Hunting Evil (2019) Review
Shot in 2010 and released by Mill Creek as Closets. Hunting Evil was disowned by director Charles Peterson. Now it’s resurfaced under a new title and a new distributor, though just who it is isn’t clear. The film bears a credit for Sector 5, and that’s who posted the trailer on YouTube. IMDB lists Chemical Burn Entertainment, Amazon Prime Video says it’s Gravitas Ventures. None of them list it on their website. World Wide Multimedia, however, has the DVD for sale on theirs. And if you think reading that was dull, wait until you see the movie.
I actually thought Hunting Evil was going to be a demonic Who Framed Rodger Rabbit at first. The CGI background is so awful it looks like animation, and not good animation either. Jonas Littleton (Lanny Rethaber, A Killer Awaits, Blood Moon Rising) is trying to ghost hunt. He pisses off a demon and gets a little girl killed. An understandably skeptical judge sends him up for manslaughter. Once free he can’t find a job or get his life back in gear.
Then, out of nowhere, he’s offered a dream job. Of course, it’s a trap set by the same demon, or should I say Entity (Davina Joy, Death Of A Ghost Hunter). Seven years later it costs him his wife and son. Seven years after that he’s a bitter, driven, demon hunter assisted by Ron (Patrick Adam, The Eleventh Aggression) and Ellie (Orchid Tao). Even if it means Hunting Evil in every closet in America.
Maybe if Corbin Bernsen (A Deadly Legend, The Russian Bride) had starred instead of just making a cameo Hunting Evil might have turned out better. But Rethaber, who also produced, looks like a pudgy William Shatner with an awful hairdo. And his acting is worse than his hair. His adversary The Entity, doesn’t fare much better. Obviously, an actress in a gown and mask she at least looks creepy when lit the right way. But having her talk in stupid rhymes ruins the effect. So much so that even when we see what’s under the mask it isn’t frightening.
But then, nothing about Hunting Evil is frightening. Well apart from the fact that somebody saw fit to dig up, re-title it and foist it on unsuspecting viewers. That’s one tradition from the days of drive-ins and grindhouses that I’d rather not see come back.