Taking something extraordinary and making it very ordinary can be the inspiration for great comedy. Look at Ghostbusters if you don’t believe me: it’s a film about super-scientists who have proven the existence of life after death and pagan gods, but who cannot pay their mortgage unless they adapt those world-changing discoveries into a blue-collar pest control service.
Carson D. Mell’s Another Evil works very much the same way, in principle at any rate. It’s the story of a modern artist named Dan (Steve Zissis) who discovers that his vacation home is haunted. Dan doesn’t believe the first paranormal investigator he hires, who insists that ghosts are benevolent, so he decides to turn a small household infestation into an excuse to exert his masculine dominance – in a lifestyle where he otherwise has few opportunities – and he hires a second ghost hunter who tells him what exactly he wants to hear: that the ghosts are dangerous, he was right to be concerned, and now they must be destroyed.
So Dan and his new paranormal exterminator Os (Mark Proksch) venture up to the isolated dwelling, and hang out for the weekend. Another Evil is not a film that is overflowing with incident. And that should be just fine if you think about it since Mell’s story is about banality and stifled male confidence. Dan can’t stand up for himself and Os, who was already a little odd to begin with, is suffering from a really terrible break up and may now be losing his mind entirely. Os doesn’t want a client, he wants a friend, and that may be why he doesn’t want to leave. At all. Ever.
Also: SXSW 2016 Exclusive | See The Gory Poster for ‘Another Evil’
The problem with Another Evil isn’t in the concept, it’s in the execution. Zissis and Proksch are giving fine performances but the filmmaking emphasizes their plight and downplays their situation. It’s a horror-comedy without much horror or comedy, because the seriousness of the protagonists’ baggage saps away most of the humor, and the laid back filmmaking undercuts any opportunity for scares.
Another Evil was probably never going to be a terrifying tale of the supernatural but it could at least have acknowledged that there was some entertainment value to be had in having ghosts in your movie. It adds too much ho-hum to the hocus pocus, so now there’s nothing magical about it except for the performances, which never get stand out the way they should because the movie never provides them with a dramatic, comedic or horrifying counterpoint.
I wish I could say Another Evil was an interesting experiment in genre-bending or at least in tone, but it’s just not terribly interesting. Mark Proksch almost transforms the film into something noteworthy based on his unhinged and pathetic performance alone, but everything else is working against him. It’s an interesting experiment that failed to have an interesting result. Another Evil is mostly another disappointment.
Top Photo: Memory
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
10 Movies You Need To See at SXSW 2016:
10 SXSW 2016 Movies You Need To See
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Beware the Slenderman
Irene Taylor Brodsky directs a documentary feature about the curious internet phenomenon of The Slenderman, an internet meme created in 2009... and the two girls who committed murder for him.
Image: HBO
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Born to be Blue
In Robert Budreau's new biopic, Ethan Hawke plays the turbulent jazz genius Chet Baker.
Image: IFC Films
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Collective:unconscious
A collective of five indie filmmakers take turns adapting one another's dreams to film.
Image: SXSW
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Everybody Wants Some
Richard Linlater's love story to the fashions and joys of youth in the early 1980s is being credited as a "spitirual sequel" to his Dazed and Confused.
Image: Paramount
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In a Valley of Violence
A town of oddballs become the site of a revenge plot. Ethan Hawke stars, and indie horror master Ti West directs.
Image: Focus World
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Karaoke Crazies
A bizarre-looking Korean musical about a failing karaoke house, the video game addict girl that saves it, and a serial killer on the loose.
Image: SXSW
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Pee-wee's Big Holiday
The decades-anticipated follow-up to Big-Top Pee-wee follows our eponymous manchild on his first-ever vacation.
Image: Netflix
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Phantasm REMASTERED
The 1979 cult classic starring a tall mortician and a bevvy of interdimensional imps has been meticulously restored by J.J. Abrams. This may be your only chance to see it on the big screen.
Image: AVCO Embassy
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The Liberators
A documentary film by Cassie Hay, The Liberators is about the investigation behind a clutch of missing Nazi gold, and its ultimate discovery in a small Texas town.
Image: SXSW
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Doug Benson interrupts Leprechaun 4
Comedian Doug Benson has an ongoing cinematic series wherein he controls when a film stops and starts so that he may give his own hilarious commentary. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, he will be interrupting Brian Trenchard-Smith's amazing weird-fest Leprechaun 4: In Space.
Image: TriMark
