Paul Andrews
Evil Angel starts as paramedics Marcus (Kristopher Shepard) & his partner Jenny (Marie Westbrook) are called to a flat to help give birth to a baby, meanwhile across the street a man commits suicide. Later that night the paramedics are called to attend to a young woman named Emma (Rachel Emmers) who has been badly stabbed, Marcus falls in love with her but is unable to save her life & she dies in hospital soon after. Just as Emma dies a comatose patient named Caroline (JJ Neward) suddenly wakes up & after killing two people walks out of the hospital & disappears into the night. All these seemingly unconnected events have one common factor, an ancient body hopping demon named Lilith who can possess bodies that are close to death. A murdered private investigator & a long trail of dead bodies lead back to Carla (Ava Gaudet), the wife of paramedic Marcus who is now possessed by the evil Lilith...Edited, written, produced & directed by Richard Dutcher this didn't turn out to be as bad as I was expecting but at the same time was hardly any sort of masterpiece, Evil Angel is certainly better than a lot of low budget horror crap out there but that's not a particularly strong recommendation in itself. The one thing that stands out about Evil Angel is that it tries to be a lot deeper than most low budget horror, at a little under two hours long it also requires patience to sit through. The first hour or so has all these different story threads playing out, the body hopping demon, the private detective, Carla's suicide attempts, Marcus & Carla's unhappy marriage, Marcus & his job & his belief's as well as various background on the individual victims that I assume was meant to flesh the character's out & make us care. This is successful to a certain extent but the film becomes a bit of a muddled mess & gets lost on occasions as it tries to juggle all these aspects without giving the viewer one strong central plot to get involved with & follow. The script for Evil Angel just feels a little mixed up like it wasn't sure what sort of tone it was going for, some of the story remains unexplained like what was in the needle Carla had at the end? Why was it so important to her? Why did this Lilith demon want to take revenge on the people who wronged the women she possessed? Why would Lilith care? How come that guy at the start kept seeing demon faces everywhere? At the two hour mark Evil Angel does drag at times but it does have it's moments & it's a better fleshed out film than I expected even if it gets a bit lost at times.Evil Angel looks great with nice visuals from veteran director of photography Bill Butler who was also responsible for photographing the likes of Jaws (1975), Damien: Omen II (1978), Grease (1978), Rocky II (1979), Child's Play (1988) & Anaconda (1997) to name but a few. There's a few gory moments but they are quite far between, there's a decapitation, a slit throat, various stabbings & shootings, a cut out heart & some blood splatter as well as an over the top moment in which someone is gorily killed by being hit by a car. There's some nudity as well, in fact the opening credits make Evil Angels look like your watching a soft-core porn film. The CGI computer effects aren't that bad actually which is surprising.I don't know what sort of budget Evil Angel had but I'm guessing tat while not exactly big it did have some money spent on it & it show's with slick production values. The recognisable Ving Rhames has a supporting role as a tough private detective & is alright, the rest of the cast try but the material is silly at times.Evil Angel was a pleasant surprise in that it wasn't absolutely terrible but at the same time please don't take that as any sort of great recommendation as it's still not what I would call great, you could do worse for sure but you could do better as well. Worth watching, just about anyway.
ticketstubber
I usually don't like horror movies. They're generally stupid: people getting tortured or girls being chased around and killed by guys in masks. This one ACTUALLY HAS A STORY! You actually have to pay attention to what's going on and what's being said. In a way, I think they ought to call it a horror/mystery because you don't really put all the pieces together until the very end. When you do, the whole thing makes sense and you want to watch the movie again. Which I did. And I liked it more the second time.I also liked that it wasn't just a straight horror movie. There was mystery and kind of a "film noir" feel to it with the Ving Rhames guy trying to figure it all out. All in all, a really good movie. Good acting, GREAT music and photography. Some fun lines and a few really great set pieces. The mayhem in the crack house was a BLAST. And there was no shortage of blood and skin.I give it a nine out of ten. It was more fun than scary. If they make a sequel, I'm definitely going to see it.
bethanded
I saw this at Shriekfest film festival in Hollywood last year... and I LOVED IT! Then I came to find out it has been winning awards at film festivals all over the world. This film had all the elements of Polanski horror, Hitchcock suspense, Raimi action, Tarantino plot twists, and GORGEOUS women... oh, and the occasional opportunity to let out some tension with a chuckle.Honestly, I was getting pretty bored with little teenage girls running around in their cotton undies to avoid being murdered- THAT's not a horror film- It's simply a bloody mess and SO incredibly boring.Evil Angel on the other hand has intelligent actors in an intelligent story running around in their mini-skirts & lace undies delivering a good time for the audience.When compared to most of what's been rolling around the last few years, this was a fun time at the cinema!
yngpsych
This is one strange roller-coaster of a movie. First off it is about two hours long, but never feels boring. It moves so fast and flips back and forth between two stories that it made my head spin at times. The plot, although not that original, feels fresh due to the amazing direction and spurts of bloody violence,all done with a nice touch of black humor. To be honest, I just finished watching it and I am still a bit confused about the entire plot. Basically an evil demon, Lillith can hop into someones body just as they die to possess them. She really does not have an agenda except to kill as many people as she can before she must find a new body. A detective played very well by Ving Rhames is tracking her and a young paramedic is also discovering that something is going on. I guess on paper this plot sounds pretty stupid...but trust me, it is a wild crazy ride and I found myself laughing and gasping throughout. The special effects are not bad and when Lillith kicks ass, it's amazing. So, grab a few beers and some friends and have a ball. Please don't expect to use braincells, this is pure popcorn stuff.