Review: Dropping Evil

Wild Eye releasing keep surprising me with all of the variety in their catalogue. Sure most are horror films but they run the gamut of subgenres. Dropping Evil is most closely related to a camping in the woods style slasher but the film has more to it than that. 

A geeky Christian sees the true evil in his friends after they slip him LSD during a camping trip, and sets out on a bloody mission to punish them for their sins. Meanwhile, a clandestine corporation attempts to lure the killer and his potential victims to a secluded cabin so that they can be manipulated into serving a sinister agenda. Sound a bit confusing? It is. The film's plot get muddled along the way but Dropping Evil does deliver on some interesting ideas. Particularly the idea that a corporation is behind all of this pulling the strings. It lends the movie a meta level of self reflection. It's just too bad the scenes in black and white about the corporation don't pay off to a bigger surprise. 

Dropping Evil is best when it focuses on a Christian extremist gone crazy thanks to drugs. The idea of inviting someone on a camping trip and them going crazy has a lot of potential. The gore is fun and the kills come quick but the slasher feel only last for a few scenes.

The film tries too hard to deliver a complex plot that I don't think was clear to begin with. A lean slasher film can be scary and fun. Throw in too many wild ideas and the film begins to feel clunky and slow. Sadly that is what happens here. Dropping Evil has a good slasher buried in it, leave the multi-layered evil corporate stuff out of it.