Evangeline

I think maybe the people who put this thing together wanted to tell the story of a woman scorned. I'm guessing that there was some sort of proverb, or old wives tale, possibly from an Asian culture, that fed into this idea, as well. I'm also guessing that the writer and director wanted us as viewers to travel emotionally with Evangeline throughout this film.

I say these things, because they never actually made themselves apparent.

If you've seen "The Crow" or "Jennifer's Body," skip this one. At least then, you won't have to watch those in the future and be reminded of this.

However, if you want to take notes on what to avoid when making a movie, please, indulge. You'll learn how to create a movie containing one dimensional characters, no back story, plot lines that come out of no-where and disappear mid stream, and a general feeling of "what the...?" when the credits start rolling.

Tip of the hat. Good day.

"I'm not your slave," says Mark.

"Yeah you are," says Shannon.

So much about this is good - if only a bit more effort was made to allow it to make some degree of sense. True, disorientation can be frightening, but it would be more satisfying to have at least something to hold onto.

It appears to be a revenge slasher, artfully filmed and directed by Karen Lam. It may also be seen to be anti-male. The only honourable man here is Mark (Anthony Shim), who is nevertheless treated as a lapdog by his girlfriend Shannon (Mayumi Yoshida). See this review's opening quote. Of course, this could be something to do with the other role played by Yoshida.

This is a film that exists entirely in its own world. The antagonists do exactly as they wish as brazenly as they like because there are no authority figures present, no rules, and no police.

It's a shame that the care and attention that went into making this production look so good, and the decent acting on display, all culminate in something that doesn't gel, that wilfully doesn't attempt much in the way of logic and that ultimately emerges as a bit of a chore to sit through. My score is 5 out of 10.

I have to admit, I was rather surprised by the really well done cinematography of this movie. The acting and the story did not live up to the quality of the "picture", but I have seen worse movies (horror and otherwise) too.

Having said that, the movie has quite a few cringe worthy moments. Some worse than others. The effects are good and the movie is quite short overall ... so there is that.

The movie starts with some voice over about evil. We then see some serial killer having his way with a victim. Next we meet Evangeline, some religious girl starting college. Her roommate is some Asian girl who looks like she's in her 30s. Together with some other friend they decide to take the innocent Eva to a frat party where she gets completely drunk.

Some other day she meets a frat guy who takes her to a cabin in the woods where he beats her up. He calls his friends to get rid of her and they beat her up some more and dump her somewhere in the woods thinking she's dead. But she's not. Instead something possesses her and she revives. She's found by some guys who live in the woods. One of them wants to take advantage of her, while the other two guys protect her.

Now she/it begins her mission to take revenge on the guys. And things get bloody, but also weird. There's a torture chamber with a woman there, and I thought this was the serial killer's lair, but I'm not sure. Eventually though, as if things weren't bad enough for Eva, she also has a run-in with the serial killer.

After she's beaten up, the movie takes a turn and emphasizes visuals over story and dialogue. We get lots of jarring sequences of Eva/the creature. Things aren't clear, not much is said. In the end though this is somewhat of a supernatural version of I Spit on Your Grave that's also less graphic. The turn toward the visual is more characteristic of a horror movie made in the 2000s instead of a movie made in 2013. So if you put it among those violent sepia-colored movies Evangeline isn't all that bad. It succeeds at getting the audience to feel for Eva and despise the villains, but not much else. It's not an involving movie, you only care for the lead character once she's beaten and abused. It could have been stronger movie had there been more character development.

When I stumbled upon the 2013 horror movie "Evangeline", from writer and director Karen Lam, here in 2024, of course I opted to watch it, as it was a horror movie that I had never seen, nor actually heard about. And given my life-long romance with the horror genre, of course I gave this movie a fair chance.

The storyline in "Evangeline" made very little coherent sense. It felt mostly like a sequence of random dream patterns conjured up by Karen Lam and then laid out and pieced together in order to attempt to make a movie. And the end result just wasn't a particularly compelling, interesting or entertaining result. Truth be told, it was quite a struggle to sit through the ordeal that is "Evangeline".

Sure, there was a lot of visually interesting scenes, but the movie was just lacking a proper script and red thread throughout the course of the 79 minutes that the movie ran for.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list in this movie, aside from actor Richard Harmon. And that is actually something that I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie, as the actors and actresses are not associated with previously portrayed characters from other movies.

"Evangeline" was a disappointing horror movie experience. And it is definitely not a movie that will ever grace my screen again. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend for horror fans to rush out and get to watch. It just simply wasn't worth the 79 minutes. When the movie draws to a prolonged end, you are left with a staggering sense of 'was that really it?'.

Actually, the movie's cover was the best part about the entire experience.

My rating of Karen Lam's 2013 movie lands on a three out of ten stars.