Terry's Reviews
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Malevolence Anchor Bay – 2005 Written and Directed by Stevan Mena Starring |
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| MALEVOLENCE was obviously made by a filmmaker who
admires PSYCHO, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and some of the better slasher films made from
the late 70’s to mid 80’s. The filmmaker’s name is Stevan Mena. Taking a
cue from John Carpenter, Mena has written, directed and scored a film that plays well if
you can overlook a familiar story and some inconsistencies in dialogue. A bank is robbed, the thieves are separated when one is shot and another must find transportation to get to the rendezvous spot. The location is an old abandoned house out in the middle of literally nowhere. Once the criminals get to the house this is where things get interesting. Little do the thieves know that this house is across the field from an abandoned slaughterhouse that is the home of a serial killer. I like the way Mena put characters that are inclined for violence into a situation where they end up being attacked by someone even more violent than they are. It’s kind of like one side is pretend criminals while the other is a stone cold killer. What I liked most about MALEVOLENCE was a bleak tonality that really does feel like something made from the golden age of horror (the 70’s). Images and many of the scenes play out in similar fashion to the films that inspired Mena. There were quite a few times when I anticipated pretty much what was going to happen and of course it did. I do believe that was Mena’s plan and if so, he certainly accomplished that approach. MALEVOLENCE is down and dirty, which comes from the low budget and the authentic locations. A movie like this will always benefit from actual locations versus studio sets. The Long Island and Pennsylvania countryside, mixed with old run down house and abandoned slaughterhouse where terrific location choices. The cinematography doesn’t gloss over these places, in fact the look kind of melds with the old run down house and slaughterhouse, which populates a majority of the film’s running time. The music score is reminiscent of early John Carpenter and is really effective because of the fantastic 5.1 Channel audio job Anchor Bay has given the film. The music alone will get you at times and generally sets a somber mood. Back To The Slaughterhouse is a 30-minute documentary featuring extended interview with Steven Mena who discusses the making of the film. Mena comes across pretty mellow yet certainly passionate about horror films. He seems to take a strong stance about what he likes and dislikes about these types of films. I can admire that he finished this project after having multiple crewmembers drop out, being forced to switch locations (a common low budget problem) and somehow make a movie with very little money. If you add that he did this all in 35mm, you can’t help but give they guy a lot of credit. One of my favorite stories Mena told was when he said that he had to stay up at night watching the equipment. He did this because they couldn’t afford to break it all down and have to reset it the next day. During one of these nights in the dark slaughterhouse, he felt something moving by his feet, so he tilted his flashlight down to see a rat as big as a dog. That’s scary stuff. The Dark Side of Horror features Samantha Dark speaking for just over 13 minutes about how she came to America from England, lived in Miami then moved to New York to study with Stella Adler and Academy of Dramatic Art. She said that when she was auditioning for MALEVOLENCE that one of the things Stevan Mena had her do was to scream. She said that after she was cast that she worked on getting just the right scream, which caused her to loose her voice, but once she found the right guttural scream, that she kept using the same one so that there was consistency to her scream. Mena had her watch THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, HALLOWEEN, THE EVIL DEAD and CHILDREN OF THE CORN to prepare for her role. Dark particularly liked HALLOWEEN and paid close attention to Jamie Lee Curtis performance in HALLOWEEN. She was very happy that MALEVOLENCE did not include gratuitous gore, sexuality or nudity. There are some deleted scenes, which as usual, were wise to cut out of the film. It was interesting seeing Brandon Johnson and Heather Magee work during Rehearsal Footage. The radio and TV Spots are always fun. I thought the trailer was very effective at promoting the film. The Audio Commentary by Stevan Mena, actor Brandon Johnson and producer Eddie Akmal covers some of the same ground as the documentary but I enjoyed it. Their comments help further illuminate the difficulties the cast & crew endured and will make you appreciate the work these guys did. Anchor Bay made a wise choice making MALEVOLENCE their first theatrical release. It represents what is good about low budget horror films and what a director can do when given the chance to make a film about something he/she is passionate about. |
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