Stream it:
|
Own it:
|
With: Ezequiel Rodriguez, Demian Salomon, Silvina Sabater, Virginia Garofalo, Luis Ziembrowski, Emilio Vodanovich, Federico Liss, Marcelo Michinaux, Paula Rubinsztein, Lucrecia Niron Talazac, Isabel Quinteros, Desiree Salgueiro
|
Written by: Demián Rugna
|
Directed by: Demián Rugna
|
MPAA Rating: NR
|
Language: Spanish, with English subtitles
|
Running Time: 99
|
|
Date: 10/06/2023
|
|
|
|
Spawny Rottens
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Kind of a zombie movie and kind of a demon-possession movie, though quite unlike anything one would expect from those genres, this potent chiller is truly shocking, as well as clever and knowing.
Brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimi (Demian Salomon) hear gunshots ringing out in the darkness near their remote farmhouse. Investigating the next day, they come across a mangled body, near some strange equipment. The men deduce that the victim was a "cleaner," whose job is to safely dispatch victims who have become "rotten," or possessed by some kind of evil plague.
They head to another nearby farmhouse and discover a man, bloated and grotesque, and the intended target of the cleaner. Accompanied by another farmer, Ruiz (Luis Ziembrowski), they decide to remove the "rotten" body and dump it far from their properties, to keep its inherent evil from spreading. Pedro then decides to round up his children and estranged wife and flee. Unfortunately, the family doesn't get far before the malevolent force finds them. With the help of another cleaner, Mirta (Silvina Sabater), they must make a stand.
Written and directed by Argentinian-born Demián Rugna, When Evil Lurks does not pull any punches. If the icky, bloated, pus-oozing body of "Uriel" doesn't get you, then a sudden animal attack — totally out of the blue — will. But while the shock and gore is extremely well done, the real strength of the movie, not unlike the movies of George A. Romero, lies in its social themes and its canny presentation.
There are rules around the "rotten," such as that they can't simply be shot with guns. That causes the evil to escape and spread, as we see in another bruising moment involving a woman with an axe. Our three protagonists deciding to dump their problem into "somebody-else's-problem" territory, thinking it won't come back to bite them, is symptomatic of the tragic, stupid way we humans deal with our global issues, handled with a modicum of subtlety and straightforward grimness.
Indeed, the title When Evil Lurks does not necessary apply to the diabolical force sweeping the countryside in the story; it could be referring to us.
|
