Necessary Evil (2008) User Reviews

Uninteresting plot, characters, and execution. Even Scientologists would find this hard to swallow... and they believe in a guy named Xenu.

[jjcobra26 · 2/10 · 31 July 2009]

I pride myself on being able to watch terrible movies and still finding them enjoyable. Unfortunately, Necessary Evil defeated any chances of viewing pleasure. Generally, I feel some connection to at least one of the characters in the film. This is one movie that I can say that I couldn't find any connection and instead just had spite. Was it wrong for me to wish that the "heroes" of the film would die? Probably, but they were just that uninteresting that I couldn't care less about what happened to them.

The writing would have made a better novel than a movie. I understand the film had multiple plot points, but conveying them with a narration was perhaps the wrong tool to move along the story. I think they chose narration because it slowed the movie down so they could a hit an hour and a half of viewing displeasure. To make matters worse the movie was already plodding along at such a slow pace that drawing it out was a completely unbearable addition.

It's sad to think the most interesting part of the movie was watching the seconds tick by when I'd hit the display button on the DVD player. As far as thrillers go "Necessary Evil" was about as thrilling as cottage cheese.

Please don't waste your money on this turkey!

[Russell62 · 1/10 · 2 January 2010]

Yet again, I am in the doghouse. My wife and I take turns to select DVDs and it was my turn to get the latest episode of "Lost" and one other. Knowing Lance Henriksen, I thought this might be OK, I was sadly mistaken. There is virtually no plot, much of the acting is barely above high school play level, and Henricksen's (?) voice-overs, instead of injecting a sense of "film-noir" into the mix are simply irritating. Even the monster effects are about as frightening as something out of a Godzilla flick. One of the other reviewers expressed regrets that this garbage didn't reach a wider audience. My regret, apart from renting it in the first place is that they even bothered to make it. Some editions have a "Species" type cover that looks pretty cool. Don't be fooled, Species is a clever and entertaining little franchise. This is pure, unadulterated crap.

GREAT,LATE NIGHT B-MOVIE FUN!!! TWISTY, MYSTERY THRILLER.

[lukem-52760 · 5/10 · 26 June 2019]

This was a very clever,intriguing mystery that just kept unravelling,it kept me guessing & excited,a very well crafted,well-plotted little B-movie Gem. The mixing of Genres is clever & fun. A cool unusual plot of a corrupted pharmaceutical company & a dark insane Asylum linking to missing people & monster Dna testing!!! Great,pure late night B-movie fun.

There's parts sci-fi Thriller,parts Monster Horror & parts Detective Mystery all weaved together very cleverly. Lance Henrikson is great as usual,he's a B-movie icon & lifts this cheap flick higher with a very cool,sinister performance & i loved his gravelly voice telling the story,very cool.

We are treated to another B-movie,Cult hero legend,Danny Trejo who i love watching in anything & the reason i brought this on dvd. Trejo is Cool here as a bad guy,tough mercenary working for Lance Henrikson's evil scientist. It's not a huge part but his role is done well & he's the 2nd "Name" actor of the movie as the other cast members are unknown-to me anyway.

Necessary Evil is a fun,unfolding Mystery full of twists & turns & conspiracy theories,Ancient Monsters, tough mercenaries,mad scientists, Detectives & a very sinister but Fun turn by Henrikson & a Cool,tough Trejo!!! Well worth checking out if you like B-movies or those 2 actors. Good solid film.

Trite, clichéd, badly written, poorly executed.

[JoeB131 · 1/10 · 9 August 2009]

I can only assume the two positive reviews were written by someone involved in the production of this turkey. Here's the plot. We start with a group of mercenaries in "Babylon" 16 years ago, sent to find an unknown artifact, and for some reason, they have a belly dancer with them. I can't think of any explanation for the Belly Dancer other than that's what the producer thinks lives in the Middle East. Well, the monster gets loose, and infects the lead mercenary, imbuing him with the Force. Or something. We then have Lance Henricksen, consigned to Direct to DVD Perdition for sins against good project selection, as a mad scientist who runs an insane asylum where they test drugs on the patients, and they are working on a new drug called "Reficul", which is "Lucifer" spelled backwards. Sign of a bad writer... this is their idea of "clever". We get introduced to some more characters, seemingly unrelated to each other, including a hard-drinking cop and a paranoid journalism student who is pregnant. The only truly evil thing that follows is the simply horrible dialog written for the characters. Basically, you couldn't figure out the plot with a Ouija board and a magic 8-Ball, but I halfway expect that's how they wrote it. Memo to Mr. Henricksen. You used to be a good actor. Now your name on a DVD box is becoming like a skull and crossbones on a bottle.

Amateurish Effort at Best

[wallismcclain · 1/10 · 25 October 2010]

I would guess that Necessary Evil was a vanity project for writer/star Eric Feldman, whose acting is so laid back and lethargic that you'd think he was playing a stoned druggie rather than a detective investigating a gruesome and mysterious disappearances.

Feldman's script is not much better. The story is preposterous, with plot holes and logical gaps in every scene. In the beginning, a group of mercenaries raid a sacred (?) site to find the "monster" and obtain its blood/DNA to create a new drug. They are inexplicably accompanied by a woman dressed in what appears to be a Halloween version of a belly-dancer's outfit. Why? It is never explained, and the character never reappears.

Poor Lance Hendrickson. He must have reached the bottom of the acting barrel. The only actor in this film to whom I would give a positive review is Kathryn Fiore, who would appear to have a talent for comedy. She should use it.

Frankly, I am not sure what happens in the movie. And the ending is perplexing: Det. Lt. Russo is injected with the new drug Reciful ("Lucifer") -- or the monster's DNA? -- and should be all rights be dead or have become a monster himself, yet at the end he seems perfectly fine.

A ghastly effort.

Unnecessary movie

[metalrage666 · 1/10 · 15 November 2013]

I'm not sure why Lance Henriksen or Danny Trejo even bothered with being seen in this. They must've been desperate because this movie was just plain stupid. I thought this was so bad, that I didn't even waste any more of my time to see it through to the end and what I did see made little to no sense at all.

Starts off with a team of soldiers or mercenaries complete with a female prisoner in tow, and they come across a stone obelisk which turns out to encase some evil being or presence and when they get too close it starts to scream and wail and somehow possesses one of them. This possessed soldier teams up with a doctor and they develop a "demonic drug" called Reficul to test on people. A poor excuse for a detective and some reporter try and unravel what's going on and of course no one wants to listen to an almost washed up cop and flaky reporter.

I couldn't under any circumstances sit through the entire movie as I found myself just getting agitated with how stupid it was. This flick struck out entirely with bad acting, bad effects and bad story. At various points Henriksen's voice-overs just became utterly annoying and I'm guessing that that was some kind of pathetic homage to Harrison Ford's voice-over in the original Bladerunner.

In any case, this is garbage and not even watchable. Even if this were to somehow make it onto TV late one night, do yourselves a favour and get some nightmare free sleep.

killer flick

[imageslayer · 8/10 · 24 March 2010]

I viewed "Necessary Evil" the other day and I must say, I rather enjoyed the experience.

Smart, unpredictable, and multi-layered, I saw it as a statement about the ever-growing, ubiquitous presence of pharmaceuticals in our daily lives, couched inside a creepy thriller.

The film unfolds through multiple viewpoints and weaves a tale of corruption and conspiracy with supernatural roots.

As usual, Lance Henriksen delivers a strong performance.

The film certainly has its share of flaws. But all in all, I recommend it.

Surprising, .. surprisingly weird as well

[xinix111 · 6/10 · 25 February 2009]

After a good kick off the movie is surprising and takes weird turns and I liked that.The sound editors could have done a better job and the empty spaces in sound made me wonder sometimes. I noticed that necessary evil is also a game book but its hard to tell if this movie is related to that. That this movie did not get that much attention must have been because its weirdness but then again, Danny Trejo does what he does best and some other well known actors showed their typical faces.Therefore I think that this movie deserves more attention. Everyone who likes a psychedelic weird surprise will probably enjoy this movie. And that this partly less experienced actors and writers/directors could have pulled this off is worth a Praise.

Still not great but worth watching.

6 of 10

Well done...

[rodv · 8/10 · 17 November 2010]

Having re-watched this movie just recently, I thought I should add a review. I am not a film critic, by any means, I just know what I like. And I like this. Lance Henriksen is always good. This role was suited for him in every way and I can't wait to see where they take this in the future. The idea of how much pharmaceuticals play in our lives makes for a good story. The movie paced good enough to keep me interested throughout. Timing was perfect. The actors did a good job of really bringing the scrip to life, and Lance Henriksen's narration, gave the movie a nice creepiness that played well with the theme. I look forward to a sequel with Lance Henriksen reprising the role and Peter Eaton at the helm.

pretty incomprehensible

[inoshi · 8/10 · 1 June 2010]

But then again it was Lance Henriksen - and I would forgive him anything. Big smile :-D

It's about time the IMDb stopped with the minimum line length for reviews: it only encourages crap. Okay, this was a very B movie that I watched only because I absolutely love Lance Henriksen. Or is it Lance Hendrikson? Has that gained me another few characters? This is a very B Movie but that voice makes any movie he appears in worth watching, in my opinion. :-)

Have I got to 10 lines of text yet? Sheesh: watch this if you love Lance. Otherwise, don't bother.

great movie

[joeex94 · 10/10 · 18 May 2010]

great movie A+++++++++ director did a fantastic job.

i would also recommend seeing gravity and sweet good fortune they all are great.

i would recommend all these movies to somebody who really enjoys a great movie.

movies have a great plot and necessary evil really shows that with great suspense and the acting was perfect.

the movie was smart and unpredictable had a different twist to it than most movies.

id give this movie a 10