Evil Things
Encyclopedia
Evil Things is a 2009
American
horror film
written and directed by Dominic Perez as his feature film
debut.
mockumentary
style in the valleys surrounding New York City
, the film deals with the haunting of a group of twenty-somethings in a deserted house, captured as 'real footage' on a video camera, with the actors themselves serving as cinematographers. The film took three months to write, seven days to shoot, and one month to edit.
. It had its British premiere on August 29, 2009 in Leicester Square
as part of Channel 4
's London FrightFest Film Festival
. There are plans for worldwide release of the film on DVD
and Blu-ray Disc
in 2011.
made note that the film's elements were "reminiscent of Spielberg
's debut Duel (1971 film) as well as the likes of Jeepers Creepers
, Blair Witch Project, and Paranormal Activity, and while the film's concept was not original, it "is a well executed low-budget thriller," with the reviewer remarking that "the biggest complaint I have about it is that it feels a tad long with too little actually happening." Dread Central wrote that while it was another "found footage film", after speaking with him, they were willing to give director Dominic Perez the benefit of the doubt. They offered this quote from Perez himself: "It took me 3 months to write Evil Things, 7 days to shoot it, and 1 month to edit it, but it took me 41 years to finally believe that I could make it happen." Twitch Film
wrote that the film was meandering, aiming for authenticity in its scares but missing the mark, commenting that it was the "'free-form' dialogue from each of the five victims forces the authenticity; raising and lowering the tension immediately and in the process spiralling as far from reality as possible." However, they did note the film was well shot: "for a handheld piece the frozen vistas are quite remarkable and the winter holiday home is an excellent set piece for that unmistakable feeling of 'middle of nowhere'," but concluded that despite the location, once the actors beging their dialog, "the film loses its gravitas." The website concluded that the film "offers an interesting end in the form of the killers' point of view, but the nifty convention is ultimately lost in the mediocrity that came before it." JoBlo.com
compared the film to both Blair Witch and Lord of the Rings "because for the better part of the movie, nothing much happens. But when the shit does hit the fan, it does so in a grand fashion that leaves you retarded on the floor and cowering in fear/excitement". They noted that while much of the film's early dialog was tedious and boring, the final 30 minutes when the reviewer felt that as a hand-held
film, it finally deleivered the excitement that was anticipated. They wrote that the actors did a great job of leading up to the final moments, doing "great job of carrying the film, and keeping the audience intrigued right to the final screams," offering that "the horror of the payoff here feels personal, like it is actually happening, which is hard to accomplish in any movie". The reviwer also appreciated how the film was put together, as if edited by the killer himself after his deeds were done, with additional footage seemingly shot by the kiler himself edited into that taken by his victims. Action Flick Chick wrote that the film was a "slow starter", but that the "ending does give you a little bit of a creep out factor, though."
2009 in film
The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
written and directed by Dominic Perez as his feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
debut.
Background
Shot in found footageFound footage
Found footage is a filmmaking term which describes a method of compiling films partly or entirely of footage which has not been created by the filmmaker, and changing its meaning by placing it in a new context. It should not be mistaken for documentary or compilation films. It is also not to be...
mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
style in the valleys surrounding New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the film deals with the haunting of a group of twenty-somethings in a deserted house, captured as 'real footage' on a video camera, with the actors themselves serving as cinematographers. The film took three months to write, seven days to shoot, and one month to edit.
Plot
Five college students leave New York City for a weekend in the country, and 48 hours later they vanished without a trace. To celebrate Miriam's (Elyssa Mersdorf) birthday, Aunt Gail (Gail Cadden) gives her use of a large country home in the Catskills for the weekend. Miriam invites her friends Cassy (Laurel Casillo), Mark (Morgan Hooper), Tanya (Torrey Weiss) and Leo (Ryan Maslyn) to join her to celebrate. Miriam, Cassy and Tanya bring the food and Mark brings the beer. As an aspiring filmmaker, Leo brings his new video camera, hoping to create a short documentary of the weekend getaway. The five begin driving to the house. Soon they are bothered by a black van. They suspect it to be following them and they find out this is true when the van rolls up another time through a diner. Mark, Cassy's boyfriend chases away the van angry at the driver for stalking them. They eventually make it to the house and Aunt Gail comes to turn the power on and wish them a good night. The five party and drink with Leo filming the whole occasion. The next day, they take a hike to the woods which they soon get lost in the dark and are scared of far away sounds of animals. They do eventually make it back to the house. Later when eating dinner, they receive phone calls with no one answering. A knock at the door is heard and they receive a video tape. They watch it and it reveals gruesome scary things. They have been filmed and stalked by the same person in the black van and much to their horror, he has also been inside the house and in their rooms while they were asleep. The power goes out and Mark tries to find the stalker in a room. He looks through but finds nothing. While looking at the others, the door shuts because the stalker was behind the open door. He then presumably kills Mark. The door slightly opens and scared, they run upstairs and hide. They come downstairs with Tanya holding the camera and Leo leading the way. They get outside but Leo finds something outside and tells them to run back but Tanya falls breaking the camera and all left is the audio sound of Tanya screaming and her and Leo's fate is left unknown. The stalker now in the car watches Miriam run screaming into the woods. He gets out and most probably catches her with her fate unknown as well. The stalker now looks around the house for Cassy. After going into the living room, he sees her come out from behind the couch and because the house is dark, the stalker can see her with his nightvision on the camera but Cassy is wandering blindly. He plays with her watching how far she will get. She gets to the door but sees something outside (implying there is more than one person involved with the stalker) and the camera man makes a soft sound alerting her of his presence. He than lunges out at her leaving her fate unknown as well. The last piece of film shows the stalker in a park. While looking around he spots the friends filming. He then follows them on their trip which starts the film.Release
The film was released to multiple film festivals beginning in early 2009, including the Long Island Film Festival, the Hello Darkness Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia, and the Edmonton International Film FestivalEdmonton International Film Festival
The Edmonton International Film Festival is a nine-day film festival in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, hosted at Empire Theatres at Edmonton City Centre....
. It had its British premiere on August 29, 2009 in Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
as part of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's London FrightFest Film Festival
London FrightFest Film Festival
FrightFest is an annual film festival held in central London over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The first event was held in the year 2000....
. There are plans for worldwide release of the film on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
in 2011.
Critical reception
BlogCriticsBlogcritics
Blogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site—a self-proclaimed "sinister cabal of superior writers"—was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn...
made note that the film's elements were "reminiscent of Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's debut Duel (1971 film) as well as the likes of Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers may refer to:* "Jeepers Creepers" , a popular 1938 song* Jeepers Creepers , a 1939 western film starring Roy Rogers* Jeepers Creepers , a 1939 animated short film featuring Porky Pig...
, Blair Witch Project, and Paranormal Activity, and while the film's concept was not original, it "is a well executed low-budget thriller," with the reviewer remarking that "the biggest complaint I have about it is that it feels a tad long with too little actually happening." Dread Central wrote that while it was another "found footage film", after speaking with him, they were willing to give director Dominic Perez the benefit of the doubt. They offered this quote from Perez himself: "It took me 3 months to write Evil Things, 7 days to shoot it, and 1 month to edit it, but it took me 41 years to finally believe that I could make it happen." Twitch Film
Twitch Film
Twitch Film, also known simply as Twitch, is an English language Canadian website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown, a cinephile with personal interests in arthouse and grindhouse cinema...
wrote that the film was meandering, aiming for authenticity in its scares but missing the mark, commenting that it was the "'free-form' dialogue from each of the five victims forces the authenticity; raising and lowering the tension immediately and in the process spiralling as far from reality as possible." However, they did note the film was well shot: "for a handheld piece the frozen vistas are quite remarkable and the winter holiday home is an excellent set piece for that unmistakable feeling of 'middle of nowhere'," but concluded that despite the location, once the actors beging their dialog, "the film loses its gravitas." The website concluded that the film "offers an interesting end in the form of the killers' point of view, but the nifty convention is ultimately lost in the mediocrity that came before it." JoBlo.com
JoBlo.com
JoBlo.com is a website primarily focused on the film industry.JoBlo.com was started in 1998 by Berge Garabedian , a movie reviewer who is known for critiquing movies from the perspective of an average movie-goer. The website's name is, in fact, a play on the term Joe Shmoe, and registered users of...
compared the film to both Blair Witch and Lord of the Rings "because for the better part of the movie, nothing much happens. But when the shit does hit the fan, it does so in a grand fashion that leaves you retarded on the floor and cowering in fear/excitement". They noted that while much of the film's early dialog was tedious and boring, the final 30 minutes when the reviewer felt that as a hand-held
Found footage
Found footage is a filmmaking term which describes a method of compiling films partly or entirely of footage which has not been created by the filmmaker, and changing its meaning by placing it in a new context. It should not be mistaken for documentary or compilation films. It is also not to be...
film, it finally deleivered the excitement that was anticipated. They wrote that the actors did a great job of leading up to the final moments, doing "great job of carrying the film, and keeping the audience intrigued right to the final screams," offering that "the horror of the payoff here feels personal, like it is actually happening, which is hard to accomplish in any movie". The reviwer also appreciated how the film was put together, as if edited by the killer himself after his deeds were done, with additional footage seemingly shot by the kiler himself edited into that taken by his victims. Action Flick Chick wrote that the film was a "slow starter", but that the "ending does give you a little bit of a creep out factor, though."
External links
- Evil Things at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Evil Things at the Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
- Interview with Dominic Perez at 'I Like Horror Movies'
- Interview with Dominic Perez at Buried.com