Evilution (2008) User Reviews

Move along...nothing to see here

[Heislegend · 4/10 · 15 October 2009]

I really like how the last review I read here said the poster was "blown away" by this movie. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what blew them away. Mediocrity, maybe? Hard to say, but that's about all this movie is chock full of. This movie plays like something that could be and may very well have been on The SyFy Channel (that's right...it's SyFy now and there's not a damn thing you can do about it). So if you've seen anything they've ever done you know you should be ready to roll your eyes at least a few times.

The plot is basically lifted from the few various zombie movie plots out there. In this case it's all about an alien virus that reanimates the dead and is unleashed by a series of military/government mishaps. Now my distrust for the federal government is as healthy or healthier than most people's but I have to believe they could take out one hapless guy with one small vile of *insert name of unidentified chemical agent here*. Whatever. The movie is pretty bland all over. No standout acting (or even adequate acting), the special effects are decent but nothing to write home about, and the story is pretty done to death.

The one remarkable thing about this film is how incredibly misleading the box art is. Seriously? It makes the movie look like it's completely action packed...with the guy holding the assault rifle and whatnot. Yeah...nothing even remotely like that happened in the movie. But I guess you have to sell blandness somehow.

Routine military zombie guff

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 22 February 2016]

EVILUTION is another vague military zombie movie with little plot and pedestrian execution. Nothing that happens in this film is original and everything will have been seen before, many times. It's a typical zombie straight-to-DVD flick with little to distinguish it in an already overcrowded sub-genre.

In essence, there are some military experiments and animal testing (much like 28 DAYS LATER) which lead to a virus (extraterrestrial in origin, apparently) being released which has the power to reanimate the dead. The dead are subsequently reanimated and go on the rampage in various gory but low budget sequences.

The characters are appalling, the acting is of a sub-standard, and the script isn't worth mentioning. The execution isn't the worst I've seen, but the material is so schlocky and derivative that I wonder why they made the effort.

god, ffs.

[day_andy · 5/10 · 13 October 2009]

Man, the opening scene was the best in the movie. What happened after that was poor acting and a really bad script. Once you have watched every movie/TV show you've wanted to watch ...and you have nothing left, this movie should tied you over. Some good actors from back in the day, like early Dave Chappelle movies make an appearance and that was the highlight for me. A crappy zombie movie and I know that everyone involved knew it, but it was too late, they were already making it. I'll be fair and say that most of the actors did what they could, but some were just terrible. This movie is for someone who is bored for a night in, although it will give good entertainment.

15 minutes of story, at most

[sebpopcorn · 23 October 2009]

In an army base guarded by two soldiers there's this alien virus, if you inject it into someone they turn into a zombie. All of a sudden a bespectacled nerd breaks out of the lab with the virus and he's away, out of Iraq and to some slum with only three different scenes. Here you'll meet a massively desperate divorcée, a tiresome gang and a pointless junkie. The army plan of dropping a bomb on the whole thing starts to look pretty good about this point. I couldn't get over how totally disinterested the main actor seemed, he's supposed to be fired up on a mission to inject his mad scientist virus but mopes around like some guy who has been dragged to the shops on a Saturday morning by his wife.

There's very little story here and although the scenes of zombies munching people are done reasonably well its hard to really care about the half dozen characters living there.

The ridiculously grandiose ending lost it a couple of points from me because it's fair enough to make a substandard zombie flick but it's not OK to do that and then act as though you have created some thought provoking masterpiece. This reminds me a bit of Mulberry Street except that's a good movie and this absolutely isn't. The cover also bears no similarity to film, always a hallmark of a film that the producers know deep down wasn't really good enough.

Pretty sad for the amount of effort put into it.

[innocuous · 5/10 · 25 April 2012]

I mean, it's OK, I guess. Lots of blood, some acceptable FX, a couple plot twists, and some explosions, but no real "zing" to it. You never get involved enough to care that characters are doing something stupid or dangerous. You don't really care when they die gruesomely. (OK, OK...it's not usually THAT gruesome. The FX are about 50% of what they should be.) This ought to be a roller-coaster ride and it's actually a carousel. The tension ought to build and then release, only to build again. It doesn't.

Now, as far as the whole alien sub-plot. That was just someone thinking that the script wasn't cerebral enough. They were nervous and decided to add a "twist." Bad mistake. It definitely weakened the whole film. (And why do I get the feeling that the writer had just watched "Die Hard"? He/she was probably thinking, "Cool! They weren't terrorists after all. They were just thieves. Hey! I know! In my movie, it won't just be a zombie virus. It will be an alien zombie virus!"

Anyway, save this for late at night, when you don't care if you fall asleep halfway through.

Worst movie ever? Nah, but the thought crossed my mind.

[Nyx_Selene · 1/10 · 16 October 2009]

I never thought I would say this, but this movie is actually worse than "House of the Dead". I was eating dinner while watching it, and it still made me fall asleep twice.

The story: Scientist finds alien (or so I'm told) and tries to use it as a weapon (what else?), by having it re-animate dead soldiers. The re-animated people turn into flesh-eating zombies, some buildings blow up, leaving only the nerd alive, he moves to a pretty disgusting apartment building, then we get to enjoy some silly over-acted acting, some "scary gang" of 3 guys that couldn't frighten a 4-year-old, and the most over-acted military hit-man of the year. Nerd tries to perfect the alien/virus/whatever, after that it turns into "28 days later" for a short while and then comes the predictable, laughable ending.

This movie is uninteresting at best. The concept has been done numerous times before, but better, leaving this try at it clichéd and completely unfrightening. Had it had some kind of comedy twist or at least been bad in a way to make it funny, it might (using the term in it's most extreme meaning) have worked, but the most unforgivable thing about it, is that it's just too boring. Too can't-keep-my-eyes-open-for-the-love-of-life boring.

Faceless sci-fi zombie film.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 23 December 2009]

Evilution starts as ex military researcher & soldier Darren Hall (producer Eric Peter-Kaiser) rents a room in an apartment block after coming home from a tour in Iraq where he witnessed some horrendous things & has brought a little something back with him to, an alien substance that turns people into mindless zombies (the target audience of this film then?). While doing his own research to try & understand whatever he wants to understand one of his neighbours Random (Noel Gugliemi) is shot in a gang incident so Darren uses the bright orange serum to revive Random but he, like the other's, turns into a ravenous flesh-eating zombie that spreads the zombie virus to whoever he bites. It's up to Darren & army guy Sgt. Gabriel Collins (Tim Colceri) to destroy the infected people in order to contain the virus & stop the zombie plague from reaching the outside world where the whole human race would be at risk...

Directed by Chris Conlee this is yet another dull horror film made by people who think just because they have a camcorder they can make a film, the best I can say about it is that it's competent & passes the time without being too painful to watch but there's little here to really recommend. For a start the DVD cover is totally misleading, there's little or no action in it & the first forty minutes is more like a poorly written soap opera full of clichéd dramatics as Darren moves into a new apartment & has problems with noisy neighbours & falls for the pretty girl who lives down the hall, after the opening few minutes there is no zombie action at all until the forty five minute mark which is just to long to keep us waiting as quite frankly I could see half the audience already having fell asleep or just turned the damned thing off. Once the horror aspect does kick in there's nothing here we haven't seen before & it's pretty forgettable stuff, there's no inventive kills or gore scenes, all of the action is confined to about three apartment block hallways & a stairway before a double ending which leaves things open for a sequel, I shudder at the thought. The character's are pretty bad, Darren is a really bland hero who barely does or says anything & why did Darren bring Random back to life anyway? Darren obviously knew about the consequences of using the Re-Animator (1985) style glowing serum & he didn't even really know Random anyway other than being threatened by him at gunpoint. Also if a man has something which literally has the potential to wipe out the human race why would the US military send one middle aged bloke in a tight fitting t-shirt to get it back? Wouldn't they send in everything they had & ask questions later? Wouldn't they tap his phone & follow him? If they thought he posed so much of a risk wouldn't they just kill the guy? The alien itself is never seen, it's referred to as an alien but we only ever see a bright orange serum which is injected into people so where's the alien?

The zombies in Evilution are of the infected people running around variety like in 28 Days Later... (2002) rather than the slow moving walking dead as seen in The Night of the Living Dead (1968). The gore is disappointing with a few gory bite wounds & a bit of blood splatter but nothing else & nothing memorable or creative & how this won an award for best special effects is beyond me as the blood looks so thin it's more like red wine. There's one wholly gratuitous naked breast shot as a woman wearing a towel is attacked & it comes right off thus getting both blood & breast's in the same scene. The whole affair is predictable, it's not scary or atmospheric & there's no build up of tension either. Very by the numbers.

With a supposed budget of about $1,200,000 all I'll say is where did all the money go? There's special effects are minimal & cheap, there's little or no CGI, it all takes place in one locations over a few sets & there's only three or four leading actors. The production values are reasonable & there's none of that hand-held shaky camcorder look or any quick editing which is nice but hardly worth recommending it for. The acting is poor with bland performances throughout.

Evilution is another horror film that tries to be hip & cool but fails with a slow plot, little or no gore worth mentioning & bland leading actors. Not to be confused with the infinitely better sci-fi horror comedy Evolution (2001) which is actually a great film, unlike this.

I think it could of been better

[pike145 · 2/10 · 9 June 2010]

This movie was a bit well... not what I was expecting but seriously parkour Zombies were bloody awesome even if it was in a few scenes I was impressed! Those trauciers are amazing!!! The rest of the movie was unfortunately... not so grand the only person worth looking at is Sandra Ramirez! She really did a top part playing her role! Evilution is like another zombie flick that fails to deliver. Its story is both predictable and seen before. The movie then bases itself in a sleazy trashy building laced with victims to be and the obvious handful of survivors must do whatever it takes to put a stop to it all using what is commonly or conveniently available. This movie could of been way better I give it a two for its good acting and short parkour scenes other than that I say it could of been something worth the watch had they only worked a little longer on the plan out rather than just releasing another over gored zombie flick!

Anyone got a tissue?

[Lokii321 · 1/10 · 21 April 2016]

...because I need to have cry about the death of cinema. If Hollywood was a barrel and blockbusters like Greenmile and Star Wars floated on the top, this movie would be scraping the bottom of said barrel!!

This is not even a 'B' Movie, in fact I am not even sure the movie knows what it is. I did not want to be too negative about this movie, so I looked for something good to say about it, but unfortunately I could not find anything even remotely fine about this pile.

Maybe barrel was the wrong metaphor, maybe more of a waste paper basket because this movie is garbage. From the outset the sound has an odd echo, the picture has an odd dark tint to it, the effects and cinematography (if you can call it cinematography) are appalling.

Oh! I did find one great thing about the movie, the end few seconds of the credits. The movie for a start is called 'Evilution' it starts with three poorly made up zombie looking creatures in Iraq. Then you assume it comes back to the states! However 30-40 minutes into the movie all we have seen so far is the main character settling into his new home. The action if you can call it that is in the last 25 mins of a 82 minute movie. But I did not see any real 'Evil' or 'Evolution' of evil which the title of the movie states.

Also don't be drawn in by the movie poster, it completely misleads you as to anything that happens in the movie. This movie makes Sharknado 1,2 & 3 look like a Hollywood Blockbuster or at best a Michael Bay movie. The activity I took part in after watching Evilution was far more exciting I am afraid to say. But then again someone has to empty the trash in my apartment!!

High School movie try out

[alientechy · 1/10 · 14 October 2009]

Well lets see how the movie goes. Sandra Ramirez has a sex scene in this movie with the nerd. She don't take off her cloths so there is no nudity, there is no touching and no kissing, you can imagine they are having sex when even a $5 lap dance has more contact and intimacy. She does take off his belt but thats how close shes comes to him.. Some of the actors were cool like the gang banger and junkie punk. But they could not find a hot chic who could touch any of the actors let alone kiss them. They could have saved the money by skipping the women and adding in some rabbits and chimps. It is after all a killer zombie movie. Maybe a few blow up dolls would also do the trick. Editing out the 15 minutes of eye candy that was revolting and the movie was fun to watch. There were even some CGI effects in this unbelievable ,,,,,.

Is It Legal for Actors to Have This Much Fun On screen?

[bababear · 8/10 · 4 April 2011]

There aren't any big surprises in the story of EVILUTION. A seemingly nice young man comes back from the war with a secret compound that has amazing healing powers. He moves into an apartment building in a dicey section of Los Angeles and his neighbors poke around in his stuff. He meets a very beautiful young lady. When a local gang member is mortally wounded the young man injects him with the compound, hoping that this will be the opportunity to use the healing powers of this amazing discovery.

The compound was created by creatures from outer space. When it is injected into a host- human or animal- that host dies and is taken over by an alien life form.

OK. Been there, done that. But watching this is infectious in that the actors have such a good time shouting dialog about alien microbes, firing guns, and running up and down stairs in the apartment building that eventually you realize that this must have really been fun to make.

There are some nice elements. The "hero" isn't the two-fisted killing machine you expect in a story like this. One of the best "performances" is by the building itself, a huge structure that was probably very elegant in its day but now the wiring doesn't always work right.

Early in the process the actors- many of whom seem to have reserves of talent that the script doesn't touch- seem to realize that this is not going to be the project that gets them an Academy Award. So they throw themselves into what they're doing and play with it like jazz musicians improvising on a simple children's song.

One standout element is the musical score. I'm no expert, but it sounds as if it's performed by honest to goodness musicians and not on a computer keyboard. It's a nice touch.

Possessed by alien lifeforms? Alrighty then...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 18 May 2010]

Despite it being a fairly low budget zombie movie, then it was actually quite alright.

First off, the fact that the infected "zombies" were possessed by alien intelligence or alien lifeforce was a stupid approach. But then again, it sets the movie aside from the many "ordinary" zombie movies out there. And also the agility and jumping around by most infected was a bit over the top.

The cast was good, even with it being fairly unknown actors/actresses. But they all did good jobs in their roles and made their characters believable.

There is a handful of gore throughout the movie, and it wasn't too shabby to look at actually. Again, hats off to the movie makers for this.

The ending, well that could have been better.

Do not watch this movie and expect it to be an ordinary zombie movie. But all in all, not an entirely bad movie. Well worth a watch if you like zombie movies in either form.

Another Zombie Picture...

[JoeB131 · 24 April 2010]

Because we don't get nearly enough of those, right? If anything, this movie is quite disjointed. For instance, there is the character of the apartment building manager, who is this effete intellectual philosopher who seems to have no place running a seedy, inner city hotel. I say this, because it is obvious this trash was produced by Europeans, and this is probably how they see America.

The long and short is that the Army has acquired an alien virus, and tested it on people, turning hundreds into Zombies in Iraq before a smart bomb blew them all up. Then a Captain in the research project returns to the states and starts all over again, because, hey, it worked out so well the first time. He injects the virus into a gangbanger, and a junkie self-medicates with the rest, until the entire building is overrun with zombies.

I think there is supposed to be something about the aliens wanting to communicate... Not sure, I think it was lost in all the gore.

Entertaining zombie effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 27 August 2012]

A military scientist trying to learn more about a strange alien virus moves into a run-down suburban apartment complex to study it, but when it gets released upon the inhabitants and turns them into flesh-devouring zombies, he races to stop them before they can escape the building into the city.

Not all that bad at all, and actually a fairly decent effort in it's own right, helped along by a fairly novel idea of letting the zombie reanimation come from an alien organism rather than anything else and in a sense possessing the victim to continue living so that they can learn about the human race, but only by consuming the flesh of their victims. Pretty unique, as well as the method of disposing of the creatures, which is pretty original and clever and allows for some good times later on. They look pretty good as well and manage to get in some pretty gory stuff here and there, although their behavior of mimicking the infected (i.e.: running zombies) is terribly handled. Plus, it waits far too long to get going with it's life-is-hard-in-the-projects opening that holds off the zombie mayhem, but overall its not that bad.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a mild sex scene and drug use