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| Brink DVD (USA). All Regions, NTSC. 1.78:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 2.0. 90 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Chris Conlee
Starring: Guillermo Díaz, James Duval, Eric Peter-Kaiser, Jonathan Breck, Sandra Ramirez, Tim Colceri, Nathan Bexton
Screenplay: Brian Patrick O'Toole
Country: Japan |
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I really enjoyed Cemetery Gates for it's over the top, satirical elements. I was looking forward to Evilution because it had the same writer, but unfortunately Evilution lacks most of the ridiculousness that made Cemetery Gates so charming.
Don't read the synopsis on the back as it gives a way too much information. Instead, read this: Evilution starts with an attack at a military base filmed in the frantic style that's been all the rage since 28 Days Later. Then a man claiming to be a teacher moves into a dilapidated flat, but if you're paying attention you will realise that his claimed profession is a lie because he's a survivor of the aforementioned attack. He's also smuggled something mysterious off the base to experiment on. He starts having trouble with some would-be thugs who used to hang in his empty flat. It's a bit love/hate with the guys for awhile, but when one is gunned down, our hero does a Herbert West and saves him. Too bad for everyone in the building our hero forgets rule number 1 of re-agents: Supervise the dead or dying. Soon there is a plague spreading in his building, but it's not quite what you might think.
Because Evilution is tongue in cheek, some of the logic lapses can be forgiven, but the satirical elements aren't as pronounced as in Cemetery Gates, so Evilution often just feels like a low rent 28 Days Later merged with Quarantine. Until the finale, where our hero makes an extremely odd decision about how to stop the spread of contamination, there just isn't enough satire to keep the film from being bogged down by fairly routine proceedings. Evilution takes a while to get going, and the bad CG and a really, really bad musical interlude kept the film from fully regaining my attention once the action started.
This may sound petty, but Evilution also makes the fatal mistake of casting a lead actress who doesn't get naked despite being in a sex scene. I'm fine with a film shying away from nudity for artistic reasons (though an artist of any calibre would know some nudity is always better than no nudity) but Evilution has a gratuitous nudity interlude, so that's not what was going on. I can accept casting someone in a film who won't do nudity in order to get a better performance to help viewers suspend their disbelief, but if someone is cast who can't act and won't get their kit off, it's really silly. Particularly if her character has a sex scene!
I had high hopes, but there's nothing much to see here. |
| Video |
| The film is clean and looks sharp, but at times also looks a bit video. It's new, and looks it. |
| Audio |
| Don't believe the 5.1 claim on the slick, the film is presented in 2.0. For a 2.0 mix it was fine, but the film would've benefited from a 5.1 mix because there are a few opportunities for things to come at the viewer from different directions. |
| Extra Features |
| The DVD includes the trailer, a trailer for Basement Jack (if you click BrinkDVD), a 20 minute making of, and a commentary. The making of needed to have the sound remastered, as the volume can leap around depending on who's being interviewed. There are a few points of interest, like the involvement on the stunt team of the first female to receive a lifetime stunt achievement award. For those that like their horror more supernatural, there's also some info on how the set was supposedly haunted. The commentary is with director Chris Conlee, star and producer Eric Peter-Kaiser and our fully clothed female lead Sandra Ramirez. I didn't find this track that interesting, but I did like some of the stories about low-budget filmmaking innovations. The lack of nudity from Sandra is mentioned, and she says she might get naked next time. This leads me to believe the director was derelict in his duties and should've talked to her about this BEFORE he started filming, not while doing the DVD commentary. |
| The Verdict |
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Unless you love these new style of faux-zombie movies, there's not much to recommend Evilution on. It's not poorly made, and manages to look slick despite budget limitations, but with so many movies available that are begging your attention, that's not enough.
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Believe me, Sandra and I did have the conversation before the movie started. Unfortunately, she was under contract to Disney at the time for a possible upcoming role, and she didnt' want to jeopardize that. I couldn't argue with that. But we did get some T&A in to make the quota.