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Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on October 26th, 2023, reviewing “When Evil Lurks,” an Argentinian horror film that’s just in time for the Halloween weekend. In theaters now and streaming on Shudder October 27th, 2023.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Two brothers (Ezequiel Rodriguez and Damian Salomon) discover a hacked up body in the woods after hearing gunshots. The dead man is called a “cleaner,” and was heading to a neighbor’s house, where they are harboring a “Rotten” … a human, in this case the son in his mother’s house, who is carrying an unborn demon awaiting birth. They decide to take the Rotten far away from the area, but the body escapes and what was feared is now happening … the evil is released upon the land.

”When Evil Lurks” is in theaters now, and streaming on Shudder on October 27th. Featuring Ezequiel Rodriguez,...

To describe When Evil Lurks as a horror film about demonic possession is to conjure images of projectile vomiting, spinning heads, tortured priests spraying profanity-spewing children with holy water, and, well, the Conjuring franchise. But Argentine writer-director Demián Rugna’s harrowing film isn’t interested in those things.

The distinction becomes quickly apparent when our protagonists, adult brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jaime (Demián Salomon), encounter the possessed Uriel, the eldest son of an impoverished old woman (Isabel Quinteros) living on remote farmland. Uriel has become a “rotten,” a human incubator for a demon. His body has swollen to an immense size, covered in tumorous, oozing growths and incapable of being moved by a single person.

Here, possession functions like a disease that infests its surroundings. There are procedures to follow and even bureaucratic processes that are meant to respond to the disease’s spread, but there’s only a...

Terrified director Demian Rugna‘s new horror film When Evil Lurks just received a theatrical release from IFC Films on October 6th, and will heading over to the Shudder streaming service on October 27th. One person who highly recommends that you check it out either on the big screen or at home is Sinister and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, who just named When Evil Lurks as one of his top two favorite movies of the year during an interview on the The Discourse podcast.

Derrickson said (as reported by The Playlist), “I think Barbie is the best film I’ve seen this year—well, maybe that’s not true; I saw this horror film, When Evil Lurks at Fantastic Fest, but Barbie and When Evil Lurks those are my two favorite films of the year, which couldn’t be further away from each other.” Derrickson went on to talk...

[Editor's Note: This article was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being discussed here wouldn't exist.]

"We have to find the beast before more are born." Several years after bringing visceral nightmares to life onscreen in Terrified (aka Aterrados), Demián Rugna is introducing viewers to "a horror you can't unsee" in the official trailer for his new movie When Evil Lurks, coming to theaters on October 6th via IFC Films ahead of its October 20th streaming debut on Shudder.

Synopsis: When brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón) discover that a demonic infection has been festering in a nearby farmhouse — its very proximity poisoning the local livestock — they attempt to evict the victim from their land. Failing to adhere to the proper rites of exorcism, their reckless actions inadvertently trigger an epidemic of possessions across their rural community. Now they must outrun an encroaching evil as it corrupts and mutilates everyone it is exposed to, and enlist the aid of a wizened “cleaner,” who holds...

Terrified director Demian Rugna‘s new horror film When Evil Lurks drew comparisons to John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy and Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead when it was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival – which are some excellent movies to be compared to. A wider audience will get the chance to see When Evil Lurks when IFC Films gives it a theatrical release on October 6th, putting it in direct competition with the Universal Pictures release of The Exorcist: Believer. Three weeks later, on October 27th, the film will also be available to watch on the Shudder streaming service.

According to Variety, When Evil Lurks deals with “timeless horror concepts” while “adding contemporary twists”. Scripted by Rugna, the story plays out in a remote village where two brothers find a demon-infected man just about to give birth to evil itself. In a time when exorcism looks...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. IFC Films and Shudder releases the film in theaters on Friday, October 6 before it starts streaming on the Shudder platform on Friday, October 27.

Disease has always been fertile ground for the horror genre: what’s a zombie or vampire movie if not the story of a particularly nasty virus making its way from host to host? Demonic possession onscreen often has a similar subtext; look at the definitive example, 1973’s “The Exorcist,” where hosting an ancient evil leaves a little girl bedridden, covered in sores, and vomiting her stomach out.

“When Evil Lurks,” from Argentinian director Demián Rugna, takes the virus imagery and symbolism and runs with it as the central conceit, placing the audience in a tiny community that goes through, essentially, a rapidly escalating epidemic of demonic possession. An improperly disposed patient zero introduces...

Written and directed by Demián Rugna (Terrified), When Evil Lurks will world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before heading to theaters on October 6th and Shudder on October 27th, and we have a look at the teaser trailer to give Daily Dead readers an idea of what to expect ahead of the film's debut!

Synopsis: When brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón) discover that a demonic infection has been festering in a nearby farmhouse — its very proximity poisoning the local livestock — they attempt to evict the victim from their land. Failing to adhere to the proper rites of exorcism, their reckless actions inadvertently trigger an epidemic of possessions across their rural community. Now they must outrun an encroaching evil as it corrupts and mutilates everyone it is exposed to, and enlist the aid of a wizened “cleaner,” who holds the only tools that can stop this supernatural plague.