Evilution. Reviewed by Brian Kirst
Combine mild science fiction with bruising zombie horror and then add a swirl of This Old Dark House and Frankenstein to the mix and you get something as fast paced and fun as Evilution.
After escaping from an invasion of wild undead, an army doctor lands in a mysterious apartment complex where he attempts to rebuild his life as a science teacher. Of course, his experiments continue anew and it’s only a matter of time before the roaming gang bangers, a sexy neighbor and the grizzled neighborhood drug addict catch onto what our hero is doing and things swing gravely out of control again.
Director Chris Conlee and writer Brian Patrick O’Toole keep the atmosphere and the characters layered here, while simultaneously moving things along until our lead character becomes like a frantic jack rabbit in a charnel zoo. Obviously, there is also plenty of grue and gore to be had – but movie lovers will delight in watching performers like the fierce Jonathon Breck (unmasked from his Jeepers Creepers gig) mix it up with other television (Rhoda’s Dave Groh) and horror film (Peter Stickles from Cemetery Gates, Skinned Alive and The Lair) veterans. Lead Eric Peter-Kaiser, meanwhile, delivers a courageous, emotionally conflicted performance – but it is Guillermo Diaz (Half Baked, Party Girl) and James Duval (May, Independence Day) as two low ranking hoods who steal the show here. Their unfettered humor and ease with character work help ground Evilution – even as the reanimated corpses of Evilution are trying to grind their characters into flesh shit – and beyond!
