Evangeline

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.

The premise is nothing really original. There have been many many other movies with certain and slight variations of this theme. Some that come to mind are "The Crow" and "Pumpkinhead" just to mane a few. I'm sure there are plenty of others.

The acting was OK but nothing spectacular. No potential Oscar material here.

The special effects again are just OK but no eye candy here. I always thought blood was opaque however in this movie it looks kind of like dark fruit punch.

There are some serious plot holes throughout the movie. There is such a lack of character development that its amazing anyone watches the whole thing through. Where some very simple dialogue should be, there is none, just bizarre images. Images don't make up for plot explanation. I guess there is a certain amount of viewer imagination and or interpretation required here. I detest movies with plot holes and character under-development.

Anyhow that about sums it up. Enjoy and use your imagination.

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.

Whoa Nelly, Where to start! The acting, believe it or not is not that bad (standard low budget fare), but everything else is an absolute mess. the storyline, continuity, direction, screenplay and worst of all the editing are horrendous. It all adds up to a pile of 💩

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.