Recently I came into possession of a package marked "CONFIDENTIAL" and bearing a return address referencing a USDOJ field office. The contents of said package was a DVD also marked confidential and with the imprint of the FBI along with a letter from the FBI that speaks of an unsolved missing persons case. Apparently five friends left New York City for a weekend in the Catskills and disappeared without a trace. It also mentions a videotape that was delivered anonymously to FBI offices in Washington, DC. That tape has been encoded to DVD and is the only evidence in the case. The hope is that anyone watching the disk may be able to provide more details/clues as to what may have happened to the missing.
Pretty clever marketing for a low budget film, don't you think? It is more than just adding in a press release or some other related piece of fluff. This goes that extra mile and chooses not to add to fluff but to add further context to the film. Sure, few people will ever actually see it, but I still like it.
Evil Things is a short feature that runs a scant 75 minutes. It proves to be the right length — any longer and it would have been stretched past the point of no return. As it is, the biggest complaint I have about it is that it feels a tad long with too little actually happening.
The film has elements reminiscent of Spielberg's debut Duel as well as the likes of Jeepers Creepers, Blair Witch Project, and Paranormal Activity. It is not an original film by any stretch, but it is a well executed low-budget thriller that wants to be the slasher response to Paranormal Activity (well, not really, as I think their productions were pretty close to each other).
We open with the friends getting together to leave the city and head north. One of them has just gotten a new camera and is dead set on recording everything on their weekend getaway. Well, off they go, into the snowy Catskills of New York. The trip is a slow one as road conditions are pretty poor. I guess the production lucked out by having heavy snow to work with their story. This is where the fun begins.
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