When Evil Lurks: Terrified director Demian Rugna teams with Shudder for new film

Production on Terrified director Demian Rugna‘s new horror film When Evil Lurks isn’t expected to begin until March, but the project has already secured an international distribution deal with Shudder, the streaming service that brought Terrified to its subscribers in the US, Canada, and the UK. Shudder’s Emily Gotto provided the following statement:

When Evil Lurks has an incredible script and one we are excited to be partners on from this early stage as a Shudder Original Production.”

According to Variety, When Evil Lurks will deal with “timeless horror concepts” while “adding contemporary twists”. The story plays out

in a remote village where two brothers find a demon-infected man just about to give birth to evil itself. In a time when exorcism looks to be of little use to ward off evil, after warning the neighbors in town, they decide to get rid of the man but merely succeed in helping him to deliver the inferno.

Rugna had this to say about his new film:

When Evil Lurks will be a double challenge for me and the viewer – complex to stage and also very stark for anyone who watches it. I needed to leave the scheme of a contained production to break with everything. This movie will be my relief, a release of disturbing images that have been accumulating in my head over the years like a pressure cooker.”

Fernando Díaz’s Machaco Films, Roxana Ramos’s Aramos Cine, and Agustina Chiarino and Fernando Epstein of Mutante are co-producing the film. When Evil Lurks will mark the first production for the La Puerta Roja label, a joint venture partnership between Machaco and Aramos.

Díaz said,

We’re trying to tell a macabre story with an extremely oppressive and realistic atmosphere, but with a frantic rhythm, without abandoning a strong narrative. A genuine universe that re-signifies the tales of evil and curses; a rural environment on a monotonous plain, interrupted by a series of images and extremely lurid sequences.”

Terrified was quite disturbing, so I look forward to seeing what Rugna is going to do with When Evil Lurks.