Fantastic Fest 2023 – Writer/director Demián Rugna had a tall task before him in topping the disturbing imagery from his 2017 breakout film Terrified. Well, his follow-up, When Evil Lurks, certainly doesn’t skimp on the nightmare fuel. His latest is a demented depiction of hell unleashed upon a small village. No one is safe, not even children or animals. Rugna continues his theme of infectious evil, this time crafting a possession movie unlike others we’ve seen.

The film follows two brothers, Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón), who investigate why cattle have been acting strangely. In the opening minutes, they find a bloody torso in the woods. Believe it or not, this is one of the tamest images in the film. Not long after that grisly discovery, the brothers find a bloated, rotting man in a nearby farmhouse. He’s infected with evil, and the brothers attempt an exorcism of sorts and cleansing of the house, but it goes wrong. When they move the man, he spreads the infection throughout the community. The brothers attempt to evade the evil and the many it infects, while doing their best to rescue family members.

From the opening, Rugna showcases one grotesque image after the other and doesn’t relent. He even goes further than the corpse boy sequence in Terrified in terms of harm to children. He also presents them as chilling little hell spawns who turn on the adults. If you want to see a scene with truly creepy kids, just wait until this film’s final act. This is one violent movie that spills buckets of blood, but it never feels like it’s just for mere shock value. Rugna focuses on the way a village turns on each other, with its residents committing one awful act after another towards each other. The savagery is startling and at times, jaw-dropping. There’s hardly a reprieve. Meanwhile, the evil itself feels like an unstoppable force, destined to reach well beyond the remote village. That’s really the scariest aspect of the film, the feeling that the contagion can’t be stopped. There’s no priest coming at the last minute to save the day. It makes for a grim 90 minutes.

Both leading men turn in compelling performances, as their characters’ world shatters in a blood-soaked nightmare. However, there are times when the relationship between the brothers feels a little too flat and undercooked. Too often, it feels like the horror outweighs the characterization. There’s rarely a second where the film slows enough or pauses from the body count to underscore the brothers’ relationship or push it forward. There are also too many scenes where their actions defy sense and logic in the face of unspeakable terror. However, these gripes are small.

Rugna now has two memorable features under his belt. When Evil Lurks is quite a mighty follow-up to Terrified, filled with a dread-soaked atmosphere and one scene after another depicting raw, visceral violence. Rugna eschews traditional possession tropes in favor of something truly unsettling and original. This all makes for one gruesome shocker.

After its Fantastic Fest screenings, When Evil Lurks will come to theaters on October 6 before it streams on Shudder on October 27.

7.5 Out of 10