31 by 31 Challenge #25: THE EVIL WITHIN (2017)

In the great, vast sea of direct-to-video horror movies, it can be difficult for a film to stand out, even if it's far and above the quality of the movies it shares the bin with. There's just so many straight-to-streaming movies out there, and most of them are unremarkable at best. No one could be blamed for taking a quick glance at The Evil Within and relegating it to that forgettable heap of halfhearted horror, but it would be a grave mistake nonetheless. The film is fascinating, both in its production history and the nightmarish onscreen vision that was eventually realized after fifteen years of loving labor.

The Evil Within
Released: February 26, 2017
Director: Andrew Getty
Screenplay: Andrew Getty

Tagline: "You can't run from a nightmare"

Cast:
Frederick Koehler as Dennis Peterson
Sean Patrick Flanery as John Peterson
Dina Meyer as Lydia
Michael Berryman as The Cadaver
Kim Darby as Mildy Torres
Francis Guinan as Dr. Preston
Brianna Brown as Susan



Dennis Peterson is a young man with special needs who lives with his older brother John. Haunted by frightening dreams that have plagued him since childhood, Dennis discovers that the nightmarish figures of his dreams are now appearing in his waking life as well; in particular, a demon known as the Cadaver. After discovering an old, floor-length mirror in the basement, Dennis finds that he can communicate with this demonic specter and that the Cadaver's grip on his mind and body will only be released if Dennis commits a series of increasingly violent crimes that put himself and the people he cares about, in terrible danger.

The Evil Within is the passion project of Andrew Getty, grandson of oil magnate J. Paul Getty, and funded almost entirely by his inheritance. The film took fifteen years to move from pre-production to completion, with Getty obsessing over each and every frame of the movie and working out of a makeshift studio in his mansion. Unfortunately, Getty died in 2015 before completion of his magnum opus. His producer Michael Luceri finished the film in accordance with Getty's vision, and the result is eccentric, campy film that is strangely alluring in a Burtonesque way by way of David Lynch. 

The aesthetic of the film comes from Getty's childhood nightmares, which he described as hvaing been disturbingly real. As such, his movie ponders the question of what if the images in are nightmares were being fed to us by some malevolent entity rather than a product of our own mind? It's an interesting quandry to base a horror film on, and the exploration of this posited question allows Getty to take his film into all sorts of different genre territory: possesion, slasher, detective, etc. All of that thrown together at once can produce a strange, muddled story at times, but it works because that's reflective of a dream itself: not always linear and operating by its own, otherworldy logic.

The joy of this film isn't really in the framework of the narrative, however, but on the surreal atmosphere that Getty has managed to conjure and present his story through. The animatronic special effects and creations are impressive, and the puppetry work is chilling in its jerky half-realness. The nuance of the detail poured into these parts of the film help The Evil Within rise above any script or acting flaws. It's a film that's bursting with its creator's passion--that mirror scene is one of the most admirable, and freaky, sequences I've watched in recent years--and might be one of the best examples of how genius can quickly become insanity. It's not a flawless film by any means, but it's impossible to limit such a distinctly singular creation. Like a dream, it can't quite be defined, but you'll feel the aftereffects long after your initial exposure.


The Evil Within
5 - Totally Terrifying
4 - Crazy Creepy
3 - Fairly Frightening
2 - Slightly Scary
1 - Hardly Horror