The Most Disturbing Movie of the Year | When Evil Lurks (2023) RGP Review 

I'm Argentine, there are a couple of hints, of things they say that are very "Argentinian", that make no sense translated. Embichado is a very "country" word for "has some sickness", it's used intechangebly with "rotten" which is more understandable for other audiences. Also the cops say, and this was not translated "those things don't happen here, we are at the ass of the world, which is a frase we used for REALLY far hard to reach. Also someone says "those things only happen in big cities" which the version I watched also didn't translate, and then there's a bit of classism that get's lost in translation, and Ruiz says that he believes "the state" dropped the rotten in his land on porpouse. I hoped I helped, English is not my first language. To me the victims are the children. They are powerless, but get the upper hand in the end.

About the rules you mentioned: In the movie, evil doesn't care about the rules. It is the most common confusion about this film. People believe or talk about some "rules", but they only have their own beliefs. The people in the movie operate by their own rules, fears, and needs. The "rules" are a trap. Evil operates according to its own agenda. The movie establishes that there are no real rules. Evil doesn't care about rules. He uses one of the young men to murder the "cleaner" which indicates that no one really knows what the "rules" are. Nobody can imagine that. In Argentina this way of thinking is very common. There are too many "rules" but they are only based on tradition. The protagonists are imperfect, ignorant, afraid, violent and make bad decisions all the time. Even in their daily lives.

While I also found the characters repeatedly chosing to do the wrong thing despite knowing the rules they should follow, I've also seen a lot of people in real life who, despite knowing what the logical right action would be, in the end still end up choosing to act on emotional impulse alone. So, while frustrating, I also found it fairly believable

I wish "The Exorcist: Believer" had been more like this film.

The reason why the victims make such decisions it’s because of what inspired the movie and it involves political and rural events that took place in Argentina, where authorities did not help farmers in their time of need. It’s a lot to write about, but it makes it relatable when one is Argentinian

I would agree with your gripe about people disregarding rules but we literally just went through a virus where people did the EXACT OPPOSITE of the well established health and safety rules.

I love the misdirection with the first kid and the dog. When you see her after the attack, the fact that she appears fine makes you think 'oh kids don't get ACTUALLY killed in this movie'. Then like 15 minutes later you're on the phone crying to your mother after seeing that late night drive scene.

Ppl misinterpret this movie a lot and I think it’s a cultural thing. A factor of fear in this movie is the ignorance, fear and anger of people against evil. They break “rules” because they are cornered and desperate for it to end to the point they think they could take it into their own hands. Like when ppl self medicate and make stuff worse

We need more horror films like this. In regards to the decisions the characters make, although frustrating, it matches the character's personalities. Pedro is a stubborn and emotional person. He lets his emotions overtake him, causing him to react impulsively and recklessly. I think that was the whole point of his character. His refusal to evaluate his feelings led to all his loved ones dying. Ultimately, he has to live with the consequences of his bad decisions. That's just my opinion. I feel like the character's decisions were based on their character foibles. I’d rather have more of these movies, even if the characters make bad decisions based on their character traits, than movies like Halloween Kills, where characters act stupid because of the script.

Hi I wanted to clarify some things. Im argentinian and most of our population is catholic. On top of that, we are very prone to believing in supersticions. Some of them are almost treated as real. Especially in small towns like the one in the movie.

Proud that this masterpiece came from my country. Holy crap- a fresh take on horror. No hand holding. No “I know what’s behind that door” or “I know what comes next” scene. Shock; discovering things just as the main characters do, no one is safe, and it is brutal, as evil should be.

It's above all and beyond genres, a good movie. Solid cinema. The way great horror movies should be.

Director Demian Rugna has a way of making movies. The evil in his films is absolute, powerful. Evil does not care about the protagonists or the spectators. Evil does not care or take note of what we believe. In these types of movies, no one really knows what evil is capable of. Evil is a train that comes towards us without any respect or consideration. We and the protagonists are simply worms who do not deserve your attention. It's like a bunch of insects trying to figure out a construction crew that's destroying their habitat. The evil is the construction crew and we are the insects. This is how Rugna writes. There is no hope, there is no way out, there is no answer or cause that we can understand.

That dog scene literally made me drop my phone and my heart plummet. I was NOT expecting that. My heart is racing even know that we’ve moved on past that scene.

I am a bit conflicted with this one. There are so many things and ideas that are almost perfect, but I ended up being very frustrated. Good things first: The concept of this Movie is very interesting and has a lot of potential. The Cinematography is very good and has many fresh ideas. Now the bad things: It had some gore in it but nothing as dramatic as I was led to believe and I was actually disappointed about that as well. (Talk To Me execuded the gore so much better and was way more terrifying!) There are soo many moments where I was actually screaming at the screen because the characters did some of the most dumb and almost brainless decisions that nobody else would do. The ending didn't work for me at all because of those decisions. I don't need a happy ending (especially in a horror flick) but it has to be surprising or clever one. This one just made me angry, and I almost started laughing.

What a totally F@#&%D up movie!!! Absolutely loved it!! And yep, Brutal is the only way to describe it! I went in blind seeing this pretty much and visions stayed with me for days... Uriel, the Axe moment, that dog attack OMG... even the look on the goat's face before it's demise freaked me out! Excellent review Evan, as always 👍

I hate bad choices in movies but what I took from this movie is the evil contributes to the impulsiveness of the characters. The evil always benefits from their choices, they’re all doomed from the beginning.

I thought this movie was good, small g. I especially liked how the universe of the film accepts the existence of the rottens; no time is wasted, like in nearly every other horror movie, on authority figures expressing skepticism. No, the rottens are real, and all the characters accept them as real, period. Only thing I didn’t like was (as you pointed out) that characters don’t seem to accept the rules of the narrative- also, if these things were real and accepted, they would almost be considered less than frightening and more like nuisances, like roaches. “Hey Miguel, you hear about Julito?” “Santiago’s kid? Yeah, he went rotten. What a shame.”

See Terrified immediately. One of the best horror movies I’ve ever seen and Guillermo Del Toro is remaking it.

I haven't seen this yet, so thanks for the heads up! Will def check it out. That said, that horror screenwriters so frequently and dutifully rely on the scripted stupidity of the characters in order to get them from point A to B, or to advance the story, is something that plagues numerous movies these days, and is something that often results in my refusal to finish watching a movie, it's _that_ irksome ...and I have a sociological theory as to why this has become par for the course, and why audiences have come to accept it, or seemingly don't take issue with it ....but that's another post altogether, ha. Simply put, I don't subscribe to the idea that horror stories MUST rely on the blatantly illogical actions/inactions of its characters in order for them to find their way into or out of a perilous scenario. That's just lazy writing.

Surprised your channel doesn’t have more subs, you’ve got great videos! Keep it up 👍

You're the only person I've seen thus far not defend the bad character writing. There ARE rules and they choose to ignore them CONSTANTLY. I reached a point where I stopped caring about the characters and actively began rooting for everyone to die so that the movie could end. The gore and shock value - in 2024' was not eniugh to keep me engaged.

Holy Hell, THIS movie! I dry heaved my way through it & yet still loved every minute of it!

Keep in mind, "The Rules" were created in a different time. At the time of the movie, the cleaners were in hiding (and being hunted). So, rotten were a known uncommon occurrence. The protagonists were already shown to be human (not perfect). There was an emphasis that "they thought" they saw a rotten, all the other people would always come back with "You'd know it if you saw one". Neither protagonist had the self-esteem or confidence to make the call. Denial looks all kinds of ways.

Thank You For Your Reviews. No one else is doing these! 🥰

@ 1st I thought I didn't wanna hear u talk about these movies & now this is my 4th video. Yer choice of horror flicks has got me open. This movie wuza gr8 find 4 me like finding that Spanish horror flick"Terrified"....✊🏽🙂❤️

Just discovered your channel. Great review. I like your style & the way you present your videos, calm & very on point , well done man. Liked & subscribed.

I really like and appreciate your reviews. I tried following another so-called critic and he cursed so much like he didn't know any other adjective to describe the movies. I don't mind some cursing but dude didn't you (the other guy) go to school or at least watch School House Rock (yeah I'm old), so thank you.

Honestly man, I think certain characters breaking the film's rules is a necessary detail. Some of the people in this either aren't entirely certain if they believe everything they're told about it, and I think some just don't want to believe. People are irrational and emotional when under stress, and this story amplifies that. I also have suspicions that the man who shot the possessed goat was suicidal, for whatever it's worth.

With regards to people following the rules and how doing all of the right things and still losing would be more impactful, I do still think this film does things well. However (to draw from a completely different style of media), I definitely still agree most of the time with your point, and it's the reason one of Ardbert's lines from FFXIV hits so hard for me: "We did everything right, everything that was asked of us, and still...still, it came to this."

Excellent videos dude. Keep em coming.

Such an intense film. The previous one is good, but not as tight as this one. And yes, decision making errors galore. Reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead.

I knew the lore, & saw all the clues, but I was still surprised when the dog attacked. That scenes dialog also established how much of a fuck up Pedro is & how making all the wrong decisions is in his character, I kind of forgave it in everyone else for not believing in what was really happening and also just didn't really care because of what happened as a result! Yes, please watch & review Terrified

About the rules, my take is that the goat bleating just plain startled him and he accidentally shot. That let the demon into his wife, and well, you saw the result of that.

I think the big thing with the characters doing stupid decisions isn’t just cus they are stupid and need to move the plot. It’s more so they are scared, realistically defenseless as they know they don’t likely have the tools or knowledge to perform the basically exorcism ritual. Their police won’t help and they just have to live with this growing fear that they know will spread. It makes sense their logical reaction would be to snap and shoot it as it’s the only option they know to confront a threat. The clothes I give you credit that was stupid but think also was just a heat of the moment everyone shouting no one realizing what’s going on till too late.

The climatic scene where he’s on his knees and gets the bloody mark was like a “thank you” from the demon. It was in control from the beginning.

Ugh, I really appreciate this review so much. I heard the hype for this movie, finally watched it and was terrified, but…I immediately was taken out of it when the guy shot the goat. I couldn’t understand why he did it. But the rest of the movie is so interesting and well done, I decided I liked it more than disliked. It’s a thrilling ride, and so fucked up, but yeah, agreed, they could’ve handled things better.

Solid channel. I dig it

Yes. So frustrating when characters make boneheaded decisions. We'll paced movie, good characters and good effects.

I really liked this one until one weakness became too glaring to go unnoticed the closer we got to the end. As things inched toward a climax, Pedro consistently had to be just stupid enough to keep the story going. The nonsensical stage-axe thing at the end is what really got me flashing back, realizing how much of this never could have proceeded if Pedro didn't always make the wrong choice or do something that was just profoundly stupid.

Solid review. Nice job.

One of the best films I’ve seen in years! Fantastic!!!

Kids dying means anything can happen and THOSE are the best movies

This was absolutely a phenomenal horror film. One of the best this year.

6:56 i hear u but imagine a minor zombie outbreak where u can’t shoot em u have to follow some rules of a random religion you barely fully remember. i think everyones feeling the “dissonance” 🤣

I think when he shoots the goat is more the goat startled him when it baa'd since the dude was already Michael Jackson leaving over the line anyway

Its been said a lot in the comments and I agree that part of the point was what if this happened to a person who wasn't capable of being rational and making good decisions. You alluded to it yourself that a scary amount of people couldn't follow simple protocols when it came to the recent pandemic. And the reason in real life is probably the same reason in the movie why people didnt listen to health officials- they didnt believe the sickness was that serious, they thought it was a conspiracy theory made up by someone in power for some reason -in the movie the farm owner says it could be a rumor being spread so his land loses its value and can be bought from him for a cheap price and in real life..idk i guess some people thought COVID was made up to make trump look bad. Or even if people did think the sickness was real they didnt believe the suggested measures would work- like the mask debate in real life and in the movie the grandmother sings the song about the rules but says it wasnt real so that put doubt in their heads that they didnt have to adhere to the rules. And finally all of that plus sometimes people are just irrational, prideful, impatient, not intelligent, just a ton of reasons some people just dont listen.

I don't want to projected unrelated social commentary per say, but I found it interesting most of the women knew and wanted to follow those "rules" (the old mother, ruis' wife, the cleaner) and the men tended towards more panicked disregard of them.

Terrified was INSANE

If you gonna check out Christmas bloody Christmas, nah I suggest you give Bliss (2019) a look, it’s with the same director as Christmas bloody Christmas

pedro did change his clothers but dont seems to work

Bruh 😹😹😹ain’t no fukn way the dog did that shit

Less good than his first work Aterrado, which was more self-contained, but still decent.

Surprised by people ignoring rules with no upside? Did you even pandemic??

He looks worse than the guy from Seven.

People knew during the pandemic hiw was the right way to act, and a lot of people did the opposite, to apiint of risking their own and other people's lives... So i wouldn't be so harsh on the characters of the movie when they fucked up due to fear and desperation. I think that was the tragedy underneath the movie, that all characters had good intentions and that was what it drove them to failure over and over.

Sorry, I hated this movie. It started good, got boring and at the end I almost gave up. Overall it was ok/bad 🤷🏻‍♂️