Malevolence Director: Stevan Mena Anchor Bay 2004 We've got to hide. Where? How bout in Bumfuck? Add a blood-soaked potato sack mask, cracked-out synth effects, and here we've got Stevan Mena's throwback to the roots of '70s & '80s slasher flicks. Now, when one works with essentially derivative material, there is a precarious straddle between homage and rip-off, but paying respect is better when the references and allusions are obscure and hard to notice - not squirted right in your eye like blood out a stab wound. Damn, that's sticky syrup. Are you copacetic with the idea of Mena grinding up all Friday the 13 ths and Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre and pouring it into one of those big colostomy bags you've seen firsthand if you've ever had a crush on a girl at Taco Bell? The production is simple. The plot is contorted. And every slasher movie requires you to not expect much. It's cheap and trashy but so are Bumfuck and sorority girls. When a dead man falling out of a closet makes people applaud you know you're not making the right impact with your picture. SAVE the horror genre by keeping all these Van Wilders from remaking the classics, and place Malevolence above any of these "updates" that make their originals high-gloss by comparison. This is a lazy stab at making you twinge, but it squeezes new blood from a genre that Scream lapped up like an overqualified janitor. But oh, who's got the butcher knife now? Admire the onslaught; it comes when you feel most comfortable, and real-deal midnight shows likes this cheapo are history alongside horror-fan attics like "Monster Vision" and "Tales From the Crypt." -Sam Lockhart Back Next