The Evil Within (2017 film)

The Evil Within
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Andrew Getty
Produced by	Robert Hickey Kent Van Vleet Michael Luceri[1]
Screenplay by	Andrew Getty
Starring	Frederick Koehler Michael Berryman Sean Patrick Flanery Dina Meyer Kim Darby Brianna Brown
Music by	Mario Grigorov
Cinematography	Stephen Sheridan
Edited by	Michael Luceri, Michael Palmerio
Production company	Supernova LLC The Writers Studio
Distributed by	Vision Films
Release date	February 26, 2017 (2017-02-26) (Fantasporto)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4–6 million[2]

The Evil Within is a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Andrew Getty and starring Frederick Koehler, Michael Berryman, and Sean Patrick Flannery. Originally titled The Storyteller, the film was a personal project of Getty, who largely self-financed the estimated cost of four to six million dollars of the production that took 15 years to complete. It was released in 2017, two years after Getty's death in 2015.^[3]

Plot

Dennis is a special-needs boy who has had nightmares all his life since he was a child, including one where he entered a carnival ride that seemed underwhelming until he is told that "the ride isn't over." As an adult, Dennis has one where a living demon, called the Cadaver, fastens a zipper onto his back and enters his body. He finds a hidden room in the cellar that holds a mirror that Dennis believes the Cadaver came from. He begins speaking to his reflection, who seems to answer back to him.

Dennis' brother John has difficulty of his own. His girlfriend, Lydia, demands that they get married, but is upset that he will not do anything about Dennis. He is visited by Mildy Torres, a woman from social services, who believes that Dennis needs to be taken away. This upsets John as he feels that Dennis is his responsibility. Dennis continues to have nightmares of the Cadaver and his reflection informs him that in order to get rid of it, they need to start killing animals. He begins working in the secret cellar, which perplexes John, especially when he sees that Dennis has videos on taxidermy.

Once Dennis begins killing children, his reflection takes on a more competent demeanor and reveals that "he" was the one giving him the nightmares and that they still have more killing to do. Dennis meets with his crush Susan, an employee at his favorite ice cream place, and tries to ask her out, but the conversation gets awkward and Susan turns him down, hurting him. He returns and scares her where she runs out into the street and gets killed by a moving vehicle. When John and Lydia take Dennis to his favorite restaurant, he supposedly kills a man in the bathroom without hesitation, scaring himself. Dennis attempts to destroy the mirror but his reflection pushes him in and takes on the "real" Dennis instead.

After a night out, John and Lydia discover that they cannot seem to recognize anyone, implying that Dennis has killed more people. Torres arrives at the house with two officers and are all killed by Dennis. John reveals to Lydia his secret: Dennis was a child prodigy whose works had been published in the newspapers. One day while arguing, John punched Dennis and he fell down the stairs. When he awoke, his mentality diminished greatly and John has felt guilty ever since. Lydia sympathizes with John and leaves to get Dennis. However, John's friend Pete reveals that the taxidermy tapes are Dennis' and later calls the cops.

Lydia arrives at the house and is stabbed by Dennis, who proceeds to remove her insides. John arrives and enters the cellar, where he sits in a chair with a spotlight on it. Dennis appears with a now-stuffed Lydia and puts on a ventriloquist act and John realizes he is glued to the chair. The previous victims have all been stuffed and are used in an extravagant diorama revealing that John intentionally knocked Dennis down the stairs to get rid of him. As more stuffed bodies are revealed, it becomes unclear if John or Dennis is seeing what is actually happening. Overwhelmed, John takes a gun and shoots himself. Dennis is slammed down by a Cadaver-Spider hybrid only for it to be revealed that he is actually being restrained by police officers who drag him away.

The final scene shows Dennis in a padded room. It's revealed that the reflection Dennis is still in control while the real Dennis is trapped deep in his subconscious. All Dennis can do now is wait to have the dream where he can finally get off the carnival ride.

Cast

• Frederick Koehler as Dennis Peterson
• Sean Patrick Flanery as John Peterson
• Dina Meyer as Lydia
• Michael Berryman as Cadaver
• Kim Darby as Mildy Torres
• Francis Guinan as Dr. Preston
• Brianna Brown as Susan
• Tim Bagley as Pete
• Matthew McGrory as Man at Preston's Table

Production

The film was inspired by the childhood nightmares of Getty. According to a post-production producer who had worked on the film and a friend of Getty, Ryan Readenour: "When he was young he would have these really powerful, sick, twisted dreams, and [they were] so shocking to him that he didn’t think they came from him." Getty conceived the idea that it could be a storyteller who created these dreams, and The Storyteller was then used as the first title of the film.^[2]

Filming began in 2002, and the film was shot largely in Getty's own mansion. He also converted one of the rooms in his mansion into a post production suite. He made his own unique camera rigs, built expensive sets, and with his FX team he created elaborate animatronic robots, including an octopus that can play a drum kit.^[4] The production however would stop and start over many years as it was beset with funding issues and conflicts with the cast, including a lawsuit from a studio assistant.^[2] The cast and crew also went through a number of changes, and according to Koehler, only he and Michael Berryman made it through to the changes.^[5]

This is the final film to feature Matthew McGrory who appears in an uncredited cameo from footage shot before his death in 2005.^[6] The health conditions of both McGrory and Berryman (who had been ill for some years) had slowed down the production and scripted scenes had to be replaced.^[7]

Getty continued to work on film for many years after the filming, creating his own special effects and trying to perfect the film. He died in 2015 before the film was finished, with the coloring and editing not completed.^[5] Producer Michael Luceri, who had also edited the film, finished the film.^[3]

Reception

The film has received mixed reviews by the critics, with many critics noting the unevenness of the film. David Fontana of Film Inquiry: thought that the film is "riddled with strange and unfocused plot-lines" and "filled with cringeworthy character acting", and that it "becomes so wrapped up in its own eccentricities that it is all but impossible to follow coherently". He nevertheless praised the film for its surreal visuals and special effects, and thought the "nuanced details" of the film "help to raise The Evil Within above its flaws", and that "it’s hard to argue with that much [of Getty's] devotion to this singularly distinguished work of art". ^[8] Charles Bramesco of The Guardian considered the film "very clearly the handiwork of a rank amateur under the influence of powerful narcotics", but that "Getty’s monomaniacal drive and technical knowhow resulted in some truly outré horror", and that his "wild experiments with the form command respect".^[4] Travis Johnson of Filmink thought "the dialogue terrible", and often with "no discernible reasons for scenes and interactions to exists at all", but still judged it "one of most singularly strange films to come along in a good while" and that it is a "remarkable cinematic artifact that is absolutely worth experiencing".^[9]

Release

The film was acquired by Vision Films and released in 2017 on VOD services in North America such as Amazon under a new title, The Evil Within.^[10][11]

See also

• List of films shot over three or more years

References

External links

• The Evil Within on IMDb
• The Evil Within at Rotten Tomatoes