The Evil in Us
It’s early in the morning on the fourth of July and the police have received a complaint about some party animals have started the 4th of July celebrations early. The police arrive on the scene only to discover a bloody massacre with a single survivor. Meanwhile a group of friends are planning an exciting drink, drug and sex fueled party at a remote cabin. However, something sends the somethings into a rage fueled state, was it the locals? The shot that they’d all taken? Or the drugs, if so this film works well as an anti-drugs commercial.
I was deliberately more vague regarding the cause of rage fueled zombie like behavior in comparison to official plot synopsis which deemed it fit to reveal the cause of the infection, it perhaps did the film a disservice revealing far too much. Anyway there’s a habit with these types of films to present all of the characters as deeply unlikable, there’s one arrogant and cocky guy whose death would be most welcomed and most of the other characters don’t fare much better. It’s a mystery why this happens so often, we need characters to care about.
The basic plot of The Evil in Us is one that’s been told many times, the clichés are certainly there as the creepy locals (who the young group of friends predictably annoy) and remote cabin feel very familiar. However, despite the fact that the zombie genre is inflated with gallons of crap, there’s some relatively new ideas here and ones that actually gets you thinking about how such a crisis would be resolved.
The literal blood bath of the opening credits sets the precedent for what to except as the excellent make up and gore effects thrill and some film making techniques (such as depicting the visual hallucinations bought on by the infection) work in the film’s favor.
