Why Shudder opted for bichrome Children of the Corn-styled thumbnail art, rather than the terrifying Dali-esque almost AI rustic vibes (above) to push When Evil Lurks is anyone’s guess.
It might be that the subscription video service wanted to lure in viewers of more conventional slasher fare, a fool’s gambit, as streaming site subs are now almost hardwired to engage with what they really want and horror aficionados want what’s been promised.
For example, unsuspecting viewers of Skinamarink were presented with an arthouse film. They then (somewhat unfairly) dubbed the slow burn affair in which technically little actually happens, “boring,” perhaps the laziest and cynical adjective in film criticism. After all, something can be boring even if things are constantly happening – witness the typical people stranded in the woods slasher.
When Evil Lurks has enough “happening” and is so expectation-defying, that it SHOULD satiate horror hounds and is easily the best horror of 2023. The scene depicted in the poster art, is one for the ages.
Brothers Pedro and Jaime, out with their dogs in the forest, come across a corpse, what can best be described as a guy who’s half the man he used to be, har har. The dogs lick the body, and we as horror viewers soon suspect we are going to seeing something that is completely different.
The duo ventures forward, coming across a local shack where they encounter a demon-possessed “Rotten,” which almost conjures up the vomit inducing gluttony victim from Se7en. The bros soon find out that the corpulent fellow is not the only Rotten around, and decide to get out of Dodge. But a standard virus-run-amok, this is not.
To disclose anymore would do this genre-bender a disservice. Part zombie, part possession, part hicksploitation flick, part god knows what, When Evil Lurks builds its only little contained universe. And it sets the wild proceedings against the backdrop of spousal discord and intensely compelling family drama too, and does so very effectively.
This reviewer has come across two Argentinian horror films, Terrified (2017) and this. And they both feature Demián Rugna in the director’s chair. What a talent.
When Evil Lurks debuted at TIFF’s Midnight Madness, and was described as “escalating terror with a brutality that recalls the gory extremities of Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead.” Amen.
**** (out of 5)
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