Film Review: Dropping Evil (2012)

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SYNOPSIS:

After his friends slip him LSD on a camping trip, ultra-nerdy Nancy hallucinates that they are evil beings and begins to systematically hunt them down. Meanwhile, a mysterious corporation monitors the entire event for their own hidden purpose.

REVIEW:

Last night I had trouble sleeping. I woke around 3 or 4am. I tried going back to sleep but nothing was working. I knew that I had films to review so I figured I would toss one in the player and maybe I would fall back to sleep if I was bored. I put in the film “Dropping Evil”, one thing for sure, I wasn’t bored. I’m not sure I was even really entertained either. I think it was more of a mixture of intrigue and WTF. As soon as the film started I thought I knew where the film was headed. Maybe ten minutes in, I realized that I was completely wrong and this film was going off in directions I never could have predicted.

 

The film starts simple enough, Mike (Tom Taylor) and Samantha (Rachel Howell) are planning a weekend getaway, with Mike planning it to be just the two of them. Samantha feels sorry for her friend Becky (Cassandra Powell) and wants to bring her along. Mike is against it but Samantha wants him to invite his friend Nancy (Zachary Eli Lint) so they can hook the two of them up. Nancy is a bizarre individual, he tends to spew his extreme religious views at the tiniest things. When they are on the road, he gets to be too much to handle. The girls have the bright idea to feed him some drugs in hopes that it will mellow him out. Well, it doesn’t work and things go south. Becky is also unaware that she has a camera implanted in her eye, sending the live feed to Mr. H (Devin Smith) who has some sort of plan in place.

In a way, “Dropping Evil” takes a familiar formula (much like “Cabin in the Woods”) and turns it upside down. At the same time, there is so much going on that it is almost impossible to keep track of everything that is taking place. The film is very low budget but that ambition and the ability to throw out all conventions is quite refreshing. So, where does that actually leave me? Is it a good film or not? Well, it isn’t bad, it’s different. While it might not always work, the filmmakers go way out of their way to do something different. That is an accomplishment for them, as it is also a positive in my book. It is so easy to rush together carbon copies of other films and call it your own. There is no mistaking that this film is an original.

The acting wasn’t bad, amateurish at times but better than most low budget features. “Dropping Evil” also sports cameos by the likes of the LOVELY Tiffany Shepis (there is a booby shot boys), Armin Shimerman (who many will remember as Principle Snyder from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), and Edwin Neal (from Tobe Hooper’s original “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”). At the end of the film, there is a mock(?) trailer for “Dropping Evil 2” which sports some rather funny scenes with one of my all-time film heroes, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson.

I won’t try to go into detail any more about the plot. The less you know the better. I won’t call this a great film but to ignore it would be an injustice to what director Adam Protextor and writer Louis Doerge tried to create. It’s part horror, part comedy, with a whole lot of experimenting thrown in. The stuff with Mike and the gang is shot in color, the scenes with Mr. H are black and white, there is even loads of stuff shown in a surveillance like format. They mix things up constantly so you never know what will happen next, or what the next shot will look like. If you like things that are effed up, then maybe this film will give you something to think about. I’m still mulling over some things in my head. If it leaves you thinking about it HOURS after viewing it, they must have done something right. ***1/2 (out of 5)

Dropping Evil (2012)