When Evil Lurks
A series of gunshots ringing out in the night from near the forest, it was an ill omen heard by brothers Pedro and Jaime “Jimi” Yazurlo, investigating at first light and finding the body of a man torn apart under the trees, the contents of his pack indicating that the stranger was making his way to the house of Maria Elena Gomez; confronting her, she confesses that her son Uriel is possessed by a demon which is now close to manifesting.
Having waited a year for a “cleaner” to arrive to undertake the ritual to purge Uriel of the demon, that was the man who now lies dead in the woods; the police disinterested, the brothers turn to landowner Armando Ruíz who demands that Uriel should be moved, his putrid body abandoned hundreds of miles away before the corruption takes hold, a problem for someone else, but already Ruiz’ pregnant wife sees changes in their livestock.
Filmed in rural Argentina, When Evil Lurks (Cuando acecha la maldad) is written and directed by Demián Rugna, a tale of desperate people terrified of losing what little they possess, their country concerns laughed at as superstition by those who have never seen the possessed but living close to the land they know what is true and what must be done to prevent a deeper tragedy taking hold.
Starring Ezequiel Rodríguez and Demián Salomon as Pedro and Jimi, they plan to take Pedro’s sons from his estranged wife Sabrina and run as far and as swiftly as they can, Jimi friends with the widow Mirtha (Silvana Sabater) who offers them shelter and knows the ways of the demon, but with the corruption spreading like wildfire they may already be carrying the taint with them, burning their clothes but unable to purge themselves.
The sense of dread inescapable, dripping from the screen from first sight of the grotesque bedridden body of Uriel, bloated and seeping yet able to communicate in wheezing half-sentences as he is tended by the fearful but helpless Maria Elena (Isabel Quinteros), When Evil Lurks is at times shocking and unexpected and at others cursed with a terrible predictability, a creeping awareness that nothing can be done, that it is already too late to avert the inevitable.
Set in a place of borderline poverty where the authorities leave the farmers to wallow in their own muck, the law is written by the wealthiest and even the goats seem to mock attempts to enforce order upon them, there is no help coming for Pedro and Jimi, Where Evil Lurks disturbing, repulsive and brutal as it winds a black path across the land, a bleak road trip of escalating nastiness where the children lead the way and the worst things happen at home.
When Evil Lurks will be available on Shudder from Friday 27th October
