[Evil Remains]
Plot:A graduate student preparing his thesis on mythology leads his friends on a research expedition to an old plantation estate on the outskirts of the Big Easy. The site is reputed to mysteriously cause madness and death to all who enter it.

Cast: Jeff Galpin, Maryam d'Abo, Will Rokos, Daniel Gillies, Jeff Bryan Davis, Clayne Crawford, Estella Warren, Ashley Scott, Brandon Martin, Linley Thomas, Adela Johnson, Virginia Lamoine, Tobi Brown, Rusty Tennant, John Ashker.

My Thoughts:Yeah, so.....what exactly was the point?

Review:Of all the films to deal with the restless spirits of those who have been wronged, coming back from the dead..."Evil Remains" has got to be THE worst of the bunch. The film follows a group of college kids who all look like they're 30 (either that or they've had really rough lives) going to investigate some Louisiana based house in the middle of nowhere (big no no in horror films) that is rumored to be haunted due to a boy going crazy and whacking his parents in the middle of the night there years ago, and before that the house being used by plantation owners for experiments on slaves that they owned. Despite all of this, and even Kurtwood Smith from "That 70's show" lying down some background on the wicked house to a student reporter, the idiot kids still decide to go there anyways.

Upon arriving at the house, it's basically one of those situations where we the viewers just sit and wait for these dopes to get picked off either by the angry slave spirits, or the masked killer who whacked his parents years before and was apparently possessed by those spirits. Either way, one thing is for sure...the two hotties of the movie played by Ashley Scott and Estella Warren will die last, considering they're the larger names in the film, and pretty much the only two characters that keep the eye candy factor strong in the picture. Writer James Merendino knows killing off the two chickadees early on would result in most people turning this movie off and moving on to do or watch something more constructive.

So he keeps these two alive for the duration, all the while forgetting to kill off any of his other cast members. No one dies in this movie until the 60 minute mark, not good. Especially when you consider the setting of an old wooden house, and some unpopulated creepy woods. It's like a version of "Friday the 13th" where Mrs. Voorhees would have decided to just start killing late in act three instead of right at the very beginning. The only remotely exciting thing that takes place in the films first hour is of course the aforementioned "parent massacre" and a girl almost getting her foot caught in a beartrap. Ooooh, scary. Not really, but the only thing scary about this film is how bad it is.

The plot just takes a total vacation and it's as if the writer/director just totally forgets to focus on it. One of the male leads in the film has some sort of connection to the house and it's dark past, but we never really learn what that is. And thne to top it all off, Merendino makes the cardnal sin of killing that character off before the final act. Tsk, tsk, everyone knows you're supposed to keep the boy with the connection to the "evil place" alive until act three just to play up the paranoia element. It's bad decisions like these, mixed with annoying cliches that make this movie such a trial to watch. If that's not bad enough, the hotties near the end make very foolish decisions after seeing one of their friends pulled inside the house by an unknown assailant.

With one girl's leg partially injured from a bear trap, and her friend telling her quote "I saw a dude in a mask" when discussing what happened to their friend who was just yanked inside the house, they both make the decision to actually venture inside the house for some unknown reason. Stupidity is one thing but this stuff ventures on borderline retarded. The climax of the movie of course, being that it's set in the south...has to implement the "they're all in on it" cliche into the equation and at that point I was pretty much ready to turn this movie off until the final shot came along, which suggested a possible sequel.

At that point I didn't know whether to turn it off, or pray to a higher power that a sequel never gets made. "Evil Remains" is a lesson in how not to make a good supernatural horror film, and how to waste two young talents like Ashley Scott and Estella Warren all in one movie.

Positives:Creepy setting, when the end credits started up.

Negatives:Bad script, poor acting by the male part of the cast. Warren and Scott did their best but sheesh they had close to nothing to work with. A lack of blood and gore, a very low body count, and a plot that seemed more confused with itself than a drunken redneck at a spelling bee.

Overall:Waste o' time!





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)