Evangeline
The Soul Collector

Canada 2013
produced by
Karen Wong, Karen Lam for Opiate Pictures
directed by Karen Lam
starring Kat de Lieva, Richard Harmon, Mayumi Yoshida, David Lewis, Kelvin Redvers, John Shaw, Nelson Leis, Dejan Loyola, Madison Smith, Anthony Shim, Natalie Grace, Ella Kosor, Lucy Harvey, Rikki Gagne, Larissa Albuquerque, Amelia Smart, Tyson Bellusci, Michelle Creber (voice)
written by Karen Lam, music by Patric Caird, songs by Didges Christ SuperDrum, David Ogilvie, special effects by Brant McIlroy, visual effects by Liubomir Savov, Svetoslav Savov/Dreamcatcher, stunt coordination by Chad Sayn, Colby Chartrand

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Evangeline (Kat de Lieva) is a sweet, shy, God-fearing and a tad naive girl for whom college life (including living in a dorm) means a whole new way of life - including partying, copious amounts of alcohol, and deadly hangovers the next day ... and it's just her luck that Shannon (Mayumi Yoshida), her roommate and an experienced party girl, is always there to look after her.

Then though, Evangeline meets Mr Nice Guy, Konner (Richard Harmon), who invites her to his shack deep in the woods, has deep conversations with her ... then drugs her, invited his friends to chase her through the woods a bit, and when the three of them capture her, they gleefully kill her.

Something (and that something's probably supernatural) though makes that Evangeline doesn't stay dead, and eventually Billy (Kelvin Redvers), who's on a camping trip, finds her, but in a desperate state: She's visually deeply traumatized and unable to speak. Billy decides to take care of her on the spot, but then his friend and fellow camper Dee (Nelson Leis) tries to rape her. Billy manages to prevent that and fight Dee to a standstill ... but Evangeline makes a desperate escape - and runs right into the arms of a brutal serialkiller (David Lewis), who doesn't take long to take her out, drag her deep into the woods and rape her. But while he's at it, whatever possessed Evangeline when she almost died takes over, and she brutally slaughters her assailant, then goes after the others who have wronged her with a vengeance. But while she meets most of them unprepared, the advantage of surprise is not given with Konner, who, when his friends fall one by one, manages to figure who might be behind all of this and get ready for her  ...

While the basic premise of Evangeline might not be the most original ever, the movie definitely manages to convince in terms of approach, not going for a mere display of violence (and there's plenty in this movie) but also taking a trip inside Evangeline's head, showing the demon inside her gradually break free while the outside world gets darker and darker still ... but that's not to say the film's an abstract mindtrip, it's actually a fast-paced and action-packed piece of genre cinema - but one that also manages to create its own little parallel world in which not everything is explained away through words but transmits the idea via atmospheric, inventive filmmaking. And add to this a bunch of compelling performances and powerful setpieces, and you've got yourself a pretty good genre movie!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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