All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

#4 – WHEN EVIL LURKS (aka CUANDO ACECHA LA MALDAD, 2023)
Released on October 27, 2024, and is streaming on Shudder from IFC Films!
Directed/Written by Demián Rugna.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/YrTnV6gNzno
When a possessed man is found in an impoverished farmhouse, a pair of brothers Pedro and Jimi (played by Ezequiel Rodríguez and Demián Salomón, respectively) try to dispose of the body outside of their homeland but end up losing the body along the way. Believing that they have gone far enough to remove the rotten or cursed body, they return home to find out that the demon infestation has followed them. Attempting to save his children, Perdo and Jimi race to evade the pervasive infestation that relentlessly follows them.

Demain Rugna delivered a horrifying inter-dimensional ghost story with his previous film TERRIFIED and follows it up with something even more terrifying to endure. From the very beginning of WHEN EVIL LURKS there is a pervasive sense of ultimate dread. Reminiscent of Bryan Bertino’s THE DARK AND THE WICKED, Rugna delivers a film that makes you feel like you are crawling through the mire of the worst of human desperation. At times it is a somewhat lighthearted farce as Perdo and Jimi make all sorts of mistakes in trying to rid their village of the evil, bumbling through one muck up after another. These two protagonists are not the sharpest pitchforks in the barn. It’s sort of a comedy of errors at the beginnings but because those afflicted with the evil look so horrifying, do such heinous things and the situation is so dire, it is hard to laugh.

Much like TERRIFIED, which was sort of one story, but could easily be the tale of three different experiences going on in three different haunted houses, so it plays out like an anthology of sorts, WHEN EVIL LURKS consists of one terrifying sequence stacked heaped over another with growing intensity. Each one involves the way this demonic plague spreads throughout the countryside. Some are foreboding, such as the scene of the farmer discovering one of his sheep to be possessed and some are downright shocking as with the most memorable scene of the film involving the family dog and a small child. No matter if it is a bombastic or whispering shock, WHEN EVIL LURKS is ridden with one effective scene after another involving disturbing violence and palpable dread.

Adding to the horror are some gnarly scenes of gore and disturbing imagery. The initial possessed man is reminiscent of the gluttony corpse from SE7EN, overweight and riddled with sores so much to the point where he can hardly move. It’s a terrifying sight and one of the most gruesome takeaways. But that’s just the beginning of the wonderful blood and gore effects on display throughout the rest of the movie. Some are subtle things, like mounds of hair being pulled from someone’s throat, while others are more in your face like a possessed woman chewing on the body of her child while walking down a dark road. All of them chilling and offering up gore you might have seen before, but never this harrowing.

The two leads, Ezequiel Rodríguez and Demián Salomón, present a wonderful ground-level way of experiencing these horrors. They know very little about this demonic plague, so they come into it with inexperience and ignorance. This forces other characters in the know, like a local bruja, to explain the seven rules to dealing with these demons known as the rotten. These rules; 1) Do not use electric lights; the shadows they cast draw them in. 2) Stay away from animals. 3) Do them no harm. 4) Take nothing close to them; they’re attached to it. 5) Never say Devil’s name; that calls them. 6) Never use a gun; you’ll die yourself. 7) Do not fear death, for if you fear a hole, it will open one under your feet. There’s been a lot of thought put into the lore behind these possessions, so one might think this horrific tale Demian Rugna is telling may only be the first chapter. With the amount of raw human emotion and soul-searing moments of sheer horror he is able to capture in this single movie, an elaboration of this world would be nothing but a gift for horror fans. Treat yourself with Rugna’s latest horror masterpiece. He’s a Argentinian director who deserves more notice as is WHEN EVIL LURKS; one hell of a strong deep dive into dread-filled horror.

Plus – THE DEMON DISORDER (2023)
Released on September 2, 2024, and is streaming on Shudder!
Directed by Steven Boyle.
Written by Steven Boyle, Toby Osborne.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/9WXZJG48OPs
Three brothers; Phillip (Charles Cottier), Jake (Dirk Hunter), and Graham (Christian Willis) are all three dealing with the recent death of their father George (John Noble) in their own ways. While Jake has numbed himself with alcohol and Graham has left their childhood home and has thrown himself into his work at his car garage, Phillip is showing the same signs of a sickness that ended up killing their father. The problem is that George didn’t die by natural means. George seems to have succumbed to a demonic possession that had rotted him from the inside out, transforming his body into a horror unimaginable. Fearing Phillip is next to succumb to the infernal illness, the brothers do everything they can to overcome this sickness and destroy it by any means necessary.

THE DEMON DISORDER is a grisly little movie. Top to bottom, from the imposing opening moments to the ballsy, in your face end, this is a film that doesn’t care how ugly it gets. It’s body horror to its most grisly as it doesn’t just involve the distortion and changing of one’s body, but the torment that goes along with it. In this film, the contortions of the body hurt dearly as reflected by the actors. This is no evolution. It’s a violent plague ripping itself through and out of the body.

Per ushe with the best of body horror, metaphor is ripe in THE DEMON DISORDER, and it comes in the form of the illness representing the negative aspects a parent passes on to a child. While we get to see some tender moments in flashback, it is clear that George’s mental health is in deterioration. He is shown to be a stern father, often abusive, and the monster in this film is the fear these three sons have that those negative aspects—physically and mentally, will be passed down to them. This is going to be a film that speaks to anyone who has lost a family member to dementia or inherited a mental or physical issue genetically. These are serious issues and occasionally, throughout the film, they are treated as such.

But then again, the main flaw with THE DEMON DISORDER is that tonally, it is all over the place. There are times when the film is deathly serious with the material, and then something rather goofy happens. The brothers’ reactions to the crazy body horror going on range from absolute shock and terror to goofy antics as the demon painfully spurts from the side of one of the infected brothers and slithers across the floor, then up the wall, and across the ceiling while the three of them chase it around the room like Moe, Larry, and Curly. There are many times where moments that could resonate on a very deep level are knee-capped by a comedic remark or a goofy action. This is an Australian film and at times, the film reminded me of some of the earlier films of Peter Jackson like BAD TASTE and DEAD ALIVE, but then again, the father and son themes really contradict the lighter tones. It left me not really knowing how to feel about this one.

As far as goppy gore, THE DEMON DISORDER is full to the brim and beyond with it. From demons bursting from bodies to tumors to slug-like slither creatures to a fully formed demon, there is a lot to love about the practical effects going on here. THE DEMON DISORDER simply doesn’t hold back and if you’re taste turns to the gorier side, this one’s going to be your cup of innards.

So while the tone is fluid and sometimes contradictory, the gore is potent as all get out. I liked both the comedic antics of the three brothers, but they also were able to convey a story with some very touching moments. Plus, it’s always great to see John Noble in action. Such a great actor. THE DEMON DISORDER may not be the most even of watches—at times, it’s quite a mess, but still, there’s a lot of good sloshing around in this movie.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2023-2024
#31 – HERE FOR BLOOD (DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS)
#30 – THANKSGIVING (THE SACRIFICE GAME)
#29 – MILK & SERIAL (LOWLIFES)
#28 – PROJECT SILENCE (FROGMAN)
#27 – THE SEEDING (DARK HARVEST)
#26 – BEEZEL (THE FRESH HELL TRILOGY)
#25 – ABERRANCE (COLD MEAT)
#24 – OUT OF DARKNESS (ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH)
#23 – ARCADIAN (A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE)
#22 – YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (GHOSTS OF THE VOID)
#21 – NEVER LET GO (LOVELY, DARK, & DEEP)
#20 – ABIGAIL (BLACKOUT)
#19 – SPEAK NO EVIL (EIGHT EYES)
#18 – BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (LISA FRANKENSTEIN)
#17 – MAXXXINE (SHERYL)
#16 – CUCKOO (AMELIA’S CHILDREN)
#15 – 15 CAMERAS (MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW)
#14 – DO NOT DISTURB (KILL YOUR LOVER)
#13 – WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS (HELL HOLE)
#12 – ALIEN: ROMULUS (INFESTED)
#11 – HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR (V/H/S/85)
#10 – STOP MOTION (MONOLITH)
#9 – IN A VIOLENT NATURE (HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS)
#8 – THE COFFEE TABLE (HANDLING THE UNDEAD)
#7 – THE FIRST OMEN (IMMACULATE)
#6 – ODDITY (EXHUMA)
#5 – LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (I SAW THE TV GLOW)
#4 – WHEN EVIL LURKS (THE DEMON DISORDER)