Evil - By Brian Morton - Rogue Cinema

Film Reviews: Evil - By Brian Morton
Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2005 @ 23:00:00 Mountain Standard Time by Duane

Serial killer movies always entertain me. Why? I have no idea, but they just do. Silence Of The Lambs, Se7en, it doesn't matter, apparently, I just enjoy watching serial killers, go figure. With all that said, I was very excited to get the movie Evil from Regal Studios.

Evil is the story of a serial killer loose in a small town. Told as a flashback, the story here is of a straight big city detective and his gay roommate who buy a house together in a small town. Now I only mention they're sexual orientation because the movie makes an issue of it. So, our erstwhile heroes take possession of their house just in time for the killings to begin! Now, the serial killer come to a small town isn't exactly an untraveled road, this one is done a little differently.

The story here is good, the problems I have are mostly personal. I understand that with a limited budget it's hard to show murder and crime scenes, so I can forgive that. In fact, the way they handle most of these production problems is excellent. The problem I had was with the way the police work is handled. It seemed like we kept hearing the same things from the detectives and no new ground is covered when it comes to them investigating the killings. We hear 'We're gonna get this bastard' at least three times. And the wrap up of the killer storyline seems forced. The killer suddenly shows up on the doorstep of detective and explains that they have a history, a history that we, the audience, have been unaware of all along. Although, this too is explained in a back handed way at the end, because at the end of the story, when we flash-forward again to current day. Our detective reveals that he's kept the killers mask and there's another surprise that I won't reveal here because, after a little thought, it gives the whole story a twist that you never see coming. And, it's an ending that takes a little thought, but it's worth the effort.

Evil is a very well done movie. The characters are well drawn, the story is very good, even with the small stumbles that, frankly, I think are a personal problem of mine. The best part of this movie, however is the killer. The mask he wears is very... I hate to say this... evil looking and the actor playing the killer really gets into the role. Overall, Evil is well worth checking out and I look forward to seeing more from director/writer Todd Michael Smith. And, I mentioned above that the sexual orientation of the characters is used in the story, and, ironically, the thing I liked best after the killer, was the mild love story between the gay roommate and the detective's partner. It's handled in a very realistic way and the story overall uses gay characters but not in a stereotypical way. It was refreshing to see gay characters not played in a 'swishy' way. And, if you're like me, you'll get a huge laugh when the detective's roommate removes a crucifix from his room, replaces it with a picture of John Waters and then makes the sign of the cross in front of it! Priceless!! For more info, or to get Evil, please visit http://www.regalstudios.com