The Eves

"The Eves" is an entertaining modern backwoods/road horror film. It is a nightmare scenario that is a dark, thrilling journey into cruelty and psychotica that seems totally Americana. "The Eves" is a film I will be watching again-especially during the Halloween season. There is something truly terrifying about psychotic young people!

The story takes the road horror into grindhouse territory effortlessly. The innocent trip that turns into a fight for survival against homicidal madman shows strongly in "The Eves". There is a period in the beginning that gets a bit old with the "ooh you scared me bit" which really set me into the notion that I was not gonna like this flick. However from the first real scare, that results in the kick-off to the horror show, the film pulled me in. The blunt cruelty of the antagonist, against the helpless victims offers a disturbing sense of realness that hooks you in. I found the cast to be apt in bringing these characters to life, creating a strong, well executed story. Plus with the intense, brutality of the last act, "The Eves" becomes a chilling survival nightmare.

The special effects, suspenseful build-up, and over all darkness of 'The Eves" creates a steady, even-paced intensity the feels natural and "at times" cringe worthy. The director does a great job working the cast, and scene direction so that kill scenes look genuine. It is above low budget quality really. The sound effects, and overall ability of the film to keep a strong foreboding atmosphere never falls flat. If it wasn't for the slow, annoying start to the film, with way to many "fake scare" moments, then this film would be flawless. Still the second and third act make up for that unnecessary exuberance.

Getting stranded while on a road-trip, a group of friends follow the advice of a local to stay at a supposedly-abandoned shack in the woods, only to find it's actually the home to a group of demented, devout religious followers intent on saving them from their sins, forcing them into a deadly struggle to survive.

For the most part, this is an absolutely generic slasher in every sense of the word, as the fact that the twisted, warped views on religion provide so many agonizing moments of stupidity to come forth that it alone amounts for nearly all the film's problems right there, then take into account that it follows a time-honored tradition of a group of friends getting stranded in the woods and the locals with a hidden agenda that just seems so common a set-up that, by not doing anything radically different here, it tends to feel very clichéd and repetitive after a while. Added together with the very slow and drawn-out beginning here and it's got a lot to overcome. There's some nice brutality in the kills and the treatment of the prisoners in a dark, intense second half filled with more confrontations and encounters that does go some way toward redeeming this one, but all that religious stuff really can't be overcome and drags this down a lot, for there's not a lot that really overcomes a flaw like that.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

While it isn't as great as other notable slasher films, but it is a decent one. Although it could have been done better.

I came across this film along with Dire Wolf, Moon of the Wolf, Monsters in the Woods, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, Dogman, Pelt, Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory, and Call of the Yukon in the Fantasy Horror Collection V.1 I bought at a WalMart.

The Ending was Shocking and Bloody...

Released in 2012, "The Eves" is a backwoods slasher flick about group of college students on route to celebrate Spring Break on the Texas coast; they find themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere after their vehicle breaks down whereupon they seek succor at a rundown hunting ranch. Havoc ensues.

While this is a micro-budget flick, it's competently made with decent actors and some spooky backwoods ambiance. Unfortunately, the first hour is just too slow and the characters aren't interesting enough to hold one's attention, neither is their mundane situation hanging out at the ranch. Speaking of which, it's a cliché in low-budget horror movies to have characters waltz right into someone else's house when no one answers the door and make themselves at home, like it happens all the time. It's just eye-rolling and unbelievable. Wouldn't they be concerned about how the owner(s) will react when they arrive home and see a bunch of strangers hanging out in their house like they own it?

The three girls are okay at best; although there's one Barbie Doll girl, if that's your thang. They're pretty good actresses though, particularly the other two. The brunette's the best with her unique look.

The script's marred by a convoluted subplot about religious abuse and the corresponding nutjobs it produces. The details aren't flushed out enough and the movie's not interesting enough to go back and (try to) connect the dots. Still, "The Eves" is worth checking out if you like Friday the 13th-like slashers.

The film runs 85 minutes and was shot in Austin & Victoria, Texas.

GRADE: C

1st watched 11/19/2021 - (Dir-Tyler Glodt): Intense pyscho-religious bloodfest that starts out like a typical young kids get wasted, get horny, and get killed vehicle - but turns into something much different, but not much better. This group have car trouble on the way to some beach in Texas, and than wander into an abandoned creepy church while someone is working on the car. They can't fix the car fully, and they don't get much cell reception but a couple of police officers direct them to a cabin where they end up entering and taking over. Than 2by2 they wander off into sexual escapades until a young blond is captured. At this point, the movie is trying to lead us on by radio news talking about young 20-something girls being missing in the area, so we think she is one that has run into that trap. Than the movie switches gears, as one of the men becomes the evil one following his father's ideals borne from a religious cult called "The Eves." The rest of the movie is about the innocent ones trying to survive, and the man with his brothers(who were all a part of the original group) try to kill them off. The early part of the movie doesn't make much sense coupled with the second part. They try to set us up for a typical killer movie, and than lie to us and turn it into a creepy religious cult movie. The second half was better than the first half and I have to say I loved the ending, but that didn't make for a good whole movie experience.