phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2023
When Evil Lurks
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IMDb Info
Release Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 39m
Country: Argentina, USA
Language: Spanish
Genre Tags: Horror
Plot Summary: In a remote village, two brothers find a demon-infected man just about to give birth to evil itself. They decide to get rid of the man but merely succeed in spreading the chaos.
Poster - Title Card
phancy.com rating:
phancy.com notes: A demonic possession movie that plays like a virus movie. Some commentary about bureaucracy ignoring solvable problems, but it's mostly a brutal and nihilistic piece where the world is being destroyed by human nature.
Outside Reviews:
Brian Tallerico
2.5 our of 4 stars -
rogerebert.com
The most memorable aspects of Demian Rugna's "When Evil Lurks," which just had its world premiere in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival, have an anarchic brutality that's reminiscent of the work of an obvious influence in the Argentinian filmmaker, Lucio Fulci. This film doesn't abide by many norms—dogs and children are not free or innocent, for the record—and gets great power from occasionally dropping into gory, gnarly insanity. It's an admirably vicious piece of work when it wants to be—although arguably could have gone even further and more frequently. After all, once you open the door to Hell, viewers are willing to go with you wherever the journey leads.
Tasha Robinson
When Evil Lurks is 2023's scariest possession movie — no exorcisms required
When Evil Lurks is a movie for the sleaziest of gorehounds as much as it is for fans of cerebral horror — the practical effects are grisly in the extreme, and as the body count mounts, the deaths get more and more blunt and graphic. Rugna never needs to rely on cheap shocks or jump scares when he has so many ways of evoking real dread. But at heart, this film is meant for horror fans who thought they'd seen it all and were done being scared by possession thrillers. With this project, Rugna breaks plenty of horror rules and literally writes his own, turning his film into 2023's most unnerving horror release — and a welcome revival for a subgenre that seemed like it was on its last spindly, clawed, wall-climbing legs.