Written by: Ryan Dailey
Evil Lurks plays out as though David Lynch, Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen were involved in a metaphorical three-car pile up and nothing can be salvaged from the wreckage.
Evil Lurks is written and directed by Aaron Hawkins and Chris Shern and tells the tale of a troubled woman, Kimberly (Amanda Winston) tries to cope with a major loss by joining a hypnotherapy group ran by Harold (Chris Shern). Harold takes Kimberly under his wing, claiming that she is possessed by the Shh Man, an entity that roams the Earth under every blood moon. After a vicious sexual assault, a pushed over the edge Kimberly is sent to a mental institution, where she gives birth to her attacker’s child. The blood moon returns fifteen years later and Kimberly, sensing her daughter is in danger, only is she truly the one in danger?
Evil Lurks is, indeed, the afore-mentioned metaphorical car wreck that no one will want to rubberneck. The writer/director tries very hard to use elements from the classics mentioned above, but it becomes a poorly edited mess. The dialog is awkward and clumsily delivered and the dream sequences try hard to be Twin Peaks, but plays out like a very poorly done music video from the mid-1990’s. This film would benefit from utilizing the “less is more” approach to filmmaking. If the film focused less on utilizing the subpar dialog and put more effort into telling the story via better done hallucinations would have made this a completely different film. And possibly for the better. There were far too many instances where frivolous profanities were thrown around like it was a Kevin Smith podcast.
Evil Lurks is a tough watch, leaving the viewer thankful for the commercial breaks that Tubi offers as a reprieve to let the viewer process why they are watching this and consider many other poor life choices made up to this point.
There is potential in this group of filmmakers and, given time and money, a more thought out version of Evil Lurks could become a cult classic and a go-to movie in the genre.
Tubi is a wonderland of independent horror, almost on the same level as Troma NOW. It can be full of gems, but it can also be a lump of coal. Diamonds do come from coal and Evil Lurks could have been a diamond with just a little more time and polish.
Evil Lurks is currently streaming on Tubi and is available on Apple TV