Notable Cast: Ezequiel Rodríguez, Demián Salomón, Silvina
Sabater, Virginia Garofalo, Emilio Vodanovich, Luis Ziembrowski, Paula
Rubinsztein, Feerico Liss, Marcelo Michinaux
When Terrified appeared on Shudder six years ago, I
would have placed writer and director Demián Rugna as THE artistic voice to
watch in horror. That movie, with all its flaws, scraped my bones with its
tension and conceptual horrors. Indeed, it is the kind of statement film that
should have had Rugna on the shortlist to direct every horror film for any
studio project.
Although I’m sure he was on that list, he took approximately
six years to release his next feature-length film. Of course, he did have a
segment in the recently released Satanic Hispanics anthology film, but the man
took his time dropping his follow-up When Evil Lurks. Waiting to see
this effort was almost as tense as watching Terrified.
It was absolutely worth the wait.
When Evil Lurks is the horror film to beat this year.
And, if I’m being perfectly honest When Evil Lurks is the kind of horror
that beats up its viewers too. While its “evil entity” is treated like a
biological infestation, the combination of folk horror elements within a
possession film is impressively navigated. All the while, Rugna and his team
deliver some of the most brutal sequences since the French Extreme movement of
the 2000s. When Evil Lurks is the kind of horror film that pulverizes
its audience’s nerves and stomach in all the best ways.