CORPORATE LINE: Paying homage to films such as HALLOWEEN and THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, MALEVOLENCE aims to return to the gritty, unironic style of those horror pictures. The film begins as a crime thriller, with three bank robbers whose plan goes awry, forcing them to take a young mother and her daughter as hostages. Fleeing the scene of the crime, the crooks and their captives hide in a rural farmhouse. But little do the innocent hostages know that next door lurks an even greater danger than common criminals, a danger that begins to eliminate them one by one. MALEVOLENCE marks the directorial debut of Stevan Mena.
THE MOVIE: Certainly Malevolence owes a lot to the roots of the horror genre of films like Halloween. Director Stevan Mena pulls out a lot of the old horror movie tricks. Malevolence packs a few good tricks up its sleeve other than that it’s mostly the same old thing.
DVD FEATURES: Director Stevan Mena offers what is a very good commentary track. He goes to into great detail and offers so much insight you feel like you were on set witnessing it all. Mena opens a door to everything that happens behind the camera and not just the usual fluff.
The featurette “Back To The Slaughterhouse” involves the production side of the film and has additional footage. Other features include deleted scenes and some of the cast rehearsals.
FRANKLY: The story isn’t strong; a bank robbery goes wrong and all hell breaks loose. Even as Malevolence tries to be something new yet never changes the usual basis of a horror movie like the bad guy being an idiot and no matter how many times he gets knocked down no one kills him. Most of the time its laughable how idiotic the individuals are portrayed and how idiotic we’d be if we bought anything that happens in Malevolence. Malevolence is frightful in more ways than one.
+ Charlie Craine
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