REVIEW: Cuando acecha la maldad [When Evil Lurks] [2023]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 99 minutes
Release Date: October 6th, 2023 (USA) / November 9th, 2023 (Argentina)
Studio: BfParis / IFC Films / Shudder
Director(s): Demián Rugna
Writer(s): Demián Rugna

Evil loves children. And children love evil.

Startled by gunshots, brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimi (Demián Salomón) cautiously leave their home to find out what’s happening. That they aren’t necessarily rattled after coming upon a dismembered body and a case of unfamiliar instruments is one thing, but their reaction upon seeing their rotting neighbor is another. This is a world where God is literally dead and churches cease to exist. Writer/director Demián Rugna has created a parallel universe where demons aren’t just stories to scare children. They are real. They are evil. And there’s no escaping them.

When Evil Lurks introduces its malevolent force as though it’s a disease. Pedro and Jimi want to leave, but Ruiz (Luis Ziembrowski) cajoles them into helping him move the rotting host instead. He believes its presence is a play on his land. That the police ignored a year-old report to let it wipe out the remote town and let whoever was pulling the strings take it for themselves. And why not think that way? If faith has been fully eradicated (despite some holding on tightly to crucifixes anyway), why wouldn’t capitalist greed replace it? Why pretend a human life is worth more than his possessions?

Rugna utilizes the usual demonic possession tropes, but in unique ways to ensure his mythology captivates on a purely visceral and aesthetic level. He doesn’t waste time explaining things—least of all the intricate devices used by “cleaners” to rid communities of “the rotten” before the evil within can be released. We have no choice but to take it all at face value because the stakes are so high. Yes, we want to pull for Pedro’s family to survive, but there’s also the looming danger that they’re all that stands in the way of apocalypse too. Save his children, save the world.

The result is very creepy and deceptively smart insofar as creating a universe to make the no-holds-barred blood and gore play in earnest. It’s the sort of severe tone that could easily fall into farce (I admittedly chuckled a couple times before the drama rebalanced), so kudos to Rugna for staying the course and never wavering as he puts his characters through an emotional wringer more so than a physically punishing one. Because while the deaths are gruesome, we only truly see them through the corner of Pedro’s eyes. It’s as though this ordeal is a personal punishment wherein everyone he loves must pay the price.