Evilenko (2004)

I have to admit, I've long been hesitant to watch "Evilenko". For one, I rather liked "Citizen X", thinking that very little could be added to the horrid story of Russian serial-killer Andrei Chikatilo. Another factor was that over the past few years we had gotten some very rotten acting by Malcolm McDowell (to mention only the tepid "Halloween"-Remake(s)), which made me believe that the old man had lost the last of his abilities."Evilenko" proved me wrong on both counts.Rather than being another retelling of "The Ripper of Rostov" (like I had come to expect), the story of "Evilenko" is actually only loosely based on the Chikatilo-case.Let's make that clear: McDowell plays a character that, in my opinion, counts amongst the most despicable, repulsive in cinema-history. A dirty old man out of the text-book from hell, without any redeeming qualities. Yet, through the sheer power of McDowells performance, the viewer cannot help but keep his eyes clued to the character of Evilenko – and worst, we're being sucked right into his mind, trying to analyze it, whether we want it or not. Nor does the actor allow us to perceive the character as a pure fiend or monster; he stays human though-out (despite the beast of a human) and that may well be the worst and most brilliant nuance of McDowells play.You may have noticed that this review mainly speaks about the actor McDowell. It could (and even should) be mentioned that the cinematography is splendid, the soundtrack compelling, fitting, the atmosphere is possibly darker and gloomier than "Citizen X", even. That and the actors (including the child-actors) to a large extent are excellent. But in essence the film is carried by Malcolm McDowell and thinking about the many negative reviews I've written about the actor in recent years; well they may not have been incorrect and won't apologize. McDowell has performed rather half a**sed in many inferior pictures, but I was definitely wrong with one thing: he still is a great actor, very well among the most powerful of his generation and I truly would have to pull my hat off, if I was wearing one.Not to call it a perfect movie, it definitely got it's weaknesses – loosing a little steam after the first half, the character which Ronald Pickup is slightly wasted, the revelation about Evilenkos father seems nothing but unnecessary and whether there was a need of Evilenkos "symbolic" powers of hypnotism remains questionable.Not withstanding, it's an excellent film, this much I can guarantee – however, I cannot guarantee that you will like it, be comfortable with it or feel better after having seen it. A horrible film, in the most positive of terms.7/10

evilenko is at times very uneasy to watch, some scenes make you feel horrid inside, as its based on a real paedophile serial killer that murdered over 50 little girls and women, and then ate them, its a nasty story and even though there is some nasty stuff in evilenko, it isn't at all as graphic or sick, as you would expect it to be, judging from the true story. instead its a solid thriller that has Malcolm McDowell's best performance in years as truly horrible man. its very well made, and has some haunting music at times, and for the most part is very accurate to the true story, the movie isn't for everyone, but its much better than the average serial killer biopic

It's such a depressing movie. When I was finished watching my mood had changed. I felt down in every sense of the word. I had the exact same feeling when I had watched Citizen X. There's something so sad about Andrei Chikatilo combined with former Soviet Union I just wanna scream out in pure agony! It's not bad but if you've seen Citizen X (they are very alike) you don't need to see this, and if you want to stay in a happy mood you shouldn't either! But if you don't care about that, go ahead and watch. It's not a bad movie, it keeps you focused the whole time. But it's very disturbing. It's roles like this (Andreis) that can actually make you hate the actor behind it, because he did such a good job playing Andrei that I don't feel like seeing his face ever again! (It's a compliment but not necessarily a good thing)

A few years ago, I saw "Citizen X". I vaguely remembered this great film and the horrifying story it was about when my attention was drawn to "Evilenko, the real citizen X" in the videostore. It turned out to be a big disappointment. The description on the DVD-cover is more exciting than the film itself. The story jumps randomly forward in time, leaving a lot of questions unanswered, never really grabbing one's attention. The murderer gets a lot of screen time in the first 20 minutes, so you feel like seeing events from his perspective. Clearly, he's a freak, but more in a pathetic than a horrifying manner. His ability to "hypnotise" his victims comes out of the blue near the end of the film and made no sense to me. A lot of could-be-interesting supporting characters don't get enough time to evolve beyond flat-characters.Watch Citizen X instead of Evilenko.