- Directed by Allan Piper
- Written by Allan Piper
- Stars Jennifer Leigh Houston, Charlie Tucker, Sally Struthers, Katy Sullivan, Helen Hong
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYPi18BczBc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The cast, script, direction, settings, and props all made for a really good movie. It’s heavy on the humor with plenty of horror elements too. Tropes are used effectively, and it’s got some clever bits. We liked it a lot, more than we expected.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man plays a prank on his wife that goes very badly. Credits roll.
“East Village” is abbreviated eVil. A couple, Alex and Ben, argues about how the eVil apartment is too cheap. Parker, the realtor, takes them inside, describing it all the way up the steps. It’s fully “decorated,” but it’s very dark. She mentions some drawbacks, including the former owner killing his entire family. “A lot of the previous owners came to horrific ends.” Still, it’s got high ceilings, a garden, and a big kitchen, so there’s that. They take it!
We cut to a woman who bought a ventriloquist dummy at a thrift store, and it ended up killing all her roommates. Or at least she dreamed it. Ned and Lorne are “Psychics,” and Lorne does a reading on the doll- she used it as a sex toy.
Alex and Ben move into the new apartment. Oliver, Hedy, and Ben’s sister help with the move. Alex figures out that turning on the lights actually makes the place darker. The more lamps she plugs, the darker the place gets. Late that night, doors open and close, and Sis listens to a weird man outside yelling at the sky. When she sees a New York cockroach, she decides to go to a motel instead.
On the second day, more things act strangely in the house. Alex, Ben, and Sis go to the carnival. They go on a haunted house ride, and Alex gets stuck inside. Ned and Lorne walk up and Lorne grabs Alex’s head– “They need our help,” Lorne laments. That night, Alex experiences some weirdness with the doors.
At the carnival, Lorne starts tracking down Alex from a photo. Alex cleans the black mold from the bathroom, but then it all grows back worse. She does a voiceover ad that sounds great to her, but her agent says it’s all messed up. When she listens, there are ghostly voices on the recording. She’s ready to move out now, but Ben says it’s time to see her psychiatrist again.
After three weeks, Alex complains about her psychiatrist to Hedy, her ex-wife. Meanwhile, Lorne has a nightmare about Alex, who is sleepwalking. The power goes out, so Alex has to go into the basement.
Oliver comes over and meets Lisa, the neighbor, who came over for a dinner party. Except, she’s not real and makes him choke on an olive. One of the EMTs has a heart attack going up the steps, but he doesn’t have insurance. Oliver dies, but Ben has to leave town for a work thing, leaving Alex home alone to deal with sleep paralysis.
Alex and Hedy go to see Madame Moon, a Chinese Fortune teller– no, she’s a financier, a fortune maker. They look up a couple that sound like “The Conjuring couple, only gay.” Yeah, it’s Ned and Lorne. They know all about her building’s vicious history. There have been hundreds and hundreds of deaths in that apartment. All the deaths come in threes; Oliver was one, who will be the other two? It’ll calm down after two more people die.
Alex and Hedy go looking for Reena, the actual owner of the apartment. She may be letting Alex and Ben take the hit for the deaths so she can move back in. Reena lives in a storage locker and has a sad story for them. She’s very sympathetic until she starts getting racist and homophobic. When she gets all MAGA on them, the conversion is over.
This leads to a haunted karaoke number with Alex and Hedy which leads to a kiss between the old exes. She goes home, but the strangeness hasn’t stopped. She calls “The Great Manfredo,” a guy that Ned recommended. Meanwhile, Ned and Lorne sense that it’s time for the final two deaths to happen, so they hurry right over there.
Manfredini is strange and reads tea leaves and Alex’s palm; he just might be a creeper. As he drugs Alex and moves on her, the ghost attacks and kills him– that makes two. The ghost slowly stomps after Alex, who is too drugged up to walk any faster. She sees all sorts of strangeness as she walks through the basement. She does eventually escape and runs to the bar. Meanwhile, Ben is coming home early.
Ben arrives, and it’s clear that something is wrong in the apartment. Alex, Lorne, and Ned arrive right behind him. The ghosts possess Ben, and kill Lorne with an Ax. That’s three deaths.
Alex, Hedy, and Ben go to the storage locker and confront Reena. “There’s nothing in that apartment that’s as evil as you.” We see that Lorne didn’t really die, he’s hospitalized – they used the story to lure Reena back into the apartment, which wastes no time in taking its third death.
Later, Alex and Ben have learned to live with the apartment, which is still active but harmless. It’s still better than a more expensive place. Hedy, Lorne, and Ned come over for dinner and drinks. Happy ending?
Brian’s Commentary
It’s just full of horror movie cliches, but it works with them and rolls with the inherent silliness. The orange-faced man in the top hat is actually pretty cool for a villain. Sally Struthers as a horror movie baddie? Why not?
The trailer didn’t blow us away, but the film itself was far better than we expected.
Kevin’s Commentary
I especially enjoyed the likable characters and the decor of the apartment. It’s a very fun movie, and like Brian said, was better than I expected. I would highly recommend it.