The Evil Within
(2017) 98 min
Rated: NR (gore, nudity, dead pets)
Country: USA
Director: Andrew Getty
Starring: Frederick Koehler, Sean Patrick Flanery, Dina Meyer, Brianna Brown
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
A special-needs boy has a nightmarish other self that cause him to do increasingly violent things.
Synopsis:
In narration, Dennis (Koehler), goes over a nightmare he had as a child where he was in a deserted carnival. He asked his mother to take him on a scary ride and she obliged. As they ride he notices that there are no scares inside the dark ride and it loops outside and stops. Dennis within the dream asks his mother to get a refund since it was a con. His mother removes her sunglasses to reveal she has lips where her eyes would go and asks him “what makes him think the ride is over?”.
Dennis reveals that he repeatedly has horrible nightmares. A dark figure, Cadaver, watches him and at one point places a zipper into Dennis’ back and unzips his skin and wears him. Dennis in this dream finds himself in a hidden room inside his own house with a large wooden mirror. He finds his way out and ends up in his bed.
Next, Dennis is eating a picnic with his older brother, John (Flanery), and his brother’s girlfriend, Lydia (Meyer). Dennis is a special-needs person and has a simplistic way of speaking and thinking. John takes care of Dennis in their shared home. The trio stop to get ice cream at a shop where a girl named Susan (Brown) works who Dennis has a small crush on.
John presents Dennis with a large wooden mirror in his room. It’s the same mirror from Dennis’ dream. Dennis and his brother argue over keeping the mirror, but ultimately Dennis is forced to keep it. Dennis finds himself talking to his mirror self and that mirror self encourages him to isolate himself from his brother.
Mildy Torres, a social services worker, stops by the house and checks with John on Dennis’ well-being. Lydia wishes John would leave Dennis at a state hospital, but John resists. John goes to a therapist and admits that he feels like he can’t give Dennis up to the state hospitals because he owes a debt to Dennis.
Dennis has darker dreams where Cadaver attacks him. He wakes up and talks to the Mirror Dennis who convinces him that he has to get smarter by proving he knows things. Dennis is instructed to kill neighborhood dogs and cats. Dennis feels proud of the large amount of animals he is able to stuff into a cooler. He borrows instructional videos on taxidermy from the local library.
John notices an odor coming from the basement, but Dennis convinces him it’s nothing and that his rental videos were mixed up with another persons.
While John and Lydia argue about starting a family together, Dennis is falling deeper into a hole. Cadaver tells him that he must be obeyed otherwise things will get much worse. Mirror Dennis instructs him to start killing little boys and girls. Dennis does so, though he has regrets and cries about it.
At this point, a more intelligent and smooth talking version of Dennis appears in the mirror and convinces Dennis that they can switch sides of the mirror which would make both of them happy if Dennis would continue to kill. After a pep-talk from this Evil Dennis, Dennis goes to the ice cream shop and scares Susan so badly she runs into the street and gets hit by a car.
Later on, John and Lydia treat Dennis to a night out so they take him to a nautical themed pizza restaurant. The restaurant has animatronic creatures singing along to songs. Dennis inquires on how they work and John gives a brief explanation. Dennis then goes to the bathroom and murders a man without hesitation.
John and Lydia go around town and notice that they don’t seem to see the usual people they recognize in town. Susan is gone from the ice cream shop and the replacement girl informs them of Susan’s death.
Evil Dennis pushes regular Dennis into the mirror world and takes over as the “real” Dennis. Mildy Torres goes back to Dennis’ home with policemen. The policemen are quickly killed off by Dennis. Mildy finds a fridge full of dead bodies, but she is quickly killed right after this discovery.
Lydia decides to go home first and is killed quickly by Dennis. Dennis hollows out Lydia’s body.
John finally comes home and follows a cord to the hidden room in the house. He sits in a chair and is stuck to it. Dennis plays with Lydia’s body on his lap as if she is a ventriloquist figure. They have a conversation and an elaborate animated corpse show in which Dennis reveals that John was jealous of Dennis as a child and knocked Dennis down the stairs. This rendered Dennis mentally challenged.
A giant spider made of body parts attempts to close in on John who finally pulls free of the sticky chair and shoots himself in the head. The spider then turns on Dennis and tosses him to the ground. It’s revealed that policemen are the hands surrounding Dennis and he’s pulled away and arrested.
In the final scene Dennis reveals that he’s not Evil Dennis, but it is actually the original “real” Dennis who is locked up in a padded cell, frightened. It is this real Dennis who is hoping that one day the scariest haunted house in the world will end.
Review:
This movie is the definition of a passion project and it shows. Andrew Getty who wrote and directed this film shot large portions of it in his own mansion and also spent large portions of time editing and adding special effects to the film. Getty was a troubled man and died in 2015 of a complication of heart disease and meth. So this film looks like 2002, but was released in 2017 after the producer and editor Michael Luceri finished the film.
Getty’s dreams and probably also his drug use lend a dreamlike quality to the film. So many things in the film are reminiscent of dreams that I can’t tell where the dreams end and the reality starts in the film. Though that’s great for the horror scenes in the film, the main story falls a bit flat.
This film has some very interesting visuals, but the dialogue and writing for some scenes leave much to be desired. The story is so simple that it reminds me more of an episode of Tales from the Crypt rather than something that would be stretched to movie length. John and Lydia spend many dinner scenes arguing over things that are distracting and add unevenness to the film. John is also incredibly easy to fool, it’s hard to suspend disbelief.
Though this film is flawed, it’s worthwhile to see if one has an interest in a bizarre dreamlike film with interesting visuals. Some of the acting and dialogue is distracting, but the overall effect is creepy. There are parts of this film that I did find somewhat eerie.
Michael Berryman as Cadaver was as delightfully creepy as ever. Matthew McGrory makes a cameo as a dinner guest and this is one of his last film roles prior to his death in 2005.
