“EVIL AT THE DOOR” (2022) REMINDS US WHY HOME INVASION MOVIES HAVE US DOUBLE CHECKING OUR LOCKED DOORS
When night falls upon us, most people do the normal thing and head to bed. They let their head hit the pillow and gently fall asleep. Unlike them, horror heads us the nighttime to enjoy an extra edge to the horror movies we watch. Shrouded in dark, we watch these horror movies on the edge of our seats as we take in all the scares the movie has to offer. Of course, normal horror fans tend to easily go to bed after this.
There are horror fans like me who tend to start thinking either if the scary fiend from the movie I watched might get me or something worse. Usually, I am more the former rather than the latter but certain movies make my bones chill a bit at night. Like most people, home invasion movies tend to hit home (no pun intended) with me as they seem to be the truest when it comes to “the most likely to happen if my life turns into a horror movie”.
Home invasion movies have been in the horror world for quite some time. Based on some truth of horrifying true crime stories going back to the ’70s, home invasions have sparked interest within pop culture quite quickly. We all get curious when it comes to that element of true crime stories and put ourselves in the shoes of the people running for their lives in these movies. There are so many movies out there (good and yes even some bad) that have hit the silver screen terrifying us of possible home invaders.
What home invasion movie hasn’t made you feel the need to check behind your shower curtain when you go to use the restroom at night? I know from personal experience most home invasion movies I have watched still have me randomly checking behind my shower curtain and periodically making sure I have locked my doors. We all get that feeling after watching a scary movie, even if it is just for a moment. No one wants to come face to face with a total stranger in their home.
Recently I got a chance to watch the home invasion movie “Evil at the Door”. This movie stars Bruce Davison, Andrea Sweeney Blanco, Robert Allen Muke, Kipp Tribble, Kenny Yates, Sunny Doench, and Richard Siegelman. The movie centers around a secret guild called The Locusts that has operated for nearly a century. Once a year this guild treats its members to a night of curated home invasions, known underground as "The Night of The Locusts". These members have a total of 180 minutes to do as they please with the occupants of the homes they intend to invade.
The home that is unfortunately in store for 4 thugs on this night is the home of Jessica (Sunny Doench) and Daniel (Matt O’Neill). Daniel is a well-off businessman with a bit of a temper that we get to see when Jessica’s sister Liz (Andrea Sweeney Blanco) shows up to stay with them to get away from a troubled relationship. Of course, Daniel is not for this as they have helped her and given her money more times than she deserves but Jessica insists this time it is different. Daniel runs off to have a business meeting with a sleazy businessman Roebuck (John James) who is not happy with the way Daniel has been doing things within the business (which creates some foreshadowing for what happens later in the movie).
When we are introduced to the home invaders briefly and then more so when they appear outside of our main character’s home. I must say that the masks that the home invaders wear in this movie are not threatening to me at all. Their black cloth skull masks try to give off a scary vibe but they do come off more as what some dude who wears Affliction brand clothing would wear while riding their bullet bike. Now having said that, if someone came into my home wearing those to try and terrorize me, I would most likely pee my pants but like most things in life, it depends on the situation. While Jessica decides to take a country music-fueled bath (you will see what I mean when you watch the movie), Daniel tries drowning out her music with his loud alt-rock music while air-guitaring a pool cue.
All while this is going on Liz sits on the bed upstairs in the room outside her sister’s bath party playing on her phone when the home invaders make their move inside towards Daniel. Daniel gets it pretty good being knocked around by the home invaders Eisenhower (Scott Hamm), Kennedy (Richard Siegelman), Truman (Kipp Tribble), and Nixon (Kenny Yates), which leads him with a burlap sack on his head and tied down to the pool table he was so eagerly playing on a few minutes before.
The remainder of this movie plays out as a “cat & mouse” game with Liz hiding under the bed trying to get a signal to use her cell phone and Eisenhower eagerly awaiting to kill Jessica when she comes out of the bathroom. He even slides a piece of paper under the door with “come out and you get killed” written on it. Oddly enough Jessica has been jamming out to country music and enjoying her bath, which she will do through most of the movie. There are a lot of moments in this movie that had me going “what the hell just happened”, but more out of randomness than confusion. There is a moment where Nixon goes many moments in this movie taking his mask off to do some cocaine, only to turn off the phone jammer to order more. He even dares to take an Uber to pick up more cocaine while his cohorts are doing what they can to enjoy the time left in their little adventure.
This comes to bite him in the ass when they find out what he has done, causing them to strangle him and knock him to the floor for him to see Liz under the bed. He keeps trying to tell his companions that she is there, but they don’t listen. The last few minutes of this movie bulks up the crazy with all that ends up unfolding right before the credits run. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but it is quite unexpected. While this movie wasn’t my favorite home invasion movie, it did have some moments that stood out to me. One of the biggest things was the main cast and the ways they all shined throughout the movie. This movie does have its moments you may or may not enjoy but I say give it a shot.
“Evil at the Door” from Terror Films is now available on digital and VOD. Be sure to enjoy a viewing of this movie today.
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