Demián Salomón as Jimi
After finding a mutilated corpse with a box of strange bronze magic tools and symbols in the forest near their home, two brothers follow a clue that leads them to discover a rotting demon-infested man, lying on a bed, as if he were a ‘balloon of pus’. Their efforts to try to get rid of him, leads them to unleashing a trail of evil and carnage, from which they don’t know how to escape.
As WB Yeats wrote in his poem, ‘The Second Coming’: “And what rough beast /Its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be reborn.” The beast is waiting to be released.
In ‘When Evil Lurks’, the grandmother stresses: “A spirit possesses your body to use it to do evil… your body is no longer your body.”
This film has been voted horror movie of the year by some reviewers. It moves from being oppressive and bleak, to gut-churning-gore in seconds, even more so as the evil feeds on fear. One reviewer (Amy Nicholson) adds: “the final carnage is almost a relief” from the tension. Despite the vast open plains of the setting, ‘in the middle of nowhere’ in the Argentine Pampas, the oppressive atmosphere weighs heavily, as it emanates from the terror that has been unleashed. Here, you do not want to hear anyone say: ‘I am hungry!’ for if it finds you, it will consume you.
We’re all familiar with certain preventative measure, like garlic and crosses, that, traditionally, work on vampires (bar Polanski’s stable), but here, the brother’s mother rambles on about not one or two, but a long list of seven vital rules and rituals that are essential to protect yourself from demonic evil spirits: among them, never use electric light, for the shadows attract evil, never call evil by its name or shoot them with a gun and, always, leave everything behind, even your valuables.
The panicking brothers fail to persuade anyone and the rules are ignored. Pedro is frantic to take his children to safety as his brother Jimi follows bewildered and confused. But it is Jimi who remembers his past love, Mirtha, has been an exorcist in her time. She takes some persuading to help as Jimi is also in two minds: “Babies who don’t cry, shadows that move on their own/ animals doing things they never do… sometimes I think it’s all in my brother’s imagination!” When she starts to realize what is happening, she tries to persuade the brothers to flee, leave everything behind: “you have no idea what you are dealing with.” She can see: “Evil likes children and children like evil.” The powerful cliff hanger ending leaves us hooked as to where the director will turn next.
Written during the pandemic, Demián Rugna instinctively picked up real issues that affected everyone on the planet, like the endless isolation and the terror of being in constant fear of your life. Then there are the unintended add-ons, being unable to see people’s faces behind a mask, or being forbidden to see them at all, the constant washing of hands to disinfect them, plus the proliferation of terrifying conspiracy theories.
In ‘When Evil Lurks,’ Rugna uses echoes of these emotions and ratchets them up to full horror. Effortlessly, he taps into our familiar fears, and reminds us of the powerful human primal urge of self-preservation above all other emotions. In this film, the first moment of horror tells it all.
Ezequiel Rodríguez as Pedro
Actor, writer, director and editor, Demián Rugna (44) started out in 2007 with ‘The Last Gateway’. He also directed ‘You don’t know who you’re talking to’ (2016) and Terrified (2017) shifting from ghosts to demonic possessions and back.
‘When Evil Lurks’ (2023), in UK Cinemas from October 6th 2023 (Vertigo Releasing UK)
CREDITS:
Writer/Director Demián Rugna / Ecexutive Producers Fernando Díaz, Roxana Ramos, Emily Gotto and Samuel Zimmerman/ Cinematographer: Mariano Suárez/ Editor: Lionel Cornistein/ Sound Design: Pablo Isola/ FX: Marcos Berta / Visual FX: Pablo Stamboulian/ Original Music: Pablo Fuu/
CAST:
Pedro: Ezequiel Rodríguez/ Jim-Jaime: Demián Salomón/ Mirta: Silvina Sabater/ Ruiz: Luis Ziembrowski/ Santino: Marcelo Michinaux. Jair: Emilio Vodanovich/ María Elena: Isabel Quinteros
