|
WHEN EVIL REIGNS
|
||||||||||||
|
The audience knows the storm is coming, and there’s nothing we can do to help. But we realize it too late, as the first sign of the carnage is witnessed by a violent car crash that results in the rage rain that brings about a brand new form of terror. The folks drenched in this mysterious rain now become angry violent merciless monsters intent on killing those spared the soaking, and now the hapless students in their school have to defend themselves while the shit hits the fan. What are these things? Why does the rain inspire such streaks of violence? What is the extent of their power? Can this infection be spread beyond rain? I wasn’t sure, and the Jacksons never explain it too much, taking the Romero route by simply introducing the threat, and allowing our victims to fend them off in a foreign environment. The Jacksons thankfully don’t spend too much time on the monsters as they bring together our group of students who are forced to ward off thirst, cabin fever and rising tensions, all the while the fight to escape becomes more and more gruesome by the minute, especially with a possibly infected in their midst. The Jacksons create a murky and awfully creepy monster film with an often low key approach that works in favor of the dread injected in this hopeless situation. You just can’t escape the rain.
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
Have something to say about this review? Pop on over to Cinema-Lunatics
and speak your mind in our Answer Back! Forums >> |
I mean come on, for a film made on an obviously small budget you just
have to appreciate that utterly wiggy opening sequence involving the
wicked things to come for our characters here in the continent of
Australia. The primary question people will ask themselves is what is
suddenly bringing these rash violent attacks? Is it the rain, perhaps?
It seems like the most logical step, and boy this current of violence
brings on “When Evil Reigns” a simplistic but tense little horror film
that features survivors fending off against monsters that are pretty
much zombies, but also much like Ragers from “28 Days Later.” Seriously,
who gives a fuck if this movie is derivative of the former titles?
Especially since Boyle’s masterpiece wasn’t exactly original, either.
Technically, the film really needs a good once over just to comb over
all the kinks and caveats. Some camera angles to key scenes were much
too ill-framed to really inspire a mood or emotion, particularly the
scene between two characters before the rain begins. I found it poorly
filmed and pretty intrusive, along with some rather dark scenes that
almost made it impossible to understand what was occurring. As for the
audio, it could have stood a better more coherent track; the score is
often much too low to set the mood, all the while dialogue between many
characters in wide shots are too low to be involved in and since some of
the accents don’t help the audio issues much, the viewer will be forced
to watch the subtitled version, in the end.
