The Evil Within

This is a special movie, not just because it's a brilliant and original horror movie, but because of the story behind the making of the film.

The writer and director Andrew Getty started this film back in 2002 when it was titled "The Storyteller" and was released in 2017 under the current title, two years after Getty's death due to an ulcer causing internal bleeding. This is a shame as he spent so much money on the project and wasn't around to see his creation brought to life... or take credit for it.

The story is about a mentally handicapped man, Dennis (expertly portrayed by Frederick Koehler), living in his brother's, John (Sean Patrick Flannery), care. Dennis is plagued by twisted and dark nightmares for which a tall grey man claims responsibility. Then one day John and his girlfriend, Lydia (Dina Meyer) bring home a mirror for Dennis' bedroom. Dennis hates the mirror as he doesn't want to loose his hamsters like he's lost his comic collection. However, his decision changes when his reflection starts talking to him and offers him a way to get better... to get smarter...

It was the trailer that had me salivating at the thought of watching the film. However, be aware the movie isn't how it looks on the trailer. Instead of an exciting run-of-the-mill horror what Getty gives his audience is a deep and powerful insight into the human psyche and not just through Dennis, but all of the other characters have some kind of dysfunction. John is hiding a secret. Lydia has relationship issues. Even Pete (Tim Bagley) - who is only in the film a few minutes - hates people touching him and invading his person space.

The film can even be taken a couple of ways. It could be a very dark psychological thriller or it could be a supernatural entity possession, making it a horror. It works in either genre.

The star of the show is Frederick Koehler as Dennis. He is brilliant at portraying the character, giving him facial ticks, body form, hand gestures, and a speech impediment. His acting is really believable and draws the audience into the film more. However, it's Flannery's and Meyer's characters that appear flat at times, a little too dimensional and wooden; I think this may be the characters they were playing or the direction at the time of the scenes, as both of them are good actors. It just jars the mood and atmosphere at times and this is a bad thing as the movie depends on mood and atmosphere, which Getty builds beautifully. It's also great to see Michael Berryman again.

This film reminds me of Phantasm in its essence and spirit, and like Phantasm I will gladly watch this film again... and again... and, probably, again... There are a lot of interesting and well thought out concepts in this story, which should send a chill down your spine. However, if you prefer shock horror over creepy and atmospheric then this probably won't be your cup of tea.

Brilliant special effects and avant garde theatrics - this movie comes ever so close to being an instant cult classic. The brilliant, but ultimately annoying portrayal of the mentally retarded and easily manipulated Dennis puts the other poor acting and awkward scenes to shame however it does show an insidious subculture of deliberate manipulation and entrapment under the guise of a Tales from the Crypt style presentation. This could have been truly great.

On its own, it was fairly good; not very much to say since I couldn't help but think about the context. The ending was a little confusing, but if you saw the movie you'd probably be surprised if it wasn't confusing.

Now for the context. No one's first film is great or even good, but this was a very good first effort from the writer-director and I think it showed a great natural artistic capability that a longer career would have honed. I was amazed at how good this was for a first film and it's tragic to think there will never be another movie from this clearly gifted artist.

That being said, if I didn't know the backstory behind the film, I probably wouldn't have sought it out, let alone even heard of it, and it's better to judge a film on its own rather than the context around its making. I acknowledge that I had a bias going into this movie as I went in knowing the tragic story of the writer-director, but the bias should not be judged too harshly as I've gone into many movies wanting them to be good and that's never stopped me from judging them to be bad if they were indeed bad. While The Evil Within is not great, it's certainly memorable. 6/10 might not sound like a good rating, but I prefer a 4-star scale, with 2 stars being average, not bad but not exactly memorable, and 3 stars being good, and this movie's in between, so my rating is 2.5/4 stars. A not exactly good but certainly memorable movie, and an incredible first and only film from an untapped talent.

A mentally handicapped young man lives with his older brother. The older sibling has guilt in that he was responsible for an incident leading to his brother's condition. One day he buys him a large antique mirror which unfortunately turns out to be an evil artefact that talks to the little brother from another dimension, imploring him to commit horrendous acts.

Quite amazingly, this movie was filmed over a period of fifteen years, which is a huge time period to focus on one project and which is not really at all obvious from the finished film. The director was Andrew Getty who was one of the heirs to the Getty family fortune, this allowed him to plough millions of his own money into the film but he seems to have been a troubled individual and ended up dying before the film was released. If I'm being totally honest, I'm not sure the end results justify the huge amount of time that was invested in this project. It certainly has some good Lovecraftian imagination at times, with some imaginative macabre imagery and creatures but I felt it was held back somewhat by the central performance of Frederick Koehler as the disturbed brother, who I found quite grating throughout. The story in general is okay but not especially remarkable, the strengths of this one lie mainly with some of its visual ideas which are often successfully surreal and nightmarish. On the whole, there are some worthwhile ideas interwoven into this one but I thought it to be a bit uneven on the whole.

It is such as tough movie to critique after one viewing. It is without doubt a flawed attempt, but the concept makes it worth a viewing. it is not a gore fest, but more of a mind bender, or at least tries to be. I applaud the effort and concept, but it lacks in a few key areas. Some basic details are forgotten and the continuity is stuttering, having said all that it is a film you want to like and this is probably due to the lead character giving a good performance, whilst others in the cast struggle.