USA, 2004
Review:
JA Kerswell
Almost great. EVIL REMAINS doesn’t quite coalesce into the perfect horror movie - but it has a lot of good things going for it. A group of students investigate a supposedly cursed mansion where a bloody murder happened 20 years previously. Only they find that sometimes urban legends are perhaps based a little too closely on reality. The film is blessed with surprisingly good acting, some effective slasher suspense scenes, a suitably horrific mask for its killer and a creepy vibe. However, for some, its ambiguity as to what is ultimately happening might risk frustrating more than it intrigues.
Mark (Daniel Gillies) is a college student doing his thesis on local lore and myth. And given he lives in New Orleans there is plenty to explore. He interviews psychiatrist Dr. Rosen (Kurtwood Smith), who had treated a boy who went on to kill his parents in 1982 (which we see in a prologue featuring an effective cameo by Maryam d’Abo killed by her son wearing a bloody skull mask of a dog he had just strangled (something thankfully not depicted)).
Mark maintains that all lore has a foundation of truth, but it gets twisted and distorted - and he is intent on debunking the legend of a curse that surrounds the Brice Mansion where the murders in 1982 took place. Dr. Rosen agrees that it is only a legend and that the boy was “highly disturbed” - and the myth only increased because the killer was never found. They also discuss how the house gained its reputation from being adjacent to - and perhaps tainted by - another plantation, where a white French woman tortured and murdered scores of black slaves. Something presumably based on the horrific real-life New Orleans crimes that took place at the infamous LaLaurie mansion in the 1800s.
Mark and Dr. Rosen also discuss - but dismiss - how the legend goes that anyone who trespasses on the property goes “insane and runs amok”. Naturally, Mark hotfoots it to the Brice Mansion with his video and audio equipment with friends and fellow college students Eric (Jeff Davis), Tyler (Clayne Crawford) and lesbian couple Kristy (Estella Warren) and Sharon (Ashley Scott). Although keen on debunking the urban legend, the students are quickly confronted with what appears to be supernatural phenomena and they gradually become aware that they are not alone …
The shadow of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) hangs over EVIL REMAINS even though it is not a found footage movie. Also, to a lesser extent, the wonderfully creepy and largely superior SESSION 9 (2001). The use of cameras to document a supposed urban legend is an obvious comparison. However, the film’s most effective shared conceit might also be its biggest flaw. We are never sure whether all the characters have gone mad or none of them have. Is one of them now the killer? Or perhaps they all are? Or perhaps the original killer has returned? This potential group psychosis - which was perhaps triggered by the very myth they are investigating - means that we are never really sure who is a reliable narrator. This discombobulating aspect is cleverly done with subtle tricks, such as slight time shifts in the narrative. Ultimately it doesn’t quite make the landing, but it’s an intriguing ride getting there after the talky first half of the movie.
Perhaps the film’s biggest mystery is the character of Sharon. Ashley Scott is caucasian and the film’s poster shows her with her normal blond hair, but here she is sporting dark dreadlocks and it perhaps looks like her face has been darkened with makeup. Is she meant to be playing an African American? There are two black actors seen briefly at a party scene and the film flirts with the horrors acted upon on slaves, so it seems a strange choice. Putting it charitably.
However, one of the film’s biggest problems isn’t the fault of the filmmakers themselves. Like many movies from around this time, it has, so far, been confined to Standard Definition hell - and the only release is a muddy print that runs so dark that my TV went into energy-saving mode! The low budget sometimes highlights flaws - such as the flashback to the 1982 prologue which is full of mid-2000s cars.
Writer/director James Merendino had a cult hit in 1998 with SLC PUNK! - which starred Matthew Lillard fresh off SCREAM (1996). His horror pedigree stretched back to his involvement previously with a couple of the WITCHCRAFT sequels.
It seems that EVIL REMAINS got a tiny release to four theatres in 2005 under the title TRESPASSING after debuting at festivals the year before. It was due for a wider release but went straight to DVD instead.
When it works, EVIL REMAINS is very effective. But toying with ambiguity - whilst it works in the moment - arguably means that the film never quite succeeds as a cohesive whole.
BODY COUNT 6:
Female 2 / Male 4
Thank you for reading! And, if you've enjoyed this review, please consider a donation to help keep Hysteria Lives! alive! Donate now with Paypal.