When Evil Lurks – Second Sight Films 4K UHD Review
Just when you think you’ve seen every version of the possession movie, Demián Rugna kicks in the door and lets a plague of rot, pus and soul-rending despair ooze all over your expectations. This isn’t your typical exorcist flick. It’s unhinged, relentless and mean as hell. In the best way.
And now it gets the full Second Sight treatment: stunning 4K restoration, stacked extras and a beautiful collector’s edition that we’ve come to love from them.
Set in rural Argentina, When Evil Lurks wastes no time. Two brothers stumble across a demonic infection (yep, that’s a thing now), growing inside a bloated, wheezing host known as a Rotten. This film isn’t subtle. There are dogs, goats, children all turned into vessels of violence. Nothing is sacred, if The Exorcist was a sermon, this is a shotgun blast to the chest “God is dead”.
The plot escalates fast and the rules of this world are laid out vaguely but in the most brutal ways possible. You don’t get lengthy exposition or theological debates you get livestock daring people to shoot them, children turned into weapons, and general panic infecting everyone it touches. There’s a sense of hopeless momentum, like everything is always too late. Rugna isn’t interested in safety nets.
Tonally, this lands somewhere between The Wailing, The Sadness, and Threads. It’s about the spread of evil, but also the collapse of community, faith and family when the systems meant to protect us are already broken.
Performance-wise, Ezequiel Rodríguez and Demián Salomón carry the film well especially as they slowly realise they’re not the heroes of this story. The dread builds not because they fight back, but because you realise they can’t win. You’ll want to yell at the screen, but you also know it wouldn’t help. Nobody in this film listens. They all just shout at each other and ignore all warnings.
There’s something rare about a horror film this bleak that still feels vital. It’s not wallowing in nihilism for the sake of it. Rugna has a very specific kind of horror in mind: one that spreads like wildfire, doesn’t care what you believe and leaves you with nothing.
And yeah, it’s really fu**ing good.
Visually, the 4K presentation retains the film’s gritty, lo-fi aesthetic but sharpens the details where it counts. Facial textures, practical gore, in all those lovely (horrible) close-ups of rot, snot and carnage you can see every inch of it in unsettling clarity. There’s proper depth to the shadows and making the sickly daylight scenes almost too real. The colour grade walks that fine line: natural but still grimy.
The audio mix is excellent. Presented in Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, the soundscape is subtle until it isn’t, then it’s chaos in a good way. The score is great in this film.
The English subtitles are really clear and legible.
“Evil Likes children and children like evil”
Special Features
As always, Second Sight has curated a set of extras that feel more like a film studies course than just bonus fluff.
Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs
UHD presented in HDR with Dolby Vision produced by Second Sight Films
New audio commentary by Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodriguez – This audio commentary by author of books such as The Migration and Politics of Monsters in Latin American Cinema and Baroque Aesthetics in Contemporary American Horror is a slow, meandering audio commentary that is a bit of a drudge to get through as Gabriel has a very thick accented voice and of course English isn’t his native language. He wasn’t involved in the making of the film so it’s all just anecdotal and opinion. Good and a nice to have but not really a great commentary for me.
It Was Always There: a new interview with director Demián Rugna – In this 27 minute interview shot with a rotten in the background (no seriously) Demián discusses everything from his beginnings and inspirations to the problems he faced getting the film made. Really clear subtitles and this is a really interesting watch, with lots of insight into the film, where the ideas came from and how it was made.
Tragedy is Inevitable: a new interview with actor Ezequiel Rodríguez –23 minute interview with Ezequiel who plays Pedro in the film. Again shot in the Rotten room. Interesting talk from him on the making of the film, how he approached the project and essentially that insight into the making of from the actors point of view that we all like.
We Made a Movie: a new interview with actor Demián Salomón – 17 minutes, sticking with Second Sight’s thing of making each interview shorter than the last 🙂 This is Demián who plays Pedro’s brother Jimi in the film. Another interesting look into the process. Great interview and I’m sure that rotten’s moved…
Stripped to the Bone: a new interview with actor Virginia Garófalo – Messing with my rules a bit now this 18 minutes with Virginia who plays Sabrina, Pedro’s ex, in the film. She reminds me of Shelley Duvall. She starts off speaking so fast it was just a buzz of consonants, but slows down. Another great look at the process, and different from the others which is great as we see the different takes people have and how they approach roles in their own fashion. That Rotten’s definitely moved… Hasn’t it?
Terror and the Unknown in When Evil Lurks: a video essay by Mike Muncer – O.K.if you’ve read any of my reviews you know I don’t really like these “read my thesis” extras. To be honest, they may be growing on me a little but this one at 8 minutes is perfectly acceptable. Mike has a good take on the movie as well as discussing Terrified, Rung’s previous film and might make you think about this film differently on a rewatch. That’s probably the point of these essays isn’t it? A nice addition to the disc anyway.
There’s real meat on these bones everything adds insight, context or extra horror to sink your teeth into. It’ll probably make you want to watch Terrified too if you haven’t already.
Packaging & Limited Edition Contents
Second Sight’s When Evil Lurks limited edition set includes:
Rigid slipcase with commissioned new artwork
70-page softcover book with new essays by Jon Towlson, Anton Bitel, and Mary Beth McAndrews
6 art cards
Reversible sleeve artwork
This is uncompromising, inventive horror that dares to go further than most films would even consider. There’s no room for hope, no easy answers and no catharsis just chaos. And it works.
Second Sight’s 4K UHD release is the definitive way to experience it. Between the incredible picture and audio quality and the thoughtful extras, this is a must-own for any serious horror collector.
Just don’t watch it with pets in the room. Seriously.
When Evil Lurks is available as a limited edition 4K & Blu-ray box set from Second Sight Films from Monday 28th July 2025. Buy it now, if you dare.
