Today, the streets will be bathed in delicious human blood as a plague of walking undead invade downtown Athens. It's up to a group of random strangers-including a wise-cracking cab driver, a teenaged girl who just lost he... more »r parents, a tough-guy soldier, a tougher young woman - to save the day as the flesh-eating hordes sink their teeth into fresh meat. Drenched in blood-soaked action and complete with exploding heads, flying intestines and more household object impalements one could desire. Evil delivers the goods and satisfies the inner gore-hound in all of us while delivering twisted, wry comedy in the tradition of Peter Jackson's Dead Alive and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy.« less
Four stars for zombie lovers, three for the horror fans
Brendan M. Howard | Kansas, USA | 01/30/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Evil is a low-budget Frankenstein of a zombie film. Writer-director Yorgos Noussias clearly loves the genre, and he exploits it crazily. His zombies roaming Athens, Greece, are, in turns, shambling George Romero flesh-eaters, horrifyingly speedy 28 Days Later living dead, and wacky Army of Darkness targets for obscene violence. The main characters are, in turns, frightened victims, butt-kicking video game-like heroes, and the butts of Shaun of the Dead-like jokes.
If it sounds schizophrenic, it is. I found myself yearning to care about the characters, but then puzzled by the film's biggest battle scene, where our intrepid gang of strangers kill zombies by pushing axe handles through the backs of their skulls and tearing their heads off nearly with their bare hands. The film also falters in the nitpicky subject of zombie film's science is the question of how to kill what's dead already. Sometimes a bullet to the chest does the trick, other times these shamblers have to be thoroughly separated into their parts.
It's necessary viewing for for zombie-film fans thanks to unique moments-- a funny, sexy zombie-filled nightmare; zombie soccer hooligans; and a great closing shot. Others, though, should know this Greek salad is pretty inconsistent as a satisfying dish of horror.
"
Pretty good
ribcage | Lantana, Florida United States | 05/27/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
""EVIL" is a good film with everything pretty much done right. We've got great characters, we've got zombies, we've got nice gore, and we've got a nice touch of humor and humanity thrown in too. There's definitely some great memorable scenes, but the problem is that they're not any more memorable than other films.
I wouldn't say this film is necessarily a "by the numbers" zombie film, but there just wasn't anything to it to let it stand out from others(unless you want to count that it takes place in Athens, which I don't). It's definitely worth seeing, and I'd have no problem viewing it again, it just seemed to lack a style all its own.
It's great, but felt to me a mashing together of styles and themes from other zombie films. So four stars instead of five, but this movie is still worth buying for any zombie fan.
Considering that a lot of other zombie movies that take themselves more seriously wind up either boring or awful, it really was a huge relief to me that "EVIL" was neither."
"Evil" ROCKS!!
Jay Blodgett | San Francisco, CA United States | 01/29/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Evil" is a zombie flick. Pure and simple. What makes it stand out is the delirious cinematic glee that Noussias apparently had in making it. He throws all sorts of tricks at us: split screens that number up to seven frames at one point; 'hip-hop' edits; some CGI; and one of the most breathtaking, witty and creepy final shots ever made for this genre! There is also so much blood splattering that it actually hits the camera lens a couple of times! That ROCKS!"
Accent on Evil
Karen Shaub | the inner reaches of the outer limits | 02/04/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"EVIL has been called "the first Greek zombie movie". Well EVIL is certainly the first one to get any kind of exposure in the U.S. but opinion seems to be divided as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. The film doesn't explore much in the way of new territory with the exception that those killed by zombies become zombies themselves almost immediately, the rest of the film is pretty formulaic.
The story gets under way as 4 street workers suddenly go berserk after having had a weird experience in a previously undiscovered cave. Simultaneously, and with no advance notice, they transform into bloodthirsty, flesh ripping zombies in different parts of the city and gut munching madness ensues. After that we follow two groups of characters as they run hither and yon trying not to become entrees for our famished and ever increasing horde of the living dead, until they finally join together for the film's last act.
If you're looking for the kind of terrifying tale George Romero created in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, look elsewhere. If you're after incisive social commentary you'd do better rewatching Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD. If you want funny foreign zombies try CEMETERY MAN. Now I'm not saying that EVIL has nothing to offer, it just doesn't have any of THOSE things to offer. It does have some darn good gore scenes however that should please just about any zombie fan looking for mutilation with an ethnic flair. There are so many decapitations that I literally lost count. It also has a kung fu mama who can put on a fair to middling show unless you know much about the martial arts. She can also kill at 20 feet with a high heel--who needs shiruken? Its a brief 83 minute flick that has moderately legible subtitles. Subtitles aren't that important anyhow since no one talks much, they just run. The ending is a bit strange but you probably won't care since the characters aren't well developed enough to care about.
"
A worthy zombie effort
shawn niebruegge | troy, il | 03/15/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"First off, despite being billed as a gross-out comedy...this is neither. Its never very funny and the gore/action sequences aren't serious nor particularly funny. Its mostly a drama movie with zombies, gore, and a tiny bit of comedy occasionally.
Its amateur fair in some ways, but give credit to a worthy effort with no big mistakes.
The film makers borrow heavily from other movies. In particular "28 day/weeks later" and interestingly from "run lola run". The plot is straight out of 28 days/weeks with a group of survivors struggling to avoid the neo-zombies (the quick paced ones..."evil"'s are quick paced but stumbling idiots...a fun blending of the old and new school zombies). The filming has elements of "run lola run" with split screen takes of quick action and running...they even have a similar techno soundtrack for it.
The amateur comes across a couple of times in a minor ways: some scenes are obviously filmed under poor lighting situations. They are quite grainy. There is another scene where they are fleeing a group of zombies and then run into another group...the editing is confused at best. Thankfully, its a short take. Theres a few scenes at the beginning which are on screen far too long (like a close up shot of a man staring for several minutes). The worst, and its expected, is some bad acting. Mostly the actors are ok actually, except the "young girl" charactor: she says she's 15....um no...she's clearly in her 20's and worse she can't act. They gave her pigtails to make her look "young" and she's whinny as hell. They stopped just short of putting her in a jumper and having her carry a teddy bear around. If it was meant to be funny it wasn't. It was just annoying. If they had a real actress, or an actual young girl who couldn't act, it would've been better. having an older wanna-be actress pretend to be a young girl....dreadfully bad. All of these things, in the end, are minor however. Even the young girl has some good scenes that make her worth while to the story.
In the end the movie is mostly a drama (ala 28 days/weeks) with some cheesy gore action scenes (I guess this is the "comedy", its fun but not funny). There are some "jokes" along the way but nothing funny and no where near as much attempts at that as the movie is a drama. Its a good watch with lots of potential even though it breaks no new ground."