Dustin Putman
 TheFilmFile
 TheFrightFile
 This Year
 Archives
 Articles
 Book
 About
 Dedication

Reviews by Title
ABCD
EFGH
IJKL
MNOP
QRST
UVWX
 YZ 

Reviews by Year
2024
20232022
20212020
20192018
20172016
20152014
20132012
20112010
20092008
20072006
20052004
20032002
20012000
19991998
1997 & previous

Reviews by Rating
4 Star Reviews
3.5 Star Reviews
3 Star Reviews
2.5 Star Reviews
2 Star Reviews
1.5 Star Reviews
1 Star Reviews
0.5 Star Reviews
Zero Star Reviews
A
Haunted Sideshow
Production

©1998–2024
Dustin Putman



Dustin's Review

Capsule Review
Malevolence  (2004)
3 Stars
Directed by Stevan Mena.
Cast: Samantha Dark, Courtney Bertolone, Brandon Johnson, Heather Magee, Richard Glover, John Richard Ingram, Keith Chambers, Kevin McKelvey, Lenn Gross, Pamela Marie Guida, Jay Cohen.
2004 – 86 minutes
Rated: Rated R (for strong violence and language).
Reviewed by Dustin Putman, February 22, 2011.

Sheriff Riley:
Better call your missing persons bureau.
Tell 'em - we got a lot of unhappy endings up here for 'em.


Anyone who is more than passingly familiar with 1974's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and 1978's "Halloween" will see these two horror classics' undeniable imprint all over "Malevolence." Treating his movie as homage while cementing why those pictures—and, by extension, this one—are so nerve-janglingly effective, writer-director-editor-composer Stevan Mena has crafted a low-budget, underseen genre gem that makes up for occasionally stilted dialogue and unpolished acting with a remarkable visual sense and skillful command of building tension. A bank robbery gone bad on the outskirts of Minsersville, Pennsylvania, is the catalyst for three criminals—along with their two hostages, mother Samantha Harrison (Samantha Dark) and teenage daughter Courtney (Courtney Bertolone)—to regroup and hide out in a rural farmhouse. Unfortunately for all involved, ominously standing beside the property is the shut-down Sutter Meat and Poultry plant where a psychologically disturbed killer, himself a kidnap victim ten years earlier, resides.

"Malevolence" takes its time setting up the multiple plot threads, then delivers the goods in alarming, scary ways that pay loving tribute to beloved slasher efforts of old. The burlap sack-wearing killer harkens back to 1981's "Friday the 13th Part 2," the stark, grimy, lonesome setting reminds of Leatherface's lair, and the elegant cinematography and music score, complete with jumpy electronic stingers, are an atmospheric ode to John Carpenter's seminal Michael Myers opus. The characters are by and large disposable types, but that hardly matters once director Stevan Mena starts unpacking his bag of suspense-laden tricks upon his audience.

© 2011 by Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman