Evilenko (2003)
(In French, On Cable TV, July 2022) Oh yuck. Combining a serial-killer character study with dreary post-Soviet atmosphere, Evilenko is an ordeal in more ways than one. Malcolm McDowell does have a good turn as a schoolteacher-turned-psychopath here, his specific skills at playing twisted becoming even more useful as the film dives deeper into non-realistic material from hypnosis to dream sequences. Otherwise, though, this is an ugly film in form and content. The bleak landscape of post-Communist Russia is cold and monochrome, while writer-director David Grieco twists real terrible events into even more terrible heavily fictionalized material. More disturbing than gory, Evilenko certainly feels very, very unpleasant. See it for McDowell if you must, but must you?