Malevolence (2004)

Really Surprised!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Its a low-budget indie horror flick, old formula decently shot. Similar to Dead Birds (2004), which also started with a bank robbery n the robbers taking refuge at an abandon house where they get picked off by evil. Unlike Dead Birds, there's nothing supernatural in the movie. Some may call it similar to Dusk till Dawn but that was comical n big budget with big names. The cinematography by Tsuyoshi Kimoto was very good, the story is truly set in the middle of nowhere, showing the emptiness surrounding the abandoned house. The movie keeps the atmosphere (with effective photography by Tsuyoshi Kimoto) and tension strong and never takes a break with it once it kicks in. Malevolence is a horror film for the horror fans. The film tastefully payed homage to the great slasher movies of the 70s and 80s. The characters are developed enough that they keep our interest, and the director Mena restrains the violence and on screen bloodshed, the musical score by Mena is probably the best I've heard in a low-budget film, plays like a homage to John Carpenter. Editing by Stevan Mena n Eddie Akmal was excellent. Variety said of the film: The mark of a good horror director is seldom in on screen gore, but rather the ability to make every anticipatory moment tingle with dread. On that level, Stevan Mena's first feature Malevolence scores well, building a grim atmosphere sans Scream-style winking to tell its tale of bank robbers who choose the wrong abandoned rural house to hide out in.

Four desperate bank-robbers flee the scene of their crime, agreeing to regroup at a predetermined rendezvous point, a deserted house in the sticks, to divvy up the spoils. The introduction of a pair of unaccounted-for hostages throws a major spanner in the works, but nowhere near as much as the fact that the gang's hideout lies adjacent to the lair of a vicious serial killer.Stevan Mena's micro-budget horror Malevolence is an homage to three of the most influential scary movies of the 70s and 80s—The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, and Friday the 13th—and as such, originality certainly isn't its strong point; but even though the directorial techniques, visual style, score and general atmosphere will be overly familiar to most fans of the genre, Mena's handling of his material is confident, considered and surprisingly effective, offering viewers plenty of well crafted scares, characters you can actually care about, and a very memorable bogeyman: Leatherface, Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees all rolled into one!Those who are only familiar with contemporary major-studio horror might be disappointed by Malevolence's low-budget aesthetic; others will no doubt accuse the film of ripping off the classics rather than paying tribute to them. I, on the other hand, applaud Mena and pals for not giving a toss about such matters and just getting on with the job at hand: delivering a good old-fashioned scary slasher without even a hint of humour or irony to dilute its impact.

In my opinion, what you see is what you get with Malevolence...and that is a bleak,nasty little gem.Eerie and unrelenting, with a splash of satanic 'offering, I loved it!From the awesome shots of the 'works and surrounding ghost town, to the little moments of people being watched and not knowing it, this film impressed me on several levels and never tried to be anything it wasn't.That being said, slasher is a sub-genre that many so-called horror buffs do not get.It's not the Sixth sense, it's not Hostel.It's not an intellectual quandary or a slop-fest of intestine.Just watch Malevolence for what it is and you should be fairly satisfied.

Three bank robbers take refuge in an abandoned house (with a mother-daughter hostage). Unbeknownst to any of them, a serial killer is stalking them and killing them one by one. Who is behind it, and what is the motive? I rated it a 5 because it was alright for a cheap horror flick. It had a story, which is something most horror films don't have, and the acting was slightly above par. The storyline itself involving the killer is pretty weak, but apparently it's only the middle story of a trilogy that hopefully will never be made. It's worth one watch, just to catch the storyline, but I would say that would be enough when it comes to "Malevolence."