Our Evil Review: A former exorcist and serial join forces to destroy a demonic force in Frightfest film Our Evil.
Our Evil Review
From the darkest corners of Sao Paolo comes Our Evil, the story of an Arthur, a man who was once an Exorcist, forced to hire a serial killer to help him face the presence of a demonic power which he believes is coming to destroy his daughter’s soul. Fight fire with fire is his mantra, and it is a mantra which fuels the embers of this often shocking and surprisingly twisty horror which is not to be taken for granted.
Samuel Galli, making his debut, is very interested in keeping his cards very close to his chest, guarding the secrets of his debut until the moment in which they’ll make their most significant impact. His approach does often test your patience (even at its very brief run time of 90 minutes. But this approach awards the viewer (if awards is the right word) with a film that is often hard to predict.
Galli’s script mixes a stark realism towards his characters, all the while blending in spiritualistic elements, mixing horror and drama in often mixed result. The budgetary restrictions do mean that when the film does become more outlandish it clashes a little too harshly with more pared-down aesthetic and attempts to ground these characters within a believable situation.
Our Evil Review
But those limitations are somewhat forgiven when it comes to the rug-pulls that Galli executes. Galli keeps us on tenterhooks as he slowly draws out Arthur’s extreme intentions with hiring a serial killer, developing a palpable sense of threat as we try to piece together what it is that is endangering Arthur’s daughter. The final act may not quite land as viscerally as the second act twist, but it plays on an element of retribution that ultimately proves extremely satisfying.
The third act takes a little stumble as more and more details are explained regarding Arthur’s decisions, and particularly when it comes to his decision to choose this particular serial killer. The supernatural elements that were merely hinted at in the films curious first act come more to the fore and while it does prove cathartic, it edges on the precipice of falling into the crevice of schlock, something which the first half of the film makes pains to avoid.
Our Evil stands as a letter of intent when it comes to Latin American genre filmmaking, once again showing how horror can often be used as a means to display a vast degree of talent in regards to scriptwriting and a confidence of what to reveal to the audience and when exactly to reveal it. While the often brutal realism is undermined by the more outlandish and broader horror elements, it’s an impressive debut from the Brazilian director and one which lingers on the mind for quite some time.
Our Evil review by Andrew Gaudion, August 2017.
Our Evil is currently playing as part of the Horror Channel Frighfest 2017 programme.
