Tags:
Film: Day of the Wicked
Year: 2024
Director: Brent Cousins and Blake Cousins
Writer: Brent Cousins and Blake Cousins
Starring: Gabe Hernandez, Chelsea J. Schaffer and Jean-Louis Goff
Review:
This was a film that I got the chance to see thanks to Wild Eye Releasing who sent over a screener copy. What intrigued me was that they were dubbing this as the Hawaiian Evil Dead. It isn’t as polished as those, even the original, but there are elements that fit. Other than that, I came into this one blind, figuring that it was low budget.
Synopsis: a victim of workplace bullying seeks vengeance against his tormentors using ancient and sinister forces, unwittingly triggering the opening of a demonic gateway that unleashes chaos and destruction upon the world.
We start this with John Jones (Gabe Hernandez) hitchhiking. He gets a ride to what looks like the main road. It is here that he makes a call, leaving a voicemail to his ex-wife. She cheated on him, but he blames himself for not giving her the life she deserved. He tells her that he’s secured a job and will make things up to her. This is a good way to show that he has low self-esteem and worth. He then spends the night at the worksite, which is an old, abandoned school. It is here that in the principal’s office he finds the Necronomicon.
It then shifts us to introduce the rest of the cast. John is a contractor. He works with Orlando (Orlando Smith) and Trent (Trent Carrier). The supervisor is Brian (Bryan Gazaui). He is leery about hiring John, but his partner thinks that he is just a guy down on his luck who does good work. There is also Chelsea (Chelsea J. Schaffer) who works at a local fruit stand but is also helping with this cleanup job.
Something to point out is that John stayed at this site for 2 weeks, before the job started. He has been reading from the book and it changed him. He’s also visited by a strange man named Kane (Jean-Louis Goff). There is more to this odd man that we’ll learn about later. When the other workers show up to the site, they find John to be weird. Orlando just wants to get to work and get it done, since it is a Saturday. Trent is hungover and sees this place as a lost cause. This upsets John.
The last thing is that there is a professor, played by Guy Pohlman, and his assistant Asteria (Apolla Asteria), are researching Necronomicon. He believes that he’s translated it. Things are lining up to the prophecy and it seems that things that Kane did decades ago might have been part of the ritual. They try to undo what is in motion before it is too late.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. While watching this, I could see different inspirations for our co-writers/directors of the Cousins Brothers. There are nods here to The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and I’d even include H.P. Lovecraft. Those were obvious with having this isolated location where demons awaken and take people over. I’d even say that we have Poltergeist 2 with Kane. They look similar and they share the same name. It was when I was writing this that it feels like they’re borrowing from Session 9 as well with cleaning up this place that feels like a lost cause. Just observations that I wanted to start with.
Where I’ll then go is what worked for me. This isolated location is good. It isn’t necessarily easy to get to and takes time to get home. We have a decent size cast, which is solid as well. I like that we have characters introduced then as they turn, more show up. That happens when Cameron (Cameron Cousins) delivers a package, the sheriff who is played by Doc Skinner comes to look for the boy and then you have JT (Jameson Lucky) with Brian. Chelsea goes back and forth, which confused me slightly. There are other things like this that are an issue. I’ll come back to that.
Another thing that I liked was the backstory. We have Kane who was messing with forces that were greater than him. He oversaw this school before 35 children went missing. The building then fell into disrepair. That explains why the Necronomicon was still here. Having the professor and his assistant fill in parts of the backstory was good. A major plot point is that they say Kane got away with what he did because they never found the bodies of the children. Then the sheriff finds a large cemetery, which looks to be right behind the building. I think better writing cleans this up.
Something else that I enjoyed was the practical effects. There are these creepy masks when people have turned that I liked. If there was more of it, it would go farther. We do also get these giant hands and faces within this building. This signifies the demons that are getting released. I even like that John does a ritual where this mask possesses people who breathe from it. I’ll also say that the cinematography and framing help here. The issue is that this uses too much CGI and it doesn’t hold up. That did hurt this for me since it took me out of buying in. I did enjoy the commentary on bullying which pushes John to what happens. The pacing isn’t here though as we go back and forth with John wavering that I also lost interest.
Let’s then shift over to talking about the acting. This is an amateur production so I’m not going to harp too much. Hernandez is fine as our lead character. What I like is that he’s odd from the start and he just gets weirder as the book takes him over. Chelsea wants to help him and Orlando just wants him to do his job. That worked for me to be honest. Smith is fine in this role. He is a tall guy so when he becomes possessed, it is scarier. Carrier is fine as this jerk co-worker who is out to make John’s life hell. Schaffer is attractive. They don’t do much to fully flesh out her character in my opinion. Asteria is cute as well. I did like her and Pohlman to fill in the backstory. Goff has a good look as this villain, even if he’s ripped from another movie. I’d say other than that, Skinner, Lucky, Cousins and Gazaui were fine along with the rest of the cast.
In conclusion, there are good things here. The problem is that they either aren’t developed or they don’t get used properly. I like setting this in this isolated, rundown building. Then having a character being taken over by this cursed book, using it to get revenge on bullying is fine. The acting is amateur but fits a production like this. There are even good practical effects. My problem is that the CGI is bad. This is also just boring to me which isn’t good for a movie around 90 minutes. Won’t be for everyone, but if you like to support independent cinema that wears its inspirations on its sleeve, this is for you.
My Rating: 3 out of 10