When Evil Lurks : Psychological Horror at Its Most Devastating
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Official Movie URL: https://www.shudder.com/
Rating: 10 (on a review scale: 1 being worst, 10 being best)
Cast & Crew
Directed by: Demián Rugna
Ezequiel Rodríguez as Pedro, Demian Salomón as Jimmy, Luis Ziembrowski as Ruiz.
Absolutely no words will do justice to how truly disturbing, original, and unrelentingly bleak When Evil Lurks (2023) is, I feel so uncultured and ignorant not looking at foreign films when gems like this exist.
Written and directed by Demián Rugna yes, the madman behind Terrified which is also one I need to watch after reading about him. He’s an absolute genius of a director who hasn’t had the plaudits that he deserves.
This Argentinian waking nightmare is not just a horror film, it’s a full on psychological onslaught. I’m 44, and I’ve been watching horror since I was sneaking VHS tapes behind my parents’ back or when Grandad was there I’d watch them with him, but never ever in my life have I ever seen anything remotely even like this. The last time I felt like this was after watching Train To Busan (2016) yet again another foreign film.
I downloaded Shudder purely based on one scene I saw circulating online… and from the first minute of the actual film, I was hooked, horrified, and completely unable to look away not that I even wanted to. Rugna doesn’t give you time to breathe again not that you can, he grabs you by the spine and drags you through the dirt and gravel with no guarantee you’ll make it out emotionally intact at the other side. Within probably the first 20 mins you see more than most Hollywood horror films of the past 20 years.
The film opens with isolated rural unease, two brothers, Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón), find a mutilated corpse in the woods after hearing gunshots the night before. The trouble is and unexplained is that they don’t seem phased by it? Like it’s just the norm? That’s when I knew I was onto a winner.
What follows is the slow, skin crawling reveal that this is no ordinary—it's a “Cleaner”, an exorcist of type sliced in half with an instrument smashed nearby him. A close by shack houses a “Rotten,” a possessed man named Uriel, disgustingly deformed, so bloated with demonic evil he’s rotting from the inside out, with weeping wounds full of pus. He’s on the brink of birthing a demon because that’s just normal here. The Cleaner meant to kill him? Already dead, found by the brothers. And now this infection isn’t just spreading—it’s galloping.
A nearby landowner, Ruiz, when the police won’t help, agrees with the brothers to take the initiative and move the boy themselves. He’d been left to get worse for a year and genuinely looks ready to pop. When they get him in the back of a pick-up truck I could see the disgust was amazing on the actors as the pus filled wounds were busting and ripping as they dragged him through the house. They drive him away and lose him somewhere along the trip when they swerve to miss a kid on his bike.
The next morning Ruiz runs outside only to see his wife screaming at a goat. Ruiz shoots his gun in the air, all the goats run but one…. This one makes Black Phillip from The Witch (2015) look like a friendly family pet. The goat walks towards the barrel of the gun pressing his forehead against it.
Ruiz, seemingly having no other choice, blows the goat’s head clean off, the realism is second to none. Before the goat hits the ground, a hatchet is plunged into the head of Ruiz from his wife who then turns it on herself—and not only once, because that doesn’t do the job—it takes her about four whacks straight in the face. It’s visceral and brutal. Does the camera shy away? Does it hell, not for one second—you see it all. And why not? It’s horror as horror should be.
Let’s be clear here, this isn’t your standard possession flick. This isn’t pea soup, holy water, and priests yelling in Latin. This is chaos unleashed—an ecosystem of evil that spreads through sound, touch, and even intent. You don’t shoot it. You don’t touch the possessed. You don’t even talk about it too loudly. Break the rules, and you’re next. And they break every rule. You can’t even be too close to animals.
Pedro, increasingly desperate to protect his sons from the madness, reconnects with his ex-wife and her new partner. And it’s here, in this “family drama” moment, that Rugna delivers a scene so brutal and haunting I audibly yelled—this is the scene that sold the film to me.
After entering the house Pedro tries to explain to his ex-wife and new husband what’s going on while stripping his clothes off in case of infection. While they all argue over what should be done, the family dog, infected after licking Pedro’s clothes, mauls the daughter, dragging her around the house like a rag doll—every parent’s nightmare. Her face is dragged across the grass while her parents scream. This shook every parental bone in my body—and still it gets worse.
She’s dragged around the streets by the dog with her father chasing in a truck with a gun—even though Pedro tried to explain not to shoot. Pedro hears a gunshot and sees him stood over the body of the dog. Minutes later the daughter is back and unharmed? Hmmmm….
Pedro gets his sons and they take his ex-wife’s car. The daughter whispers in her mother’s ear “Daddy’s gonna kill you with his car.” Not a second after she says it—bam—he slams into them in his pick-up truck just as Pedro sees it in his rear view mirror. And where’s the camera? Where it needs to be—right in the action.
After the family attempts to flee with his disabled son Jair, Santino, Jimmy and their mother Sara, they get a call from Sabrina…. The ex-wife. Now possessed, she berates Pedro for being a bad father and that she knows where they are and she’s coming to get them all. Pedro, hearing this, breaks down, breaks the phone and looks visibly lost. For the first time in years I actually felt “feelings” for a character. He showed genuine emotion not knowing how to save his sons.
Until now Pedro had been the strong one, but we see Jimmy step up and support his brother. He gives him a pep talk saying the kids and their mum can see him and Jimmy knows where they can go for help.
They drive towards the city and we meet Mirta, an ex “Cleaner.” They think it’s safe there. She tells them the truth: the only way to stop the demon is to kill Uriel properly before the demon is born. But things unravel fast. Jair, seemingly cured of his disabilities, begins to exhibit strange behaviour while his grandma is looking after him.
Mirta tells Jimmy that the demons can’t possess Autistic people—they can’t control their minds easily—it’s like a knot they can’t untie (I’d be safe then phew).
Santino, Pedro’s youngest son, is kidnapped by his own possessed undead mother Sabrina. When Jimmy catches up with her later, it’s too late—she’s killed him and is walking down the road cradling the child, eating his brains like scooping out a watermelon. Yes. That happens. Rugna doesn’t pull punches—he carves out your soul and shows it to you. Jimmy hits her with his car, crushing her against a tree. Her body mangled and with visible open brains dripping into the car she whispers to Jimmy, “I thought you loved me.”
The finale is pure nihilism. Pedro and Mirta find a school filled with possessed children who’ve murdered all the adults. We find out that children protect the Rotten and try to lie to Pedro about the whereabouts of Uriel. Enraged, Pedro hits one of the children with the car door, then jumps out punching her on the floor for lying. It’s an uncomfortable watch—but I don’t think it’s added for shock purpose. You can feel the pent-up rage of the situation and reasoning behind it.
Uriel, the original Rotten, is hidden beneath the stage like some grotesque relic, hidden with the dead adults. As Mirta tries to perform the ritual, Pedro—losing patience—goes to grab an axe but is locked in the office by the children. Mirta is torn apart before he can return and bludgeoned to death by the children with a hammer. All while Pedro watches on locked in a room by the children.
Enraged and hopeless, Pedro beats Uriel to death with his bare hands… too late (only bad effect of the movie). The demon is born anyway and arises—a naked, blood-drenched child who marks Pedro with blood as he walks off, leading the now-possessed children like some unholy Pied Piper. Out they go while a powerless Pedro watches on.
And then comes the gut punch. Back at home, Jair coughs and chokes. What comes out? Sara’s hair and necklace. That sweet boy Pedro thought he saved? He’s possessed. He’s been possessed. Pedro stumbles outside and collapses, wailing. It’s one of the most soul-crushing endings in horror history for me. He’s lost everything. There’s no happy ending, no ray of light at the end of the tunnel. The simplicity of the situation is—it’s over. No way out.
When Evil Lurks isn’t just a horror movie—it’s a war crime against parental comfort and psychological safety. If you’re a parent, I dare you to watch this without feeling physically ill, without going to check on your kids to make sure they’re safe in bed. Or even sleeping with one eye open—for if it goes the other way too.
Demián Rugna has created something apocalyptic, original, and unforgettable. It’s chaotic, vicious, and completely void of hope… and somehow, that’s what makes it masterful. It’s a true masterpiece in psychological horror, in survival horror—basically just across the board in the horror genre. I can’t fault it. There’s no predictability about it—oh no—all rules of horror are off the table here and chaos rules.
In my opinion, which doesn’t count for much, this film is what horror has been missing—a link between the past and the present of horror. Hell, I’d even say it’s the future too. It has all the blood, guts and gore of years gone by, but brings the brains and the heart along for the ride too. Combined together, it’s a perfect storm and one that shouldn’t be missed—it should be celebrated. This is what horror should be. This has amazed me, grossed me out, and made me think all at the same time.
One of the best horror films I’ve ever seen. Just don’t watch it alone. Or right before bed. Or around kids. Or dogs. Or honestly, ever, unless you’re ready to have your soul reshaped—which is not an exaggeration.
Watch and enjoy. I think we all know the score I’ll be giving it. Demián Rugna, you sir are a genius and I bow to your masterpiece.
I give this an unsurprising 10 stars out of a possible 10
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just watch it and I’m sure you’ll agree. I watched the dog scene, and out of context with the film it just looks like violence—but it’s not. There’s reason behind it—a story. It doesn’t just do it and move on to the next shock, it does it, deals with the emotion, and resolves. And it does that all the way through the film.
I could carry on forever, but I’m sure that’s not what you want. Definitely give it a watch—you won’t be disappointed.
