Malevolence (2004)

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.

Director:

Stevan Mena

Writer:

Stevan Mena

Stars:

R. Brandon Johnson, Samantha Dark, Heather Magee

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
R. Brandon Johnson	...	Julian (as Brandon Johnson)
Samantha Dark	...	Samantha Harrison
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

Storyline

Created as the middle section of a three-part trilogy, 'Malevolence' is the tragic story of a group of bank robbers on the run from the law. They hide out in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town, unaware it is next door to the home of a family of serial killers. One of their hostages escapes and runs for help, but all hell breaks loose when she runs to the "wrong" house.

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Plot Keywords:

tape over mouth | first part | backwood slasher | part of a trilogy | slasher | 

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Genres:

Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and some language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shot with a production budget of approximately $70,000. It went up to $200,000 in post-production.

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Quotes

Kurt: Do exactly what I say! Otherwise Baby Ruth eats a bullet!

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Connections

Followed by Bereavement (2010)

User Reviews

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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 September 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Malevolence

Filming Locations:

Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,445, 12 September 2004

Gross USA:

$127,287

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$258,782

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mena Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1