Surviving Evil (2009)

Set on the remote Mayaman Island in the Philippines, comes the story of six documentary filmmakers, who plan to spend six days shooting a survival special until they find out the island they perceived as uninhabited, reveals to have a Philippine folklore creature, the Aswang, lusting for their blood. The plot itself is intriguing. 6 people, a deserted island, and a mythical legend about a superior creature that looms over them. You can't go wrong with that, but somehow "Surviving Evil" didn't fully pull out all the stops when they had the chance.I thought the cast was finely assembled. The performances of the actors were, for the most part, solid. Besides the atmosphere which was well established and the aerial shots of the island being beautiful, the acting came in as an added bonus. The characters all had their own conflicts affecting their lives, but the film makes a mistake spending over 40 minutes to flesh out these characters in their setting, leaving the creature to roar in hunger in the background. It just took way too long for the suspense to build up and nearing the end of the film, it felt like it was rushed to squeeze in a few things. And don't even get me started on that "to be continued" TV show episode ending. I surely hope they intend to make a sequel, because the ending is lousy.All in all, "Surviving Evil" is decent horror worth a watch. You'll probably be exhausted with it for at least 30-40 minutes due to the lengthy character build-up taking away too much from the action to even begin, but when they deliver the last 90 minutes, it's pretty action packed. The directing and script may not be perfect; however, it's more than tolerable. Give the movie a shot. Sit back, relax and enjoy it.

Once again, various characters face a mystery the audience is already fully aware of the resolution of, prompting another movie that delivers little suspense or mystery.The monsters are shapeshifters, capable of transforming into any creature, which in a jungle setting like this would provide excellent paranoia fuel. This gets wasted entirely, however, as animals barely appear on screen with the characters. Incidentally, the monsters rarely use these abilities in attacking their victims anyways.Obviously it takes more than one actor to contribute anything worthwhile, and Billy Zane can only contribute slightly to a film with nothing else going for it. Even worse the monsters have almost no presence and aside from the times characters find evidence of their existence, it's as if nothing is happening.

A small crew arrive at an island in the Philippines to begin shooting a documentary about a tribe that lives on the island but little do they know that something else also lives on the island, ancient creatures with a thirst for blood.This UK/South African co production was written and directed by Terence Daw and it is an exceptional little monster movie boasting a well fleshed out storyline, the performances by Billy Zane (BLOODRAYNE), Natalie Mendoza (THE DESCENT) and Colin Moss (NUMBER 10) are great as well as the performances from the supporting cast, the creature design is one of the better designs I've seen in recent low budget films and the director shows a big degree of professionalism.However, this film is not really scary so I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking to get scared stiff but I would recommend it if you want to see a really good movie.

What an excellent horror film!Surviving Evil was original, gory and most of all fun. The film has received some unjust negative response on some sites (including this one) and though I agree that Surviving Evil might not be the best horror film ever made, it didn't stop me enjoying it. Surviving Evil takes place entirely on a remote island in the Philippines, where after we see a tribe slaughtered by (at first) unknown creatures, we are introduced to a TV documentary crew who are there to film a wilderness survival special.The acting was pretty good, with Billy Zane and Christina Cole being perfectly cast as the unwitting lovers who are stalked by baby loving, shape shifting, winged demons. Filmed in South Africa with British and African money, Surviving Evil had no big production names working on it, very little publicity and was made with a rumoured small budget (not that you could tell from the end result).In conclusion, Surviving Evil is an enjoyable thrill ride, with some very old fashioned music and some cracking special effects (A bit like a reworking of a classic adventure movie, except with more blood).