When Evil Lurks: Demian Rugna film is one of the best horror movies Scott Derrickson has ever seen

Terrified director Demian Rugna‘s new horror film When Evil Lurks just received a theatrical release from IFC Films on October 6th, and will heading over to the Shudder streaming service on October 27th. One person who highly recommends that you check it out either on the big screen or at home is Sinister and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, who just named When Evil Lurks as one of his top two favorite movies of the year during an interview on the The Discourse podcast.

Derrickson said (as reported by The Playlist), “I think Barbie is the best film I’ve seen this year—well, maybe that’s not true; I saw this horror film, When Evil Lurks at Fantastic Fest, but Barbie and When Evil Lurks those are my two favorite films of the year, which couldn’t be further away from each other.” Derrickson went on to talk about why he thinks Barbie should win Best Picture this year, but at least When Evil Lurks got to be part of the conversation, with Derrickson calling it one of the best horror movies he has ever seen. “It’s as hardcore, transgressive, shocking, and violent as a horror film can be. But it’s not gratuitous, in the sense of everything that’s in there is serving the severity of the story. What’s amazing about it is that I cannot think of another time in my adult life, post-film education, post-horror-knowledge—I can’t think of the last time I saw a horror film where I had no feelings of references to other films. It didn’t remind me of anything else, and it was just so utterly original, and its mythology is scarier than any Christian demonology I’ve seen on screen.“

According to Variety, When Evil Lurks deals with “timeless horror concepts” while “adding contemporary twists”. Scripted by Rugna, 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.

Ezequiel Rodríguez, Demián Salomón, Silvina Sabater, Virginia Garofalo, Paula Rubinsztein, and Luis Dziembrowski star.

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

Derrickson is doing the press rounds because he directed a segment of the horror anthology V/H/S/85, which is already available to watch on the Shudder streaming service. His segment includes a nod to another film he made, The Black Phone.

Does Derrickson’s opinion on When Evil Lurks make you more likely to watch the movie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.