Ooh, this is a bleak film. I mean, really, really bleak. Once you think you’ve got through all the different layers of bleakness, there’s more down there to enjoy. When Evil Lurks (2023) certainly doesn’t misrepresent itself with that title; it’s chock-full of lurking evil. And dirty, bloody, grotty evil, too – none of this threatening, but ultimately ‘cleared up by personal redemption or true grit’ nonsense. Nope, this is a properly nasty story, a reinvigoration of some horror tropes and a reinvention in other respects. In its mix of supernatural horror and gore, there’s something for everyone – as long as you like it bleak, obviously. However, one aspect is less bleak: judging by the sheer number of film companies or filmmaking concerns listed in the opening credits, there’s obviously a lot of belief as well as financial heft behind director Demián Rugna, which is probably the most uplifting thing about this project from beginning to end.
The film starts tense. We’re given no introduction to brothers Jimmy and Pedro Yazurlo; we first find ourselves peering at them as they peer out of the windows of their tiny rural property, listening to gunfire coming from somewhere out in the darkness. Poachers? Their unpredictable landlord, Ruiz? Both of these possibilities are only faint possibilities. The two men decide to arm up and head out, waiting for first light to go and see what’s what. Remember, neither they, nor we, have any idea what they’re looking for exactly: nonetheless, they’re left in little doubt when they find a dismembered body, one they’re understandably keen to attribute to a puma, or – again – a person they dislike enough, a person savage enough to fit the bill.
But, nah. The Yazurlo brothers find other things scattered around the remains which suggest otherwise: strange equipment, and a map – pointing straight to the home of a local woman, who lives with her two sons. They head there, finding who – or what – was the target of the person who never made it there. Her son, Uriel, looks to be in a bad way: he’s a dead ringer for a certain New York-based Fulci zombie, actually, but less active than his American lookalike; lying supine, emitting various fluids, he looks close to death. Then it turns out to be worse than that; Uriel’s mother was anxiously awaiting the now-remains in the woods to turn up to kill Uriel. Uriel is possessed, and has to be dealt with carefully.
If this film has one overarching theme, it’s watching, with fascination, as a group of men mess things up whilst a small number of older women watch equally transfixed from the sidelines, occasionally trying to quell the flow of Bad Decisions, but never quite managing it. Jimmy and Pedro, repulsed by what they see lying cataleptic in the back bedroom, rush off to seek help. To be clear – whatever is happening here, the men at least notionally accept that it’s of supernatural origin, but seek very worldly means to sort it out. Oh, actually wait – there’s another overarching theme, and one which you often see elsewhere in horror cinema: the dangers of unfamiliarity with folk wisdom which is the only barrier to malign supernatural events (Christianity is conspicuously absent here). As such, when the brothers track down Ruiz and tell him what’s going on, and then try their luck with a useless local police force, they trigger an outbreak of possession which quickly escapes the bounds of a single, unfortunate household. Now nothing is out of bounds.
This oozy, ugly, equal-opportunities possession offers up a really interesting idea, and I can’t quite think of anything exactly like it (though perhaps the 2016-17 TV series, Outcast, comes closest). It’s a little like a zombie outbreak here, only …sly. It tricks its way around. Possession usually confines itself to one or two flexible girls in nightdresses. Here, it’s a minor plague, and it spreads according to rules which almost no one knows, so the audience also has to make educated guesses about these rules (so that when we do get some exposition later in the film, we don’t really need it). There are one or two moments of very dark humour in the film, though these mostly tend to underline the well-meaning, but hopeless efforts of Pedro in particular, and they don’t detract from the general forward thrust of paranoia, irrationality and fear. Nor do they take away from the film’s shock moments of gore: whilst these look a little too obviously CGI-embellished earlier on in the film, they’re still grim and surprising. And we’re definitely shown things or told things in Argentinian horror cinema which we’d never get in Western cinema; there are some inclusions here which will surprise many of you, and your thoughts will probably run a little like this: “Oh my god, they’re not going to…oh, oh yes they are.” Yes, it turns out they are. Every time.
All of this unfolds between hopeless protagonists who have no patience or skill to fix things, in an isolated corner of Argentina devoid of infrastructure or support, overshadowed by corruption and indifference long before the possessed start to rock up. In fact, it transpires very, very early in the narrative that Uriel’s family had been awaiting help for a year, but no one had much troubled themselves about that. Like I said, bleak – but also physical, noisy, bloody, exciting and fresh. When Evil Lurks shows that Rugna is on devastating, queasy good form and definitely a horror director to watch.
When Evil Lurks (2023) hits Shudder on 27th October 2023.