The Evil Within is a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Andrew Getty and starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Dina Meyer, Frederick Koehler, and Michael Berryman. It was originally titled The Storyteller. The film's conception and development was a personal project of Getty's, who largely self-financed it at the estimated cost of $4–6 million; production took fifteen years to complete. Following Getty's death in 2015, editing for the film was completed by producer Michael Luceri.
The film made its official premiere at the Fantasporto Film Festival on February 26, 2017, and was later acquired by Vision Films, who released it via Video on Demand on April 4, 2017. The Evil Within received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the film's unevenness and dialogue while simultaneously commending it for its strangeness, and Getty's devotion to the material.
Plot[]
Dennis Peterson is a man with a mental disability who has had nightmares all his life since he was a child, including one where he entered a carnival ride that seemed underwhelming. He is told that "the ride isn't over." As an adult, Dennis has a dream where a living demon, called "The Cadaver", fastens a zipper onto his back and enters his body. Also, in his dream, he finds a hidden room in the cellar that holds a full-length mirror that Dennis believes The Cadaver came from. The very next day, his brother John presents him with an identical mirror as a gift. He begins speaking to his reflection, who seems to answer back to him.
Dennis' brother John has difficulties of his own. His girlfriend, Lydia, demands that they get married but is upset that he will not do anything about Dennis. He is visited by Mildy Torres, a woman from social services, who believes that Dennis needs to be taken away after receiving an anonymous phone call where someone accused John of having trouble controlling his temper. This upsets John as he feels that Dennis is his responsibility. Dennis continues to have nightmares of The Cadaver, and his reflection informs him that in order to get rid of it, they need to start killing animals. He begins working in the secret cellar, which perplexes John, especially when he sees that Dennis has videos on taxidermy. Dennis says the videos are not his but were accidentally switched with another customer.
Once Dennis begins killing children, his reflection suddenly becomes a lot more articulate and reveals that "he" was the one giving Dennis the nightmares and that they still have more killing to do, much to Dennis' horror. Dennis meets with his crush, Susan, an employee at his favorite ice cream place. He tries to ask her out, but the conversation gets awkward, and Susan turns him down, hurting him. The Cadaver sends Dennis back to kill Susan, insisting that it is the only way to make her like him. Before he can reach her, she runs out into the street and is hit by a car, killing her. When John and Lydia take Dennis to his favorite restaurant, he spontaneously kills a man in the bathroom without hesitation, before returning to his senses and becoming horrified. Finally coming to the realization that his reflection is manipulating him for some sinister purpose, Dennis refuses to cooperate with it. Enraged by this, it continues to torment Dennis, creating illusions to frighten him as he struggles to stay awake. Eventually concluding there is no other way to stop The Cadaver, Dennis attempts to commit suicide by shooting himself with a gun he had hidden. Just as he's about to pull the trigger, Dennis is stopped by his reflection who emerges from the mirror and pushes Dennis in, allowing him to take control of Dennis' mind and body.
After a night out, John and Lydia discover they do not recognize anyone at places they regularly visit, implying that Dennis has killed most of the people in town. Mildy Torres arrives at the house with two police officers, but "Dennis" manages to kill them before he can be apprehended. While sitting at their favorite café, Lydia begins to question John and finally reveals the truth: Dennis was a child prodigy whose works had been published in the newspapers. One day during an argument, John punched Dennis, causing him to fall down the stairs. When Dennis awoke, his mental capabilities were severely diminished, and John has felt guilty ever since, motivating him to try to atone by caring for Dennis at the cost of his own happiness. Lydia sympathizes with John and accepts the idea that if she and John get married, Dennis will always live with them. She leaves to get Dennis so that they can share the happy news over dinner. John's friend Pete sits nearby and reveals that the taxidermy tapes are indeed Dennis'. John instructs Pete to call the police, and he hails a taxi.
Lydia arrives at the house and is fatally stabbed by Dennis. In the cellar, Dennis proceeds to mutilate Lydia's body and extract her organs. John arrives and enters the cellar, where he finds Dennis' gun and sits in a chair with a spotlight on it. Dennis appears with a now-stuffed Lydia and puts on a ventriloquist act, and John realizes he is glued to the chair. Dennis' other victims have all been stuffed and are used in an extravagant diorama revealing that when they were children, John felt extreme jealousy for all the attention Dennis received. One night, in a moment of extreme anger and resentment, he intentionally hit Dennis in the head with a baseball bat while he slept. Afterward, John fabricated the story about Dennis falling down the stairs to cover up his violent act. As more stuffed bodies are revealed, it becomes unclear if what John is seeing is actually happening. Overwhelmed by the grotesque visions, John shoots himself. Dennis is suddenly slammed down by the Cadaver-Spider hybrid he constructed, but it's revealed that he is actually being restrained by police officers who drag him away.
The final scene shows Dennis in a padded room. It is revealed that The Cadaver is still in control while the real Dennis is trapped deep in his own subconscious, unable to escape. All Dennis can do now is wait to have the dream where he can finally "get off the carnival ride".