‘When Evil Lurks’ (2023) Proves Possession Horror Is No Laughing Matter [REVIEW]

Written By: Carlos Medrano

If there is one film I will always recommend, it is "When Evil Lurks". Directed by Demián Rugna and released in 2023, this brutal Argentinian horror film stars Ezequiel Rodríguez, Demián Salomón, and Silvina Sabater in what may be one of the most relentlessly disturbing possession films ever made.

It is easily one of the best foreign horror suspense films I have ever seen.

WATCH THE TRAILER FOR "WHEN EVIL LURKS" BELOW

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: The residents of a small rural town discover that a demon is about to be born among them. They desperately try to escape before the evil is born, but it may be too late

There is nothing comical about When Evil Lurks either, aside from my wife laughing at my horrified reactions while watching it. Do yourself a favor and make this a mandatory watch. And if you somehow managed to avoid clips of it floating around social media, consider yourself lucky. Go into this film completely blind and let it drag you through the nightmare on its own terms.

Trust me, you are not prepared for what this movie does.

When Evil Lurks presents a possession story unlike anything most horror fans have seen before. The film wastes almost no time throwing you directly into its decaying, hopeless world where evil spreads more like a disease than a traditional demonic haunting. 

When this first hit streaming, I was told I needed to watch it immediately, and I am incredibly glad I listened. I genuinely have not stopped talking about it since my first viewing. Every spooky season, this film inevitably gets brought up again because it left that much of an impression on me.

Never has a movie made my jaw physically drop while muttering “WTF” under my breath quite like this one. There were scenes where I nervously laughed simply because I could not believe the film actually went there. And somehow, every time you think it has reached its limit, it pushes even harder. There is one particular scene, especially, that horror fans who have seen the film already know exactly what I am talking about, and once it enters your brain, it stays there.

FINAL WORD

Honestly, one of my favorite things now is when someone asks me for a horror recommendation because I immediately tell them to watch When Evil Lurks. I always ask them to text me while they are watching it, and those messages never disappoint. Half the time, they are describing scenes in complete disbelief, wondering what the hell they just witnessed. Most people end up telling me it was one of the best horror films they have seen in years and that they were absolutely not expecting it to hit as hard as it did.

I would have given anything to sit in a packed theater during opening weekend just to hear the collective gasps and horrified reactions from the audience.

In my eyes, this film is a solid 5 out of 5.

When Evil Lurks is currently streaming on Shudder and through AMC+ in the U.S.