Evil Things
Evil Things | |
---|---|
Directed by | Dominic Perez |
Written by | Dominic Perez |
Produced by | Dominic Perez Mario Valdez Steckler |
Starring | Laurel Casillo Morgan Hooper Ryan Maslyn Elyssa Mersdorf Torrey Weiss Gail Cadden |
Cinematography | Laurel Casillo Moran Hooper Ryan Maslyn Elyssa Mersdorf Dominic Perez Mario Valdez Steckler Torrey Weiss |
Edited by | Dominic Perez |
Production company | Go Show Media |
Distributed by | Plum County Pictures |
Release date | 2009 |
Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Evil Things is a 2009 American horror film written and directed by Dominic Perez as his feature film debut.[1][2]
Plot
Five college students leave New York City for a weekend in the country, and 48 hours later they vanished without a trace.
To celebrate Miriam's (Elyssa Mersdorf) birthday, Miriam's Aunt Gail (Gail Cadden) gives her use of a large country home in the
As an aspiring filmmaker, Leo brings his new video camera, hoping to create a short documentary of the weekend getaway. The five begin driving to the house. Whilst looking for a place to pull over because Tanya is carsick, the group notice they are being bothered by a dark red van whose driver incessantly honks his horn at them and overtakes them only to slow down in front of them. They pass the van and continue on. They stop at a small gas station where Cassy notices a dark red van pull in and slow down.
Spooked, the gang leave. As they are driving away, a girl from inside the gas station stops them to hand over a phone Cassy left in the bathroom. The group continue to Aunt Gail's home and are again tailed by the van. They stop at a diner and while eating, the van pulls into the diner parking lot and drives slowly by the window. Furious, Mark storms outside to confront the driver but he drives away when Mark gets too close.
The group eventually make it to the house and Aunt Gail comes to turn the power on and wish them a good night. The five surprise Miriam with a birthday cake and then party and drink with Leo filming the whole occasion.
The next day the group take a hike to the snowy woods, where they soon get lost in the dark. They hear noises that they can't identify, crackling sounds on their two-way-radio and branches snapping which scares them all into running. They eventually make it back to the house without further incident. Later, eating dinner, they receive silent phone calls. Then a knock at the door is heard and Mark finds a video tape wrapped in brown paper on the front step.
The tape reveals that the group have been secretly video taped since they were on the road, and are being stalked by the same person in the maroon van. There is footage of them at the gas station with the girl running out to give Cassy back her phone, and them at the diner when Mark attempted to confront the driver of the van, establishing that it's the same van which has been following them the whole time. Then the footage follows them to Aunt Gail's house and shows film taken through the windows of the group laughing and having fun, surprising Miriam with her birthday cake, and to their horror, the stalker inside the house filming them all as they slept.
The phone rings again with only silence on the other end, and then the line is cut. None of the group can get a signal on their cell phone. Trying to leave, they find that their car is missing. A van pulls up in the driveway, scaring the group back into the house. As everyone tries to get a signal on their phones again, all the power in the house goes out. Miriam finally gets a signal on her phone and dials 9-1-1, but the call drops out.
Down the hall, the group hear a noise. Mark gets a knife and goes to investigate. He finds a two way radio that is on and crackling. The door suddenly shuts from the inside and Mark's cries of pain can be heard. Cassy bangs on the door and tries to open it, and then it opens just a crack which scares the group into running upstairs to hide.
Upstairs, the group see the van driving away from the house so they come back downstairs to leave. Leo gives the camera to Tanya and leads the way out, but once outside he sees something that makes him scream at the others to run back inside. Once inside, Tanya falls, breaking the camera and leaving the viewer with only audio of Tanya screaming. Leo's fate is left unknown.
On the video footage taken from the van outside, Miriam is shown to be running from the house. The van turns on its lights and creeps along to follow her, before stopping - the stalker then gets out and chases a screaming Miriam into the woods.
Back inside the house, the other stalker is looking around the house for Cassy with his camera set to
The view pulls back and shows to a dark room were the stalker is watching several videos on many monitors. As well as the stalkers footage, there is also the footage Leo shot implying the stalkers stole his camera.
The last piece of film shows the stalker with the camera in a park, surveying groups of friends. While looking around he spots another group of friends filming. He then follows them on their trip.
During the end credits the video of the stalker's movements are shown from the moment he first spotted the group on the highway, following them to the house and filming them through the windows as they sleep.
Background
Shot in
Release
The film was released to multiple film festivals beginning in early 2009, including the Long Island Film Festival,
Critical reception
References
- ^ BlogCritics. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
- ^ Gabe (April 20, 2009). "The Best Description Of A Horror Movie Ever". Videogum. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- ^ a b "Beware! Evil Things are Coming!". Dread Central. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
- ^ Guzman, Rafer (July 10, 2009). "LI International Film Expo goes global, stays local". Newsday. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- ^ Twitch Film. Archived from the originalon 11 January 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- Quiet Earth. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- ^ Miller, Ross (July 6, 2009). "'The Descent 2′ Heads '2009 Film 4 Frightfest' Line-up". Screen Rant. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- JoBlo. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- Action Flick Chick. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
- ^ Life After Undeath. "Movie Review: Evil Things". Archived from the original on 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2012-01-22.
External links
- Official website
- Evil Things at the Internet Movie Database
- Evil Things at the Rotten Tomatoes
- Interview with Dominic Perez at 'I Like Horror Movies'
- Interview with Dominic Perez at Buried.com