Evangeline (2015)
Staci Layne Wilson
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Starring Kat de Lieva, Mayumi Yoshida, Richard Harmon,
Directed by Karen Lam
Definitely an homage to supernatural revenge tales like The Crow and Ringu, writer-director Karen Lam’s stylish indie Evangeline follows the young, shy and pretty title character (played by Kat de Lieva) through hell and back after she’s assaulted, beaten and left for dead in the woods by a bunch of frat boys.
Their actions were cavalier and devil-may-care… but the consequences are quite serious when an avenging angel in the form of a forest demon possesses Evangeline’s broken body and goes back to the campus to finish what the college boys started.
Even though Evangeline is the dutiful daughter of a preacher, when we first meet her she’s ready to shuck her repressed ways and go buck wild – her dorm roomie Shannon (Mayumi Yoshida) is all too happy to help. Shannon sends Evangeline into the arms of bad-boy Michael (Richard Harmon) thinking it’s all just harmless fun… but of course, this being a horror movie, the fun is hardly harmless.
In addition to Evangeline’s story, there’s a murky substory involving a serial killer (inspired by the infamous Highway of Tears in Lam’s home country of Canada, where dozens of women’s corpses have been found dumped over the years and whose murders remain unsolved). He’s played by David Lewis and he’s every bit as compelling as any killer on, say, “Dexter” or “Hannibal.” But, I wasn’t quite sure how he factored into this movie; I was unable to connect the dots between the two plots.
Beautifully-shot and well-acted, Evangeline is augmented by some truly impressive practical effects and interesting (if somewhat overwrought) editing techniques. It’s always visually arresting, even when nothing in particular is going on. I’ve only ever seen one other work of Lam’s – a short entitled Doll Parts – and Evangeline has a similar look and theme, which shows Lam’s got a voice and a quality that’s unique to her.
If you’re in want of a kick-ass, all-out revenge actioner saturated in buckets of blood, you’re probably not going to be able to slip easily into this dreamy nightmare world. But if you’re looking for a moody, stylish and somewhat sentimental Asian-influenced chiller, then Evangeline is your ticket. It hits VOD on May 8, 2015.
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Film
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