Synopsis
You Can't Run From a Nightmare
The sadistic tale of a lonely, mentally handicapped boy who befriends his reflection in an antique mirror. This demonic creature orders him to go on a murderous rampage to kill the people he loves most.
2017 Directed by Andrew Getty
The sadistic tale of a lonely, mentally handicapped boy who befriends his reflection in an antique mirror. This demonic creature orders him to go on a murderous rampage to kill the people he loves most.
Whiplash, 디 이블 위딘, Зло внутри, Злото отвътре, The Evil Within - Töte alles, was du liebst, 镜中邪魔
This is a film that took 15 years to make. It was made by a millionaire meth addict who spent years perfecting every frame of the film. The end result is like The Room with all its endearingly misplaced romanticism but if Wiseau posessed an insane amount of visual talent.
Some of the most creative visuals I have ever seen in a horror film contrasted with one of the most bizarre script's.
This is the kind of thing that could only be made independently, no way a major studio would have OK'd something this abstract (and amusingly insensitive in its subject matter)
This is a must see, bear with the strange and verbose dialogue and within 20 minutes it sort of takes on a hypnotic feeling that no other film has ever made me feel before.
See this now. And tell your friends.
hopefully I don't need to get myself addicted to meth, and seclude myself in a house for fifteen years to make a movie this great; imagine spending your entire creative career on a singular artistic entity, man. marvelous in many ways.
I’m pretty torn with this one. There were things about it that were brilliant and things that just didn’t work for me.
The story is about a mentally disabled boy who starts talking to himself in the mirror only to have that image come alive and convince him to do awful things. I did not really read much about the history of the making of this film until after I watched it. As a former drug user, I’m also torn on my feelings over that. On the one hand, Andrew Getty stuck with his dream for all that time. On the other hand, had he gotten help for his meth addiction, it may not have caused all the problems the…
Take a dash of Twin Peaks, a sprinkling of Wiseau, a dollop of your worsts nightmares, a spoonful of dodgy digital effects, and a cup of genuine talent for creating unsettling imagery. Smash it all together as violently and madly as you can with your fists. Throw it against the wall, hard. Face away from the splattered mess you've made. Put a gun in your mouth and blow your brains out all over said mess. And there you have it: The Evil Within.
Just reading about the making of The Evil Within was enough to make me very interested in seeing it. Writer and director Andrew Getty spent over a decade working on the film, years after filming had ended, spending a substantial portion of his personal fortune in the process. A man obsessed, he took on the bulk of the work himself, crafting practical effects and editing every scene in pursuit of perfection. Unfortunately, he would pass away during the process, leaving the film to idle for another couple years before finally finding distribution.
What does such a film look like? A film of unbridled passion and ambition, crafted with the very life blood of its maker. I can tell you that…
Utterly unique. Insanely twisted. Unflinchingly problematic. This movie is as close to a personal treatise on intrusive thoughts and nightmares manifest into reality as anything I have ever seen. Given that I have never seen anything like this, I suppose that shouldn't be much of a surprise.
Look into the backstory of writer/director Andrew Getty. There is a lengthy and interesting history to him and how this passion project came together. It explains a lot about the sheer oddness of the film.
This is certainly not for everyone, but one thing that no one can take away from it is that it stands alone within horror cinema. A monument* to a singular and unique vision. And that is just about the highest compliment I can pay.
*or mausoleum, depending on how you want to look at it.
Within the first couple of minutes, Michael Berryman first shows up wearing an Axl Rose wig and bandana, which is actually a pretty apt metaphor for the film - it's literally the Chinese Democracy of shitty, early 00s horror films. Shot in 2002 and then edited and reworked up until the director's death in 2015, The Evil Within feels like a mishmash of Donnie Darko, the Simple Jack trailer from Tropic Thunder and everything that's awful about 90s/early 00s horror, all blended together and then endlessly fidgeted with until the director was no longer there to keep messing with it. In a way, it's like a Winchester Mystery House of gross stereotypes, bad computer effects and Dresden Dolls music video…
I liked this, and it surprised me pretty consistently. I felt like Andrew Getty genuinely knew what was scary and was for the most part able to execute his ideas pretty damn well and keep things creepy. For a while it didn’t scare me a ton but did cause me a lot of dread and had me worried fairly often, but in the last thirty minutes that changed. The baby scene absolutely terrified me. The climax of the movie didn’t scare me as much as that scene, but it did scare me. I also felt like it got kind of confusing, and I didn’t understand the second twist until I read about it. I also had trouble understanding what was…
This starts as a fever dream before drifting into more conventional territory with a mentally challenged kid that is "possessed" by an Oculus mirror, until it goes completely bonkers again in the finale.
I was fairly torn about this one given I really liked the first and third acts but got lost in the second, but after reading a fantastic review by Freyr, I dug into the background of the movie and that story is almost as bizarre as the movie itself.
Apparently in production for 15+ years, this was writer/director Andrew Getty's obsession which he almost completed after dying of possible meth addiction complications. I was wondering why two of the stars of a 2017 movie looked like they were from the 90's 90210 or Melrose Place TV shows and now I know why (filming began in 2000 or thereabouts).
"Are you sure you're ready?"
Bears more than a passing resemblance to The House That Jack Built, except The Evil Within clearly doesn't know how personally revealing or how funny it is. Part of me thinks it's admirable that this guy who had no idea how movies were supposed to be had such a bold idea of what his movie was going to be (and is thankful he had the money to pull it off), but most of me thinks it's kinda depressing that such a clear line can be traced from Andrew Getty's childhood straight through this movie to his eventual death and wishes someone would have gotten him the help he clearly needed before it was too late. How…
Belongs to the same school of outsider art as THE ASTROLOGER, MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE, or any of Neil Breen's alien transmissions back to Planet Whereverthefuck. Totally wacked out in its examination of its lead character's mental handicap, but empathetically tries to understand its anti-hero's murderous festering rage in crude, foul-mouthed fashion. One of the better recent examples of intent clashing with inept execution to produce something truly bizarre and special.