Surviving Evil

Set on the remote Mayaman Island in the Philippines, comes the story of six documentary filmmakers, who plan to spend six days shooting a survival special until they find out the island they perceived as uninhabited, reveals to have a Philippine folklore creature, the Aswang, lusting for their blood. The plot itself is intriguing. 6 people, a deserted island, and a mythical legend about a superior creature that looms over them. You can't go wrong with that, but somehow "Surviving Evil" didn't fully pull out all the stops when they had the chance.

I thought the cast was finely assembled. The performances of the actors were, for the most part, solid. Besides the atmosphere which was well established and the aerial shots of the island being beautiful, the acting came in as an added bonus. The characters all had their own conflicts affecting their lives, but the film makes a mistake spending over 40 minutes to flesh out these characters in their setting, leaving the creature to roar in hunger in the background. It just took way too long for the suspense to build up and nearing the end of the film, it felt like it was rushed to squeeze in a few things. And don't even get me started on that "to be continued" TV show episode ending. I surely hope they intend to make a sequel, because the ending is lousy.

All in all, "Surviving Evil" is decent horror worth a watch. You'll probably be exhausted with it for at least 30-40 minutes due to the lengthy character build-up taking away too much from the action to even begin, but when they deliver the last 90 minutes, it's pretty action packed. The directing and script may not be perfect; however, it's more than tolerable. Give the movie a shot. Sit back, relax and enjoy it.

I grew up with the stories of the "Aswang", which is a mythical creature in Philippine folklore. (The Aswang is an inherently evil vampire-like creature and is the subject of a wide variety of myths and stories, the details of which vary greatly.) Knowing this, I was expecting a great deal from the movie.

The opening scene was fairly decent and stoked me up for what should be coming next. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed with too much unnecessary dialogue that made the movie a bit of a drag to watch after the first part.

To make a brief enumeration, the story had a lot of potential. I believe they could have made this into a really good horror movie since the concept of the folklore has its own charm.

All the actors had to be given credit for doing a superb job on such an obviously meager script. If they did one thing right, it's picking out the cast in this film.

Now, the background music/sound effects reminded me of Vincent Price for some reason. Which I found a bit funny since the cinematography is like watching something from the 70's. I'm thinking, it's either something deliberate for effect or just a result of having a low budget.

Things pick up, though, near the end. Unfortunately, even then, there wasn't much focus on the Aswangs and their shape-shifting prowess. This could have been precious fodder for making a great horror story and messing with viewer's minds.

Overall, it's not THAT bad, but it's not something I would watch again.

Sure, there was potential for more. There was also plenty to enjoy.

Some thrills, some silly dialogue, some meanies doing mean things, some blood, even some pretty ladies (no nudity).

Some people can't stop pretending they would have done it better long enough to enjoy something.

Grab a friend and a beer, enjoy yourselves.

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I didn't need ten lines to explain that, IMDb.

Sorry.

What else... well the monsters were quite vicious, a good thing I think. I don't like the pansy monsters in some movies. 30 Days of Night was a great movie precisely because the vampires were absolute beasts. Didn't sparkle or nothing.

I'm with you on your review. I didn't understand the ending, it was vague. Did you?

A small crew arrive at an island in the Philippines to begin shooting a documentary about a tribe that lives on the island but little do they know that something else also lives on the island, ancient creatures with a thirst for blood.

This UK/South African co production was written and directed by Terence Daw and it is an exceptional little monster movie boasting a well fleshed out storyline, the performances by Billy Zane (BLOODRAYNE), Natalie Mendoza (THE DESCENT) and Colin Moss (NUMBER 10) are great as well as the performances from the supporting cast, the creature design is one of the better designs I've seen in recent low budget films and the director shows a big degree of professionalism.

However, this film is not really scary so I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking to get scared stiff but I would recommend it if you want to see a really good movie.