DEMIÀN RUGNA | 2023 | 86 MINS | ARG

Rated R 18+

Something or, more accurately, someone is rotten in the state of Argentina. In this context “rotten” refers to a kind of demonic infection that consumes its host, transforming them into a vessel for evil incarnate.

When brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón) discover that a “rotten” has been festering in a nearby farmhouse — its very proximity poisoning the local livestock — they attempt to evict the victim from their land. Failing to adhere to the proper rites of exorcism, their reckless actions inadvertently trigger an epidemic of possessions across their rural community. Now they must outrun an encroaching evil as it corrupts and mutilates every man, woman, and child it is exposed to, and enlist the aid of a wizened “cleaner,” who holds the only tools that can stop this supernatural plague.

A wildly original take on satanic panic, When Evil Lurks serves up a series of finely tuned scares and grotesque nightmare imagery.