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Evil Night (2014)

Jimmy (Josh Suire) is a science wiz and self-proclaimed genius who is eager to show Jennifer (Meredith Host), the young woman whom he is tutoring and has a crush on, his new “mind-expanding” formula. Unfortunately, Jimmy is a magnet for bullying by his peers and family. One day, he becomes the target of a humiliating and cold-blooded prank by Jennifer and her friends that leaves him without a penis and, more importantly, exposes him to his experimental concoction. After recovering, he discovers that his formula has given him the power of telekinesis and that his sister’s weekend party might be the perfect opportunity to don an evil clown mask and exact his revenge on his tormentors.

Evil Night is Chris (Phantom of the Grindhouse) Seaver’s remake of Todd Jason Cook’s nineties shot-on-video splatter classic. Well, I’m assuming it’s a classic. As much a fan as I am of nineties SOV horror, I don’t know if I have ever heard of the original film before learning of this remake, or if I did then I must have ashamedly brushed it off as another killer-in-a-clown-mask flick. At any rate, the yarn Evil Night weaves is no doubt a classic in itself, of the tortured nerd who seeks revenge after one heinous prank too many (frankly my last straw would have been being doused with urine, but I guess Jimmy has more temperance than that), much in the tradition of Carrie, The Toxic Avenger, and Slaughter High but with more boob jokes.

The dialog is hilariously vulgar, the violence is nasty and bloody, and there is gargantuan cleavage all over the place. The character of Jimmy, while over-the-top in his nerdiness, is a riot and easy to root for, as all cinematic nerds should be. And while really only present for necessity, the bullies carry a fair share of the movie along with their despicability and mammary-centrism, although Jennifer does succeed at being more sympathetic. The kills may be inconsistent in terms of inventiveness but are always messy, and the comedy keeps things relatively light-hearted considering the body count. All of this sets the pace of the film on full speed, edited very well, and is without a single grueling moment, unless the very specific humor doesn't catch you.

The look of Evil Night is surprisingly professional considering its obviously meager resources. The photography is even and the image is crystal clear – no muddy VHS grain here, folks! But as great as the movie looks and as watchable as it is, there are a few things I thought were missing. First, it would have been so great if this movie had a score, its own theme. If it was in there somewhere, I missed it. Movies like this usually have an oppressively overused musical piece that is sorely absent in Evil Night. Second, an extra 20 minutes in length might have boosted the viewing experience. This film is only 55 minutes long. Typically regarding independent and especially shot-on-video horror films, a brief running time is a godsend, but here I think a normal feature length could have been achieved with a little more storytelling. Lastly, the characters are all so over-the-top, but only a small handful are fleshed out (figuratively speaking). This movie definitely has some character-driven moments. I care about Jimmy; I care about Jennifer. But I kind of wanted to care about, or at least learn about, the others as well.

I’m going to have to track down a copy of the original Evil Night if it inspired Seaver to make this one of his best films ever. To the right audience, this is a remake worth rejoicing over. It may be dumb as bricks, but I can see plain as day there was a lot of heart behind the camera. But if heart is a tough sell, like I said, there are boobs and there is blood. People repeatedly get hit with shovels, and girls dance about waving sex toys around. And yeah, there is a killer who wears a clown mask. -N. Weaver