The best thing about When Evil Lurks, is that it is in dialogue with all the great horror films of the past. Its deliberate emphasis on family and the helplessness that comes with it when we see a loved one in trouble and aren’t able to do anything about it places it right beside films like The Exorcist, Hereditary and A Quiet Place. Some films have this quality of reverberation where it seems like the film is echoing the tropes the subgenre is known for, but in a fresh manner and not just because of our knowledge about other such films. In this film, we are introduced to characters, and suddenly we know what their purpose in the film is. This is why the characters in When Evil Lurks work so well, as they take off from the moment they get introduced in the story. Pedro, the frantic father,...