EVIL THINGS

A blog called «Bad Things» has launched a contest in which users are asked to upload videos in which they commit reprehensible acts. Those who receive the most votes will win and be summoned by the Master, the mysterious curator of the blog, to receive a prize. There are four who win the «Bad Things» contest: Nina, who swallowed a tapeworm, Nick, who set fire to a homeless person, Cristian, who, with his hacking skills, had an innocent acquaintance arrested for pedophilia, and Julia, who had oral sex performed on her by a girl with mental problems. The four winners have been summoned to a house located in a small village in northern Italy, but they will soon realize that they are part of a much larger and more dangerous game than they expected. How many times have we read in the crime pages about pranks or, worse, crimes whose videos then ended up on the web or would have ended up there according to the intentions of the perpetrators? Well, news of the day, with videos of abuse and cruelty towards things and people deliberately uploaded to the Internet and then shared on social networks as a form of boasting. In a hyperconnected society like ours, it is the dark side of the coin, the price to pay to enjoy the conveniences of the network, which is inevitably at the disposal of the bad apples of society. The film «Evil Things » «Bad Things», directorial debut of actor Simone Gandolfo («R.I.S. » «Imperfect Crimes»), starts from this premise developing around the theme of «user generated contents» of incorrect nature a horror that aspires to impose itself on the international market. The premises are praiseworthy and the subject is also quite innovative, pity that the film is absolutely not up to expectations and is ruined by a clumsy screenplay, non-existent rhythm and « incredibly » by a worrying halo of déjà vu that permeates the entire work. «Evil Things» is the production debut of Inside, a production company founded by actor Luca Argentero, who, with just over 100,000 euros, decides to bet on horror as an exportable genre. Intelligent assumption, given the consensus that these films generally have abroad as opposed to the «usual» genres practiced in Italy, but «Evil Things» arrives late, showing itself as a clone out of time of the torture-porn of «Saw». The types of characters, the behavioral mechanics between them, the moralistic killer, his way of acting and interacting with the victims, his way of revealing himself and communicating, as well as the traps/tortures he puts in place, are all things taken directly from the long saga of the Enigmista, without any innovation. The new idea is just in the use of the web and in the choice of the characters to go voluntarily to their executioner… that's all, otherwise the same trite and hackneyed torture porn as we have seen a lot of in the last ten years. On the contrary, unlike the canonical torture porn, here one is even too chaste in terms of violence, leaving the «bad things» all off-screen. There is also the «overvolted» public of the blog that follows live the misdeeds of the reckless Master, just as it happened in the proto-torture porn and precursor of all modern reality horrors «My Little Eye». But beyond the total lack of originality, «Evil Things» also suffers from a screenplay « written by Gandolfo himself with Debora Alessi « that features banal characters who say and do banal things. For the series, the protagonists are bad boys? Well, they will behave like bad boys from the beginning to the end, showing competition and mutual antipathies, even in moments of danger where anyone would at least have collaborated against the common evil. Then the rural element and the focus on the village context are not clear, since it seems that in the village everyone is hiding a secret and is mostly populated by madmen. Only that this element, introduced several times, is never developed, leaving the viewer in doubt as to what the authors wanted to say about it. Predictable the identity of the Master who hides behind a (beautiful) mask, which however clumsily lets you guess the physiognomy of the actor who wears it, canceling what should be one of the final surprises for the viewer. Gandolfo's direction is modern and lively, supported also by a photographic choice turned in gray certainly spot on. Unfortunately, the film lacks, however, a real narrative rhythm, with the consequence that it is also a bit boring and the duration seems much longer than the actual 95 minutes. Good the contribution of the actors, all quite convincing, especially Jennifer Mischiati and the new Italian scream queen Marta Gastini, already seen in «Il Rito» and in «Dracula» by Dario Argento, here engaged in the role of the protagonist Nina. Unconvincing ending with additional scene after the credits that turns out to be incomprehensible and ridiculous.