Review of Evil Things (2009) by Joe A — 27 Sep 2011

Another in the found footage horror genre, this one tells the story of a group of young friends headed to an isolated country house for a vacation getaway. Their troubles begin with a minor altercation with an ominous van on an icy road and escalates as it appears the mysterious driver may have followed them to the the house to exact some kind of retribution.

For the most part Evil Things is nothing new, it does have some effectively creepy scenes especially the begining sequences depicting the encountering of the van and then the last third where things go bad for our vacationers.

There is stuff that doesn't work too, like a group getting lost in the woods when the ground is snow covered and they could have easily followed their footprints back to the house. And why would found footage have occasional soundtrack music.

Also, the middle drags a bit as we hang with the group and get to know them but, the film gets back to the story soon enough and then there is the traditional running around with the camera. Why no one in these flicks ever drops the camera when chased is beyond me.

Film does get interesting when it becomes known that their mysterious stalker is actually filming them and the film at one point takes up the perspective of his camera as he launches his assault. Some interesting additions to the genre but, also too many reliances on the familiar trappings.

Worth a look but with moderate expectations.