The Evil In Us, 2016.
Written and directed by Jason William Lee.
Starring Debs Howard, Tatyana Forrest, Lee Tomaschefski, Ian Collins and Marina Pasqua.
SYNOPSIS:
While on a fourth of July holiday, six best friends fall victim to the insidious plan of a mysterious organization when they are unknowingly transformed into bloodthirsty cannibals.
If you’re writing a horror film there are a few well worn staples you can utilize. You need some throwaway pretty people who can die horribly. You can put them in some kind of isolated setting, like an island, or a remote cabin, or better yet, a remote cabin on an island. You could have some kind of trigger, like perhaps a virus that turns people into savage zombie cannibals. Then mix a whole load of corn syrup with red dye and you’ve got yourself a gore splashed spectacular.
So we have The Evil In Us, with all of the above. Now I don’t want to sound like I’m suggesting that’s entirely a bad thing. I enjoy the horror genre. It’s incredibly rare to get anything that feels fresh and new, and this is not one of those, but even with a tried and test formula, the delivery is everything. Much like that pizza you order, you know it’s in principal, the same is what you’ve ordered in the past but when it arrives and you open the box sometimes it ends up looking a total mess and tasting like it’s already been digested. Sometimes though, it hits the spot.
The plot revolves around six friends, all equally annoying and in dire need of despatching violently, who go on a raucous getaway at a remote cabin on an Island. One of the friends has bought an innocuous bag of cocaine, little realising it’s a new drug (spread by a maniacal terror group) laced with a chemical that causes users to become rage filled, bloodthirsty cannibals. Brie, the “good girl” of the group is the only one who doesn’t snort the drug and thus ends up the only unaffected person on the Island and must fight to survive as each of her friends (and her fiancé) descend into insanity.
Despite the somewhat trite characterisation of the six friends, with your ready selection of clearly identifiable horror types, the film does offer a few nice twists as we slowly uncover the nature and origin of this chemically induced infection. The cast aren’t the finest actors by any stretch but are certainly game and give it their all, particularly when the shit hits the fan.
Director Jason William Lee (who also wrote the script) keeps the pace up once the gruesomeness begins. There’s not too much ingenuity in the despatching of each character but the action comes thick and fast. There is plenty of blood but to Lee’s credit he doesn’t go overboard and delve into gore porn. Lee manages to make the descension to drug fuelled madness effective and visually jarring.
In all, while this won’t win originality points, The Evil In Us is relentlessly paced with an acerbic dig at modern politics in amongst the horror. I enjoyed it.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Jolliffe
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published August 29, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
