Review of "Evilenko" (DVD)

What sort of man could rape, kill, and eat dozens of women and children, yet remain uncaught for nearly twenty years? Meet "Evilenko".

The main character is based on prolific Russian woman/child killer/cannibal Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo. A Russian professor, Chikatilo murdered over 50 women and children from 1982 to 1990. He enjoyed cutting them, raping them while they bled, then killing them - and, in some cases, eating them.

"Evilenko" is written and directed by Italian journalist David Grieco, who adapted the screenplay from his own book on Chikalito, "The Communist Who Ate Children". Unlike "Citizen X" - a film on the same murders which follows the Russian police's side of the story - "Evilenko" focuses on the murderer himself.

It's 1982, and Russia's Communist government is failing. Devout, disillusioned Communist Andrej Romanovic Evilenko (played wonderfully ghoulishy by McDowell) attempts his first attack on a young girl, is fired from his job, and begins his downward spiral into depravity. The murders are never shown, though the police descriptions of the bodies and the quick glipmses of murder scenes (including a gore-spattered train bathroom) are plenty gruesome.

After a couple dozen victims are found, Detective Vadim Timurovic Lesiev (Csokas) is assigned to track down whoever is raping and killing young Russian children and women. He's chosen, in part, because he has a very young daughter and thus motivation to capture a man who preys on young children. From there, the chase is slow-building, but holds your interest.

All of the main cast give compelling performances. Ronald Pickup is notable in his (too brief) appearance as a gay psychiatrist who helps Lesiev crack the case. Though McDowell is frighteningly convincing as an ordinary guy gone twisted, there are moments when he spills over from sick into cartoonishly evil. Some of the scenes of him interacting with children border on cliché of the "Want some candy, little girl?" variety. There's no subtlety in his coercion of his victims - he's too sinister to be truly scary. In addition, there are a couple of jailhouse scenes that border on Hannibal Lecter-ness

Also, the killer's motivation is never fully explored. At one point in the movie, a psychologist warns of an epidemic of disenfranchised old Communists turning into serial killers, implying that the fall of Russian Communism is enough to turn people into child-murdering cannibals. Then later, we learn that Evilenko's anti-Communist father died in a labor camp when he was a child, and that he harbors a deep bitterness towards his absence. So which is it - does he kill because Communism fell, or because he hates his dead dad? "Evilenko" just throws both ideas out there without really exploring either one.

Lacking the gore and fright scenes to be a real horror film, "Evilenko" may be still nasty enough to be interesting to horror buffs. However, it's a bit slow-paced for a thriller, and doesn't delve deep enough to be a good psychological study of a murderer. What makes "Evilenko" worth a view is the shivers you'll get watching Malcolm McDowell stare point-blank at you from behind those Russian-era tortoise-frame glasses.