THIS MONTH
WHEN EVIL LURKS
LEGENDARY AUTHOR AND CRITIC
KIM NEWMAN
BRINGS US HIS UNIQUE TAKES ON CULT CINEMA
MATTHEW BRAZIER
Alamy
IN 2023, I SERVED on the jury at the Sitges Festival in Spain, which is to fantasy and horror what Cannes is to regular movies. That involved two weeks of screenings, from early in the morning — I saw Poor Things at 7 am — to very late at night… and a downside to that regimen is fear fatigue. Even the most extreme and peculiar films have a hard time getting past the eyeballs and registering on the brain. We saw many excellent films which are only now percolating to UK distribution, but awarded the top prize to Argentine writer-director Demián Rugna’s Cuando Acecha La Maldad — aka When Evil Lurks. It’s now out on a special edition, bells-and-whistles Blu-ray that should be a cornerstone of your contemporary-horror collection. Even after days of top-notch terror, When Evil Lurks shook up your jaded jurors. Imagine how it plays to civilians.