Until right near the end of Evie (co-directed and written by Dominic Brunt - Before Dawn, and Jamie Lundy), I was unsure if this was actually going to turn out to be a horror. This is dour and depressing stuff, but mainly felt more like a dark drama than anything else. Despite the synopsis for the movie inferring far much more of a supernatural element, this can also be taken as something from which those elements might not factor in to the story as much as it may seem.
As a child, the titular Evie discovered a strange necklace on the beach near her home, this began a transition to the girl beginning to exhibit troubling behaviours which eventually had some part to play in her and her brother Tony being put up for adoption. Now, Evie (Holli Dempsey - Derek TV series) as a young woman begins to think more about her past, and seeks out her brother to try and re-establish contact. Tony (Jay Taylor - Baldur's Gate III voice work) agrees to see her, and invites her to his home, which just so happens to be where they lived as children. As she starts to reconnect, she learns that her dark past might not exactly be as she remembers it.
Evie is a heck of a slow burn of a movie, with this being far more a drama than anything else. It was only really with twenty minutes left of this eighty minute movie that things really began to move forward. As a protagonist, Evie wasn't too likeable a person, an alcoholic who feels hard put upon due to her growing up in an orphanage, and resentful of what happened with her family. Where she has seeked to escape her troubles with drugs and alcohol, Tony is the opposite, having chosen to live at his childhood home. The plot seemed straightforward, there were a handful of flashback scenes that shined light on what had happened in the past, with some of these sequences showing things from Evie's perspective, rather than showing what actually happened. A twist comes which changes a lot of elements of the story, though it's very late reveal gave me a feeling that the final scenes of the film zoomed along a bit too quickly for my liking. Trying to alter a slow burn into something more thriller-like was an abrupt change in direction that had a slight abrasive feeling.
There were a small cast of characters, a highlight being the ever reliable Michael Smiley (The World's End, A Field in England) who played Father Robert. Many of the other characters exist merely to serve a purpose, such as Evie's best friend who serves as a soundboard to ask the protagonist questions the viewer doesn't yet know. Of course, the parents of her and Tony play an important role, but the small number of mainly dialogue free flashbacks don't give too much development to them. With the twist that happens, it did lead to me questioning the actions of several characters.
The film had a serious morase score to it, balanced with some decent cinematography and some solid directing. There is a supernatural element, but it is always on the fringes, with it never firmly established if that part was actually a real thing or not.
Evie was a slow drama that told its story in an engaging way. I thought the late twist was a little too late. Regardless, the actors gave believable and understated performances, making for a film that still remained interesting to view. Evie is due for release on 6th November from High Fliers Films.
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