{"id":41531,"date":"2023-10-25T11:28:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T15:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41531"},"modified":"2023-10-25T14:04:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T18:04:56","slug":"when-evil-lurks-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/25\/when-evil-lurks-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"When Evil Lurks (Cuando Acecha la Maldad) (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I think over time Demi\u00e1n Rugna\u2019s horror film \u201cWhen Evil Lurks\u201d will become a monstrous classic that will be explored by a lot of the horror fandom. A lot like Lucio Fulci, and or Mario Bava, Rugna\u2019s film is dependent a lot on striking, often disturbing imagery. Said imagery tends to compensate for a lot of the film\u2019s incoherence and ability to leave us absolutely confused and dumbfounded. I\u2019d be hard pressed to call \u201cWhen Evil Lurks\u201d a masterpiece, but it sure is a great horror film. Director Rugna, like the aforementioned directors, is big on mounting terror and suspense, leading us in to a pacing that is slow in the beginning but throws us head first in to explosive twists and violence.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jaime (Demian Salomon) discovers the mangled corpse of a local known as a \u201cCleaner,\u201d they learn that a local has possibly been possessed by a demon. Said demon is known as a \u201cRotten,\u201d and in a frantic effort to keep the demonic influence from spreading through their town, they flee with the possessed in their tow. But soon Pedro and Jaime begin to realize they might be too late.<\/p>\n

There is so much of \u201cWhen Evil Lurks\u201d that will leave horror fans stirring, as Rugna mounts so much of his film with disturbing violence, sudden bursts of horror, and some of the most nauseating moments I\u2019ve seen in a horror film in years. Rugna is not above reveling in the grotesque and vile to help punctuate the inherent power of evil, and he does so by creating what are known as the \u201cRotten.\u201d Rather than relying on the body to commit certain deeds, Rugna concocts the idea of the possessed acting more as rotten shells that become huge balls of puss and fluids that also serve as shells for demonic entities.<\/p>\n

The moment that the trio of farmers learns about the potential \u201cRotten,\u201d the battle against evil is already stacked against their favor. They, as much as the audience, know as little going in to face the \u201cRotten\u201d in the beginning as they in the end, and director Rugna is never one to let us off the hook. What hinders the film\u2019s ability to really take off is the jarring habit to over explain and under explain. So many aspects of the mythology of the \u201cRotten\u201d individuals are weirdly cryptic in some senses, and abundantly explored in some areas. There\u2019s a literal scene where a character explains the seven rules for avoiding, warding off, and fighting a \u201cRotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s discussion about how the \u201cRotten\u201d have a difficult time possessing autistic or mentally disabled individuals because their minds are tough to navigate. Then the movie hinges on us not understanding certain elements, like the possession of kids, the attraction of animals to the evil, and the whole final scene involving Pedro\u2019s autistic son and apple ice cream. I\u2019ll just leave it at that. Also if certain towns have protocols to battle or ward of evil, why weren\u2019t the town folks more prepared for the ultimate undoing? Wouldn\u2019t they invent methods to protect the children first and foremost?<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, \u201cWhen Evil Lurks\u201d is relentless in its dark, bleak, and hopeless world where evil is much more of a disease that inexplicably adapts, and grows. All the good can really do is either fight as hard as possible, or hope for a quick end, which is afforded by absolutely no one introduced here.<\/p>\n

Now in select UK and US Cinemas; premiering on Shudder October 27th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think over time Demi\u00e1n Rugna\u2019s horror film \u201cWhen Evil Lurks\u201d will become a monstrous classic that will be explored by a lot of the horror fandom. A lot like Lucio Fulci, and or Mario Bava, Rugna\u2019s film is dependent a lot on striking, often disturbing imagery. Said imagery tends to compensate for a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[367,477,703,793,1087],"class_list":["post-41531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-foreign","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-possession","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41531"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41536,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41531\/revisions\/41536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}