[yasr_overall_rating]
A naive university student, Evangeline, is brutalized by a gang of thrill seeking killers. Left to die in the forest, she is ‘saved’ by an ancient demon spirit. The spirit empowers Evangeline with a blood-lust for vengeance. Evangeline must make a choice, is she willing to sacrifice her own soul?
When Evangeline (Kat de Lieva) decides to leave the comfort of home and go to college, she befriends her roommate Shannon (Mayumi Yoshida) and her boyfriend Mark (Anthony Shim) and life seems good. While attending a frat party, she is introduced to the enigmatic and handsome Michael (Richard Harmon) and his two buddies Billy (Kelvin Redvers) and Ali (Dejan Loyola). Sometime later, she meets up with Michael and he takes her to an old hunting lodge that belongs to his family. After drugging her drink, she wakes up and tries to escape the forest but Michael and his two cohorts track her down and kill her. That’s when Evangeline’s real nightmare begins.
Caught in a netherworld between life and death, an ancient demon spirit possesses her and allows her to exact revenge on the men who hurt her, as well as a few other unfriendly types who like to hurt women. The movie is very evocative of “The Crow,” which starred the late Brandon Lee. In that movie, his character is killed and his fiancée is beaten and raped by a gang of thugs and later dies as a result of her injuries. He is later resurrected from the dead so he can attain retribution against the men who killed them both. The same thing happens in “Evangeline.” A demon spirit that dwells within the forest possesses her so that she can come back from the dead and avenge herself.
The movie is also reminiscent of other similar-themed movies such as “Death Wish,” “I Spit on your Grave” and “The Last House on the Left.” And therein lies the problem. While I don’t mind filmmakers borrowing ideas from other movies (and who doesn’t do that?), when there are so many infused throughout the entire story, you are left with a string of fabricated plot devices that feel out of place. However, having said that, with an apparent lack of character exposition and story development, Kat de lieva, who plays the titular character, gives a bravura performance as a woman seeking revenge, torn between wanting to return to the living or staying in the afterlife.
The antagonistic male characters are decidedly nasty, customary for a film of this genre but like the borrowed ideas the film possesses, the characters themselves feel somewhat extraneous, considering that they are college kids who live on campus, they emulate the persona of a serial killer who has built his confidence over many years of committing his crimes, allowing him to successfully evade capture. It’s a real shame that the story isn’t more authentic because director Karen Lam has a good eye for creating atmospheric set-pieces and realistic violence. Granted, some may not endorse realistic violence as a glowing endorsement but when you’re making a movie where violence is so prevalent, it’s imperative that it be realistic so that you can sympathize with the characters on the receiving end.
Available on VOD May 8th and DVD June 9th
