Evil Remains

I just wanted to write this because the other critic seemed quite harsh. This little movie was quite a fun and scary surprise with very adequate acting and directing. This is a slasher/ghost story that kept me on the edge of my seat and just tense enough to keep me up right now to write this. It does have similarities with some other major motion pictures like Texas and Wrong Turn but also to Session9, because it is subdued in a way and keeps the viewer guessing. The sounds are very well executed as is the lack of sound in some scenes. This silence becomes very threatening at times especially in the darker scenes. All I can say is I really liked it a lot. Watch it alone with the lights OUT.

Estella Warren put on the best performance in the movie, period. There was not much more going on than a lot of idle blather. I really tried my darnedest to listen intently and learn about the five main characters as they interacted with one another, but my attention span kept flipping over to what may be in my fridge because there was absolutely nothing of interest in Evil Remains.

The opening scene allowed the movie to clearly prove it was a horror film but it also set up the tempo for the movie with that long drawn out eerie music and then the anti climax when a friend or family member jumps out rather than the serial killer.

Oh, the serial killer? Well he happens to be an abused son who retaliates by first murdering his abusive father and then his dear mom at home. The movie then flips forward several years and a student decides to do his thesis on whether the house is still haunted and whether or not the son is still alive and living on the property so many years later. The psychiatrist who assisted the disturbed killer (before he was a killer) tells the student that rumors abound of the killer living on the property and running around with a dogs head covering his face. I believe the intent of covering the killers face with a dogs head is for the audience to still have some questions in their mind as to who the killer is. Is he the abused son all grown up? Or is he actually one of the five (5) students who are out to investigate if the killer still lives. Actually four of the five students just ran their mouths so much that I didn't care whether they lived or died.

The ending was predictable and the movie continued to deteriorate from the opening scene. Estella Warren seemed to actually be fighting for her life, too bad she didn't stay away from making this movie, as it will be a blemish on her career.

To be fair, it was watchable. The thing that annoyed me mostly with this movie is that it was very slow moving, the character's you never really got any inside depth of so you was left with that neutral feeling of you don't care if they LIVE or DIE. The acting was somewhat to be desired but what do you expect when they probably picked a handful of people from the street and gave them a few hours to remember their lines. The thing that amused me the most was the actual DVD box, on the back it says "Scarier than CABIN FEVER, more terrifying than JEEPERS CREEPERS" - LOL what planet is this guy from, first off he picked 2 lousy examples of horror movies to compare with and second off it was NEITHER!

Stop and think about it...did anyone NOT notice the "old haunted house" that on the outside looked like it just came off one of those new siding commercials, yet the inside looked abandoned? Who was mowing the lawn and taking care of the flowers by the steps - hey this is in the swamps and grass grows year long.

Some of the reviewers comments, especially the ones that rated this film a "10" well, yeah, I used to smoke that stuff too before going to a movie...

I was surprised to see the soundtrack in Dolby, not Ultra-Stereo or some other second rate sound system. Did anyone notice how s-l-o-w the end credits rolled and that horrible sound (some call music) that went with the end credits?

I rented Evil Remains because I saw James Merendino's SLC Punk and liked that film allot. I thought since SLC Punk was so clever, I bet Merendino writing and directing a horror film would be equally as such, not to mention a good idea. But in my opinion I my judgment was made premature. Evil Remains is a decent little horror flick when compared to most of the b-schlock that is out there. In fact after my initial viewing I found out that this film was at one time slated for a national release, but after the executives watched the film it quickly changed to home video. You see as negatively as I'm painting this picture for you, there is some decent acting with several fleeting minute's enjoyable slasher fun. All in all I liked this film but the storyline and ending really don't make for a great ride. But then again the films premise may have been made to avoid that feeling of a great ride. So in conclusion I liked this film, but if was to watch the film again, I wouldn't rather check out one of the great films that everyone has already viewed.