Surviving Evil (2009)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Terrence Daw directs this highly original, pulse-pounding horror adventure film that features some exotic location shooting as well as a superb script. The characters are well developed and as the story progresses we come to actually care about the fate of these people. The plot concerns a film crew in the wilds of the Philippines whose members find themselves fighting for their very lives against ... no spoilers! Billy Zane gives one of his finest performances here in the role of Sebatian "Seb" Beazley and it gives him an opportunity to once again excel as an actor. High adventure, terrifying horror, and an engrossing human drama, Surviving Evil is sharply produced film that deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

Despite the presence of Billy Zane..... who is wicked. This movie is a complete waste of time.6 useless characters set out to film a wilderness survival show. There are obvious and unnecessary love plots tossed in to keep the story going in the beginning while they introduce the "creatures" This movie tried way too hard to give everyone a story, and some sort of depth. It is a simple plot that worked for a lo budget movie. But it gets way too convoluted trying to sort out the ridiculous dramas and motives surrounding these characters.It's a descent creature feature, but it looses out on the thrills by focusing on poorly written characters.

Once again, various characters face a mystery the audience is already fully aware of the resolution of, prompting another movie that delivers little suspense or mystery.The monsters are shapeshifters, capable of transforming into any creature, which in a jungle setting like this would provide excellent paranoia fuel. This gets wasted entirely, however, as animals barely appear on screen with the characters. Incidentally, the monsters rarely use these abilities in attacking their victims anyways.Obviously it takes more than one actor to contribute anything worthwhile, and Billy Zane can only contribute slightly to a film with nothing else going for it. Even worse the monsters have almost no presence and aside from the times characters find evidence of their existence, it's as if nothing is happening.

Surviving Evil is set on Mayaman Island in the Philippines where a crew of TV documentary makers land, there to make an episode of Surviving the Wild with Sebastian 'Seb' Beazley (Billy Zane) as the adventurer host. Local guide Joey (Joel Torre) speaks of the legendary Aswang creatures of myth supposedly born out of the horrors of the Spanish invasion centuries ago but surely mythological Vampire like shape-changing creatures can't exist in reality? Well yes, they do & they particularly like the taste of human flesh & are attracted to a pregnant woman's blood, as they would be. As the Aswang attack can the crew use their survivalist knowledge to beat the creatures & make it off the island alive?This British South African co-production was written & directed by Terence Daw & one has to say that while Surviving Evil had potential for a nice fun creature film it really isn't very good & to be honest apart from slightly better production values & a bit more blood Surviving Evil is no better than those awful Sc-Fi Channel creature feature films that they make. I liked the idea about the makers of a nature survivalist TV programme getting stuck on an island full of monsters but apart from an excuse to strand several people there the survivalist aspect never comes into play & no-one ever uses any survival skills like building traps or trying to camouflage or tyring to find some secure shelter. No, once the monsters show up there's nothing any more clever or inspired here than 'let's all run & scream'. The opening sequence features a tribe being slaughtered bu something nasty which sets the film up nicely but it takes ages for the action to kick in after that, our TV crew arrive & then spends over an hour just talking & while I don't mind some build-up & scene setting it came to the point where I got really bored with it. At less than 90 minutes long Surviving Evil felt longer as there's only twenty odd minutes of monster action in it, that character's are better than expected with Billy Zane's host Seb coming off as quite likable but he bails well before the end leaving us with two annoying women who scream a lot. The script is also very vague & doesn't make much sense, the guide speaks of these creatures being supernatural somehow & can change shape but during the film they can be killed with spears & behave within the realms of reality apart from when they shape-shift, there's no reason as to why they wait so long to attack the crew or why they waited so long to kill the original tribe & there's a strange climax in which a phone is heard ringing next to a woman who fell down a hole but it was said earlier that there was no signal on the island & so what anyway? I mean is a phone ringing meant to be a twist? It just seemed a very odd way to end the film in the sense to have a phone ring, we don't really know whose phone it was (it could have belonged to any of the crew) or who was calling it & till that point the phone had no significance in the film whatsoever so why that final shot?Besides a muddled story that can't decide if it wants to be a straight creature feature or a supernatural horror film Surviving Evil has some really bad editing going on. The last twenty minutes are full of attacks but the camera jerks around & the sequences are edited so fast it's almost impossible to tell whats going on or see anything, I have never understood this style of film-making with fast editing & shaky camera movements as it just frustrates & I hate it. There are a few decent gore scenes here, there's some mutilated bodies & limbs, a freaky dead skinned baby mutant thing & plenty of blood splatter. Not scary or exciting or fun Surviving Evil takes itself very seriously but feels unfinished somehow. The special effects are pretty good here, although we never see them for more than a quick flash at any one time the creatures look pretty good & the gore effects are all on-set effects rather than CGI. The scenery & locations are nice enough but apart from the creatures the character's never run into any trouble & the terrain is left underused.Although set in the Philippines this was actually shot in South Africa. The acting is better than expected & although Billy Zane is slumming it he's quite likable here.Surviving Evil is a pretty poor creature feature that drifts between styles & inspirations, it's very slow going & the horrible fast editing makes the monster scenes once they begin a real chore to watch. It's just not much fun in any regard. No better than your average crap Sci-Fi Channel creature feature, it just looks a bit better & has a bit more blood in it.