When Evil Lurks is a Nightmarish New Take on the Possession Subgenre

When Evil Lurks starts with a bang. Well, two bangs, to be precise. The film opens with brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomon) awoken by a pair of gunshots that pierce through an otherwise quiet night in their sleepy rural town. The two then set off to investigate the noise, only to come across a rotting subhuman bathing in his own fetid fluids and excrement.

Pedro and Jimmy immediately recognize the threat at hand. Clearly, this isn’t their first rodeo. They know exactly how to proceed: get this creature as far away from their community as possible. As they haul the swollen being into their pickup truck, it becomes evident that this is something much more sinister than your regular creature feature. Indeed, this bubbling monster is infected with something unspeakable that will continue to spread and spread until it is too late. Directed by Demián Rugna, When Evil Lurks follows Pedro and Jimmy’s desperate attempts to contain the infectious evil at hand. It quickly leaps out from under a boldly original and bone-chilling premise and wastes no time hooking its viewers and setting the scene for a film that is impressively committed to defying horror conventions and being its own beast.

Indeed, When Evil Lurks takes place in a uniquely-crafted and novel world where characters are all-too familiar with the disease that has taken root in their village. The hunting of this evil comes with several rules, which feel less like Zombieland-esque headshot-related safety precautions, and more like some otherworldly credence that is not meant to be explained or understood – just followed at all costs.

At times, the singularity of Rugna’s world feels like a double-edged sword. While a lack of exposition is always refreshing in a film, and in this case makes the story feel that much more authentic, there are times in When Evil Lurks that leave viewers a little too deep in the dark. Particularly in the third act, there are moments when characters act in ways that are distractingly mystifying. Still, the film maintains a familiar and human enough undertone to feel uniquely relatable throughout. Horror often works best when it serves as social commentary, and at its core, Lurks is about the perils of distrust, and the chaos that ensues when trust begins to fracture within a community during the outbreak of a malevolent disease. (Sound familiar?)