Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Cast: Max Brebant, Roxane Duran, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Mathieu Goldfeld, Nissim Renard
Running Time: 81 mins
Release Date: October 2015
A tiny isolated French village consists of only boys and their mothers. After Nicholas (MAX BREBANT) discovers the body of a boy in the ocean, he begins to question his mother and wonders why he and all of his friends must be hospitalised.Â
The film starts off with some really spectacular underwater shots, which are really beautiful. Unfortunately, this is the only positive or interesting thing about Evolution. 97% of the film consists of excruciatingly long establishing shots, scenes which drag on for too long, and lots and lots of characters staring into space.
It’s advertised as a body horror, which it is, but it is hardly The Thing. There are some scenes which could have been interesting had they been explained further or more detail been given, but the scarce scenes of horror are too short and not even that effective. The few horror sequences have a sort of sea-theme to them, which would have been really interesting if we got to see more of it, or if it was explained.
It is clear that director Lucile Hadzihalilovic wanted to build a tense and creepy atmosphere rather than disturb the audience with gore or special effects. This aim is admirable, but it has not succeeded. The majority of the film is bland, most of the scenes (although beautifully shot) feel like they are just filler and do not really consist of anything relative to the plot. The fact that the film is not even 90 minutes long, yet it feels as if it runs for over two hours shows how boring parts of it are. You expect the film to be one of these thrillers that begins slow and gradually builds up to something, like Goodnight Mommy, but Evolution builds to nothing.
The strongest part of this film is that the mothers are all very creepy, especially Julie-Marie Parmentier, but after a few scenes their effectiveness wears off. This is really unfortunate, it seems as if Evolution could have been so much better, which is why it is ultimately just disappointing.
Verdict
