User reviews

Boy, oh, boy... What was this? I have great difficulties categorizing this flick. For one thing, it says in the video-box: "If you're a fan of: The Sixth Sense, The House On Haunted Hill, Stir Of Echoes, you'll love Evil Lives". Now if you look at which year this movie was made in, you know right away what that means, right? It's one of the biggest lies I've ever read and a perfect example of shameless advertising with the sole purpose of ripping off the unsuspecting viewer. It also says: "A Horrifying Supernatural Thriller". No it's not! It has hints at comedy. A bit of drama. Lots of naked boobies and some sex-scenes. It tries to be a thriller. Yes, there's some dark supernatural powers at play. But it's anything but a successful "horrifying supernatural thriller", I can tell you that much. The so-called surprise-twist this movie has, actually happens, more or less, in the opening-scene of the movie! It has some extremely silly dialogues that are actually pretty funny to hear. And in the final conclusion it has make-up effects vaguely reminiscent of Brian Yuzna's "Society" (or perhaps even better: Lamberto Bava's "Per Sempre aka Until Death" comes to mind), so you can count that as a bonus. Anyway, yes, it's a pretty damn bad movie. But strangely, all this nonsense to me was still rather amusing. Didn't even mind the ending, haha! However, even though I had no problems finishing this dubious movie, this, ladies and gentlemen, is another perfect example why the 90's very much sucked when it comes to horror.

Horror novelist Richard Wayborn (Tristan Rogers, straying from the soaps) is an immortal who kills young women so that the soul of his 600- year-old mate can inhabit them for a day or so before they start to go stiff. Kinky. Anyway, trouble arrives when young college student Sara (Arabella Holzbog) doesn't die when Wayborn tries to poison her and he has to try again so she doesn't blow his cover. Making matters worse is her ex Scott (Tyrone Power Jr.) is a cop handling the case. I'm obviously not picky when it comes to my viewing if I picked this up, so sometimes the slightest hint of a good idea can win me over. I like the idea and, while the film is too low budget to effectively pull it off, it makes for something like a high end Concorde production with nice locations and decent acting. Deliciously named director Thunder Levin also makes sure every body the ghost inhabits get nude beforehand (including Melissa Moore) and offers a "I've never seen that before" bit where a girl clad only in a g-string jumps off a roof. Paul Bartel has two scenes as a "boring professor." Also watch for the guy introducing Wayborn at a book signing. He is in front of a big banner for the novel that reads Blood Love (the film's UK title as well) and he calls it Blood Luck. D'oh! No second takes for you, pal. Of course, I still can't decide if the title is EVIL LIVES (as in lives that are evil) or EVIL LIVES (as in evil that lives).

Now I am all for cheese and in fact I rented this film full well knowing that I was not going to be seeing anything of high art. However there is a dramatic difference between a film that is so awful it is good and a film that is just plain awful. If perhaps the film itself had not taken itself seriously it may have worked better as black comedy. Instead the events on screen seem to be done with no humor while the music (some of which sounding carnival in nature) is anything but serious. So if they were indeed attempting humor they did manage it but not in the way they may have been intending.

Acting wise the film is a wash as well but for nudity buffs this is one of the first films in a while not to shy away that aspect of the genre.

So if you have a hankering for self abuse you may in the end enjoy it enough for a few minor kicks.

Now, I've seen a lot of films, but this just blew me away. With how bad it was, of course. My dad picked it up at a value bin because on the back, it said "If you enjoyed The Sixth Sense, House on Haunted Hill, and a Stir of Echoes, you'll love Evil Lives". Now, I look back at that an really do laugh. The film contains no suspenseful or scary moments. The acting is awful, and the plot is ridiculous. The spirit of a loved one coming into recently dead bodies to make love, then die again? Even that concept isn't taken too far because most of the film strays away from what it is supposed to be doing: entertaining. The special effects are also pretty bad. The makeup is horrid. It'd be a black comedy (and a poor one at that) if the film was taken lightheartedly. But that's not the case; these people actually TRIED. The fact that this film was made seriously is rather pathetic. Did I mention the music was ripped straight from the circus? This is one of the worst films you'll ever see, so don't't even give it a chance.