mean.
really? all this for just needs to kill an old woman?? bad, bad movie..
It's really good in the beginning but when they try to explain it's just bad.. and the "keep rolling" it's worse.
A lot of really gnarly, unsettling sequences and imagery. I really like the world building and the way they drop you in as shit gets wilder and wilder. I do think it kind of peters out at the end and relies on straight up character stupidity. It kind of hits parody by the time it cuts to credits.
Like me discussing my sex life: This is what the fuck I'm talking about!
While the intense pacing trails off a bit in the third act, the originality, the unpredictability and the fact this goes places most movies won't makes When Evil Lurks top tier horror for the year.
Shout by Barusch BenitezVIP 2BlockedParentSpoilers2023-10-29T09:00:06Z— updated 2023-11-06T12:54:02Z
A completely different take on possession. Avoiding all the stupid cliches from American movies, director Demián Rugna takes a gruesome, intelligent, and shocking route that makes the movie one of the most original horror films I've watched in a long time. The third act slows things a little more than I would wanted, but the end leaves you satisfied and devastated.
Without a doubt, this IS the movie you should watch in October 2023 instead of the megahyped Exorcist secuel.