Review of the film “Evil” by William Brent Bell

At the box office is the horror film Lord of Misrule by William Brent Bell, an imitation of the classic of the genre – The Wicker Man (1973) by Robin Hardy, where a police inspector becomes a victim of fans of an ancient Celtic cult. Mikhail Trofimenkov in “The Evil One,” everything was amazing: from the transfer of action to the USA to the name and appearance of the local Prince of Darkness.

Anyone familiar with the classics of horror cinema knows one simple truth. There are no scarier places on Earth than small towns, where neighbors smile tenderly at you, treat you to fresh baked goods and observe local traditions. Vicar (parish priest of the Episcopalian faith; however, female – but the term “vicar” is something connoisseurs of feminine arts have not yet adopted) Rebecca Holland (Tuppence Middleton) and her husband Henry (Matt Stokoe) were clearly not cinephiles, otherwise they wouldn’t risk it would like to move to a patriarchal town, surrounded by dense forest, and even with his little daughter Grace. And even more so, they would not go to celebrate Harvest Day with their neighbors, during which the aborigines, putting on carnival masks, first call on a certain Lord of Chaos in chorus, and then just as unanimously expel him. The Lord’s name is Gologon: this name is pronounced from the screen so pathetically that it cannot but cause more and more nervous laughter in the audience.

Grace dressed up like an angel for the holiday. Soon the angel will only have wings. She will be taken into the forest by “a man dressed as a demon.” By the way, I wonder how demons usually dress? In general, “she left us,” hypocritical old women from certain “Old Families”, who observe ancient rituals, joyfully tell their parents. However, the acting talent of the leading roles is such that Rebecca and Henry do not seem even the least bit inconsolable.

As it becomes obvious ten minutes after the start of the film, the local residents are not Christians at all, but adherents of an ancient pagan satanic cult. And they do not expel Gologon, but, on the contrary, call upon him to sacrifice another child to him once every twelve years. Well, and then, to the heap, exterminate or convert his parents. The primary cell of the cult is hidden in the basement of a local school and is known as the “circle of naturalists in the room of secrets.”

What the hell is this ancient pagan satanic cult, an inquisitive viewer can’t help but wonder. Okay, in The Wicker Man, which The Evil One imitates shamelessly, even in detail, it took place on an island off the coast of Scotland. Celts, Druids, this and that: there is just this ancient goodness in bulk.

But in “The Evil One,” the action takes place in the American outback. What pagan cults are there? Indian? Or did the Puritans from the “old families”, which cannot be deciphered otherwise than the descendants of the first settlers, bring all this evil spirits with them on the Mayflower? One can, of course, recall Neil Gaiman’s brilliant novel “American Gods” about local deities, spirits and demons that representatives of all nations of the world brought with them to the New World. But in Gaiman’s case, they just quickly withered away in a free enterprise society and are forced to work – some in Chicago slaughterhouses, some in a taxi company. Where can they eat the kids?

Further more. The doors in the houses begin to slam frighteningly, as if the director’s assistant kicked them with a flourish. A certain pissing old woman prophesies to Rebecca that she will soon “go to the Black Barn.” You expect the notorious barn to be a mystical portal like the Black Lodge from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. But no, the barn stands in the forest like a barn. That is, it’s not that it’s standing, but it seems to appear during Harvest Day, and then disappears. When Gologon finally appears to the heroine, it is unclear how he gets into the notorious barn. This walking misunderstanding has painfully branched horns, which, due to some aberration of vision, is mistaken by old Satanists for the Lord of Chaos himself.