Malevolence (2004/I)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Stevan Mena

Writer:

Stevan Mena (writer)

Release Date:

15 April 2005 (Spain)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

It's ten years after the kidnapping of Martin Bristol. Taken from a backyard swing at his home at the age of six, he is forced to witness unspeakable crimes of a deranged madman. For years, Martin's whereabouts have remained a mystery...until now.

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Kidnapping | Drugs | Gangster | Jungle Fever

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Samantha Dark	...	Samantha Harrison
R. Brandon Johnson	...	Julian (as Brandon Johnson)
Heather Magee	...	Marylin
Richard Glover	...	Kurt
Courtney Bertolone	...	Courtney Harrison
John Richard Ingram	...	Sheriff Riley
Keith Chambers	...	Max
Kevin McKelvey	...	Special Agent William Perkins
Lenn Gross	...	FBI Agent Daley
Pamela Marie Guida	...	Sally
Mia Lotringer	...	Girl in Basement
Stevan Mena	...	Officer at Roadblock
Jay Cohen	...	17-Year-Old Martin Bristol
David K. Guida II	...	Six-Year-Old Martin Bristol
Mark Dobil	...	FBI Agent Parker

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and some language.

Runtime:

USA:90 min | Canada:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (British Columbia/Ontario) | USA:R | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

Magnetic North, The

Movie Connections:

Followed by Bereavement (2009)

More frustrating than entertaining

I've been wanting to check this out since learning that it won Best Feature at the 2003 NYC Horror Film Festival. Now after watching it I'm guessing every other film it was competing against must've REALLY sucked.

Malevolence is in no way a bad film, yet it's just not that good either. The concept of mixing a robbery-gone-wrong story with a slasher film is pretty original, but this only makes it's heavy use of slasher clichés drag it down into mediocrity. What would be perfectly acceptable idiotic behavior from stupid teenagers in a fun slasher film, becomes unbearably frustrating because one would expect more from the unconventional characters portrayed here.

As the film stumbles forward through all the usual "scares" of the genre, I only became more and more frustrated by how a good idea is just thrown out the window in order to fall back on things that have been done to death (and much better) 25 years ago. All this is topped off by a soundtrack that was obviously intended to be "old-school" yet comes off as just really annoying and repetitive.

Still, as far as low-budget indie horror flicks go, Malevolence is decently shot, and while it does bring in a new mix to the formula, it immediately waters it down by simply not doing anything worth-while with it.