When Evil Lurks (2023) A Spirited, Grim Take On the Possession Movie (Review)

Coming off the critical success of Terrified (2017), and his standout segment in the horror anthology Satanic Hispanics (2022), Argentinian director Demián Rugna is back with another instalment of his brand of mean horror with When Evil Lurks – meaner and grimmer than before.

Hot off the film festival circuit where it has been garnering incredible feedback, When Evil Lurks takes the possession concept and spins it into an increasingly nihilistic, pandemic-infected universe of “possessed ones”. One night the brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez), and Jaime (Demián Salmoman), hear gunshots, and upon further inspection find the desecrated remains of a corpse. After questioning their nearby elderly neighbour, they discover her son Uriel is a “possessed one” – someone who has been bedeviled by a demonic entity and cannot be killed lest the evil become unleashed within the wider community. Inevitably the evil is unleashed, and as the ensuing violence and malevolence infects its way through the rural community, Pedro – along with help from his brother – must rescue his children and mother and make his way out of the countryside towards the city for refuge.

2023 has truly been the year of possession, with heavy hitters like Evil Dead Rise and Talk To Me slaying at the box office, as well as a less than prosperous The Exorcist: Believer making an appearance in cinemas. Yet while the others have followed quite a traditional route for the horror subgenre, Rugna’s When Evil Lurks stands firmly apart from them with its strength in world building and thematic representation. The film creates a world (and thankfully does not waste time on lengthy scene setting), where possession is frequent, and where specialists called “cleaners” are employed to dispose of those who are unfortunate enough to fall victim to these demonic forces. These entities must absolutely not be killed by a gun as that would only spread the evil to the one who holds the weapon, which makes it difficult not to relate this to a commentary on the evils of gun violence.

When initially meeting the mother of Uriel she remarks that it’s her fault, and that he has been rotten for a while, and it’s this brief exchange that sets the tone and subtext for the entirety of the film’s hour and thirty nine minutes runtime. This is a movie about the insidiously poisonous nature of evil, violence, and destructive aggression whether it stem from toxic masculinity and patriarchal oppression, or from the film’s possible hints towards far right values that are becoming rooted in the education system. These things infect children and seemingly pleasant neighbourhoods, and considering Argentina’s history with dictatorships and the far right rearing its ugly head in the country’s political elections, it’s not a wild subtextual reading of the film at all.

As previously mentioned, When Evil Lurks is MEAN, unrelenting in its cruelty, and veers into unexpected and disturbing territories – with one scene in particular bound to cause visceral screams and out loud reactions from viewers. Even on a second watch, and despite being fully aware of the impending scene, the tension and dread that Rugna has permeated throughout the film lends itself to a queasy and anxiety-inducing experience.

Despite its undeniable strengths it’s difficult not to get stuck on When Evil Lurks’ representation of large- bodied people, especially with Uriel being presented as swollen, bloated, bed-bound, and spewing large amounts of decomposing bodily fluids. Its difficult not to see this character as representative of a “gross” and “bad” body because of his larger size – despite the explanation being he is engorged from the evil rotting inside of him.

When Evil Lurks is a powerhouse of a possession film, and will probably find itself on many a top ten of 2023 list, cementing Demián Rugna further as an absolute master of horror in the making.

Ygraine’s Archive – When Evil Lurks (2023)