evil things

evil things has a fairly typical horror set-up - five college students head out on vacation to the middle of nowhere. in this film, they are tormented by a mysterious, unseen stranger in a big black van who tries to run them off the road and later creeps around their house filming them while they sleep. the torment doesn't stop there.

at first evil things seems like it's going to be the same as every other horror movie and exactly the type of film that cabin in the woods parodied so perfectly. however, there is something very different about this film and it's hard to place at first. basically, there is something about the characters and the performances of the actors that makes this film seem very real. so there are three girls and two guys, but these are not your stereotypical slasher victims. there's no jock, no nerd, no cheerleader - they look like real people and they act like it too.

interestingly, director dominic perez chooses not to film the characters for the first ten minutes or so, instead focusing on the road and only allowing us to hear their voices. it's actually a surprise when the guy with the camera, leo, turns the camera around to reveal there are three people sitting on the back seat of the car. it's a nice moment because it feels real; it feels more natural that leo doesn't film the others as soon as they climb into the car. this naturalism continues throughout the first forty-five minutes of the film, and of all the films i've watched recently the one it reminded me of most was the 'hypereal' starvecrow, which focused almost entirely on naturalism in its performances. the difference is, i cared more about these characters. they seemed like nice people; people i would like to hang out with. that's ultimately what makes the film work.

i don't want to spoil the ending, but once things kick off and the stranger inevitably comes to the house there are some cool moments but the whole thing is over too quickly. there's also a really unnecessarily long post-credits sequence showing all the footage the stranger filmed, which i didn't really need to see. to be honest, the third act of this film feels about twenty-minutes too short and without the elongated credits it would probably be a sixty-minute movie.

despite a disappointing ending, evil things is still an enjoyable film and it was really nice to see some realistic characters in something like this for a change.

the found footage blogathon will run throughout february in which time i plan to review as many films as possible and maybe throw in a few extras as well. if you'd like to be involved and post your own content, send me a link via twitter with the tag #foundfootageblogathon. i'll retweet your link and will include it in a summary post next week. you can find a full list of the films i'll be reviewing here.