The Field Guide to Evil (2018) User Reviews

Malignant Minds

[Fernando-Rodrigues · 4/10 · 9 July 2021]

Even though it has an interesting concept of entering other countries' folklore, this movie was badly written and weakly executed, to a point where we can't even understand the storyline of some segments. They completely wasted this movie's potential.

Should have been good..

[richardwworkman · 4/10 · 29 October 2021]

..but it isn't.

While well intentioned the collection missed its target.

We need more folklore in cinema but the tales were undone by some ropey direction, crap make up and some dodgy acting.

The frustrating thing is that some of the stories had some unsettling and disquieting moments, but these were offset by the absurdity of others.

A mixed bag

[mjsreg · 5/10 · 13 April 2019]

Although the stories are somewhat interesting, they do become tedious to watch after a while.

The visuals are good but each of the stories really didn't engage me, or leave me feeling as though I had watched anything of any significance.

The concept was good but unfortunately it delivers little.

Good concept - Awfully executed

[DAKKY404 · 3/10 · 27 October 2020]

This movie had an excellent concept and an exceptional introduction sequence.

But the stories... just didn't quite make sense.

Only three out of eight made complete sense - the American story, the Indian story and the Greek story.

The American story was laughable, the Indian story was vaguely creepy (probably the best one) and the Greek one was barely horror....

...much like the other stories, which came complete with bad effects, atrocious acting and incoherent storylines.

The concept was brilliant and I was so excited to see the movie... it's just a shame that I got all hyped up in the intro only to be let down by being downright confused throughout.

I have three stars. Two for the good stories (Greece and India) and one for the good concept.

If I were you, I wouldn't waste your time.

Great Concept, One Great Execution

[tabathazee · 5/10 · 18 October 2018]

I was very excited to see this at the Brooklyn Horror Film Fest after seeing the directors involved, but most segments were overwhelmingly mediocre. The concept is fantastic and most segments are visually compelling but ultimately fall flat.

The Cobbler's Lot, The Palace of Horrors, and Al Karisi were the strongest and best executed, where Melon Heads was the weakest, being laughable at best. The Cobbler's Lot was definitely the stand-out short, with a beautiful muted palette of unique visuals and dark comedy. Inspired by silent era and 70s psychedelic film, this was a charming ending to a disappointing anthology.

Goats

[Milkjugmusic · 5/10 · 19 December 2019]

There are definitely goats. Not too many. Also not too few. Probably the most brutal goat murder ive seen since Jurassic Park. If you like goats this one is for you!

Story is a lie

[nogodnomasters · 7/10 · 3 May 2020]

This is an international anthology of local folklore. The stories are short. Some are good with a twist. Most were interesting. The topics included a haunted palace, the kallikantzaro, the trud, the Djinn, a virgin tale, melonheads, a princess curse, and of course Qunicy Jones, The Drude.

Guide: F-word Nudity (Marlene Hauser , Luzia Oppermann, Urszula Zerek )

Gore is not horror

[tiefirst · 3/10 · 20 October 2021]

I'm no expert when it comes to myths and folklore, but the subject matter does interest me. I had never heard of any of these stories. That doesn't mean they aren't, but in eight tries I figured at least one would ring home.

Now whether or not these are familiar tales doesn't have any bearing on the quality of the movie representing them. However, all of the elements in movie making certainly have something to say about the movie's quality.

Some of these shorts were very lean on dialogue. That's not always a deal breaker though. There are a lot of great movies out there that use very little dialogue. The difference is that the good ones still manage to tell a clear story and captivate their audience. The silent shorts in this anthology were just confusing and distant. One segment traded dialogue for a baby crying sound effect on a loop. Hey movie maker, we get it. The baby is crying. Make the point and get off it. A constant baby crying is as distracting as when they have a phone ringing or a car horn going off for way too long. It just becomes an annoying noise.

I didn't realize how bad the acting was in this until the American segment played out. Wow, was that bad. That one played like a student film. The parents were just the worst. No chemistry with each other or their son. The boy was everything wrong with child actors all wrapped up in one.

And lets not leave out the gore. Why do inexperienced filmmakers and viewers, for that matter, think that gore and horror go hand in hand? Why? Being frightened, startled, psychologically tormented, or just creeped out are all valid aspects of horror. I don't know where or why gore seems to think it has a place here. If its done right and done with purpose, it can be very effective (Bone Tomahawk comes to mind). This entire anthology never once used gore to an advantage, but it used it in every segment. Just trying to gross someone out isn't horror.

I enjoyed

[eaardaturan · 17 March 2018]

Good movie south by southwest, interesting concenpt bringing shorts together. Worked really well

Hollywood myths with some great eye candy

[lorddrewsus · 6/10 · 11 April 2019]

All of these stories are great. One of them maybe has some editing issues, but the myths hold up. The camera work is good and most of the visuals are eerie. The cool story and art in the one at the end is worth it alone.

An imaginative idea cut short by the actual movie

[jchavero93 · 1/10 · 30 December 2021]

The idea of this film is actually pretty interesting. With short horror, almost vignettes, from all around the world and culture specific tales and creatures. But that's about all that ended up good here. All the short stories were not scary in the least. With most being weird or gross at best. It was as if it was a bad art film combined with a bad horror film. It is very "artistic" interesting direction of the scenes and acting, but at the same time the acting is terrible and like a film school project while having slightly above the worst special effects. The film will really test your patience. Some of the stories really made me want to fast forward through parts of them and i needed to begrudgingly check a few times how much longer was left in the film. As an anthology, I felt that there were either too many stories in general or possibly it could have been split into multiple films, like other anthologies. Overall I think that the idea was interesting, but it went way too far into the artsy imaginative type of role and wasn't able to secure the horror it set out for, nor even the general interest from people looking for something to watch.

Horror Tales from Around the Globe

[Reviews_of_the_Dead · 8/10 · 3 April 2019]

This is an interesting film that I had my first opportunity to see at the Nightmares Film Festival. This is an anthology horror film that tells 8 unrelated short films that are from different countries and time periods. The official synopsis for this film is there is known as myths, lore and folktales. They were created to give logic to mankind's darkest fears; these stories laid the foundation for what we now know as the horror genre. The first tale for this film is called Die Trud. This one comes from Austria and it takes place in a much simpler times. We see a group of women as they go about their daily lives. There is a young woman who happens upon another. She is hitting herself in the face, causing her nose to bleed. We see the reason is she is pretending to have gotten her period. The women all think she is pregnant and has sinned as she isn't married. Our main character is intrigued by this girl and they kiss. She is caught by her mother and forced to repent for her sins. Odd things start to happen and she is visited by the creature, Die Trud as it is drawn to her guilt. Is this really happening or is it a dream? This story I found to be quite intriguing, because it really seems to be a tale about forbidden love. We never actually learn if Die Trud is seeing is real or is this just her guilt manifesting in her nightmares? She has fallen into lust for the character that is deemed to have done unholy thing and now is with child. Being that this is a Christian people, she has sinned. It just worked for me that the guilt of religion and what her mother tells her makes this to be a story I was into. I really liked that it is left up to the viewer to decide what is real and what isn't. As for the second story, it comes from Turkey and is entitled, Al Karisi. This tale is about a young woman who is pregnant. She is tending to a sickly older woman, whom she still a pin from, and then she goes into labor. She is visited by a djinn of childbirth. It can come in the form of a cat or a goat, which for this is primarily the latter. The young mother loses her mind as the creature takes over the form of the older woman and she doesn't know what is real and what's not. I thought this story was pretty interesting as well. There isn't a lot in the way of dialogue as the older woman can't really speak and it is just animals aside from that. This one seems to deal with a couple different things, with the primary one being post-partum depression. How everything that plays out, that was definitely how I saw this one as she is in over her head with her husband away. On top of that though, there is a moment where the young mother steals a pin from the older woman. She seems to be punished for the act that she committed there as well. I did like the idea of using goats, which always seem to be used due to their look with evil creatures. This one had a solid ending as well. The third story is The Kindler and the Virgin which comes from Poland. For this tale, we have a man who is approached by an entity promising to make him all wise, he just has to eat the brain of 3 recently deceased. He does go about this, with one of them being an infant. This film has an interesting end as it takes place right into World War II. This one I thought had an interesting premise to it. It actually is the first ones that was difficult for me to figure out the allegory here. You could read this as the man just went crazy and thought that the entity was telling him to do what he did. I really want to rewatch this one to see if the main character predicts something with what happens at the end. The ending has a military attack. I'm assuming it would be the Nazi invasion. What is interesting about this after my second viewing is the recommendation he gives during his trial for what he did. It is morbid and that is why he is locked away. The fourth story comes from the United States and is called Beware the Melonheads. This begins with a warning that the Melonheads are a group of children that are living in the wilderness that are quite violent. A couple goes out to a cabin in the woods to get away for the weekend with their son. The parents are having problems and the child can see it. He befriends a boy in the woods whose face is hidden. When he tells his parents they are at first concerned, but end up believing it is an imaginary friend. It turns out that this boy is quite real and there are others. This was the first misfire for me in terms of the stories they are telling. I think they should have probably gone with the Black Eyed Children, which is a chilling tale I've heard before. The look of the children in this one I thought was a little too comical. The tone of this short is also somewhat of a comedy and I don't think it fit with the other stories that had come before and even after. The acting wasn't the strongest either. What I did find interesting though was the parents arguing in front of the child. This can have some negative effects and I think we kind of get that here. The Melonheads play on that with him. Even if the Melonheads weren't real, a child could use an imaginary friend due to dealing with the stress of his home life. The next tale is Whatever Happened to Panagas the Pagan? This takes place on Christmas in Greece back in 1984. The atmosphere feels in how they celebrate the holiday and that even though Christianity had come to the area, this island doesn't necessarily follow it. This is a visually atmospheric tale of what happens when the gate to the underworld opens and a goblin escapes. This segment was a little bit odd to me. It wasn't really scary like some of the other ones, but it definitely had an interesting feel that fit the film. This one I took was that it is this island resisting the new ways and wanting to embrace the past. Going even further though, there seems to be a mob mentality. It also seemed to be enjoying the darker side of things with what they do with the goblin and what someone does when they find the open gate as well. It was different and interesting for sure. It comes next to a tale from India entitled The Palace of Horrors. This had a man who worked for the circus ran by the Ringling brothers. His job is to seek out new talent for the side show and this brings him to a Mad King's palace out in the middle of the jungle. This King had been collecting those that were different and it gives this place an eerie vibe. The man hears about an entity that is kept in a space beneath a trap door. He demands to see it, even though he's told that no one can set eyes upon it. This man won't be told no though. This story really intrigued me for a few reasons. The first one is the setting. We have a palace in the middle of nowhere and that setting is great. It is even scarier that it is filled with people that are different. Now I know that is horrible of me to say, but it is effective. This segment is also in black and white as well. It is interesting that I know there were side shows, but I never thought about it was someone's job to seek out these people for it. This one is quite Lovecraftian and I can see that. Especially with why all of these oddities live here and whatever in the hidden space as well. The seventh story is A Nocturnal Breath and it comes from Germany. This one has a dreamlike story and takes place in the 1780s. There is a brother and sister that live in the cabin. They are pretty isolated which helps the atmosphere. Something is inside her. It comes out as an evil mouse. The brother doesn't want to hurt her, but when this creature touches things it ruins them. He has to make a decision for the survival of them both. I actually didn't mind this story and the premise was interesting. It has a slow burn type feel, which I'm a big fan of. The dilemma is good in that when your sibling, whom he dearly loves, but she has an evil presence within her. If this entity isn't defeated, they are going to die as it is killing off their animals. It is a moral dilemma they have to deal with and I found it pretty interesting. Even more so what he decides to do to try to save them. It also interesting what she does as well. The final story is from Hungary and it is called Cobbler's Lot. This one definitely plays like a Grimm's Fairy Tale. It is about two brothers who are both cobblers. The younger one is the better of the two and actually runs the family business. His brother is evil and hates his younger brother. They both fancy the princess and the younger brother tries to win her hand by going into the forest to retrieve this special flower. The problem is an enticing spirits there and his brother's nefarious plan for the princess. This was an interesting take actually. The segment is in color, but it is filmed like a silent film. The make-up makes them look like actors from the era and they overacting which they had to since they couldn't convey with their words, which I happened to really enjoy. As I said above, it has that fairy tale feel in that the king wants the younger brother to prove his love in order to have his daughter's hand in marriage. This story takes quite a turn and I thought it was a pretty fitting end for how fairy tales actually go. Now with that said, I would say that this film isn't bad. I thought most of the stories were interesting and the acting was pretty good as well for what they needed. I do feel the campiness of Beware the Melonheads was just a little bit out of place for the rest of the film. The effects for the film were good, didn't have any issues there. The score of the film was diverse and fitting for what was needed throughout the film. I do think there are some issues, but still an interesting anthology from a bunch of different filmmakers and stories from around the world. That was probably my favorite aspect as well.

Folk Horror Anthology.

[midnightmosesuk · 7/10 · 24 April 2021]

I pretty much enjoyed the whole film, the quality was uneven but the stories were good overall. What Happened to Panagos the Pagan and The Cobblers Lot were particularly enjoyable for me as the cinematography was quite beautiful, especially the cave shots in the former.

I hope there is a sequel as they featured no folk tales from the British Isles. We have some absolute corkers.

A cool addition to the Folk Horror genre.

It was a neat idea

[miami1925 · 3/10 · 30 September 2020]

It was a cool idea to have a collection of folklore/horror stories from different countries made by and in those countries, but dear god, the execution on the majority of these short films is awful. For about 2/3s of these stories, the plot and acting is so poorly done that they're almost hard to watch. I wouldn't call it a complete waste of time, but don't go into it with any higher expectations than an extremely low-budget student film.

Bedtime stories to put you to sleep.

[cleaver1968 · 3/10 · 27 August 2018]

Boring doesn't even begin to describe this grimfest. Two stories out of the eight (the American one and the weird fairy tale at the end) just about manage to garner interest. The rest are either so 'deep' they fail to make their point, or gross out that they'd turn your stomach. Either way this is one book of tales to leave on the shelf.

Very cool (underdeveloped) world wide concept

[Howling_at_the_Moon_Reviews · 5/10 · 5 August 2022]

Overall I think this was a great idea but was not executed to its full potential. Each story in this folk horror anthology had positives and negatives, but I don't think not one of them had the whole package, which I would expect from at least a few of them (if any I would say 5 and 8)

1. Beautiful with seemingly good acting. Monster looked silly and story over all unfulfilling and confusing

2. Not bad, decent story and a bit spookier but the girls whimpering became irksome.

3. Loved the look of this one and the story was intriguing but once again the ending was confusing and unfulfilling.

4. This is the first one that was just bad. I was beginning to become tired of the lack of dialogue, but once I got to this one I ate my words. The dialogue was awful, story was silly and the performances were stilted.

5. This one was probably the best. Makeup and special effects were super cool and the story was spooky and intriguing.

6. The acting and execution on this one were not really up to par but it was one of the more interesting stories.

7. This one looked beautiful and was weird and spooky but the ending left me at meh.

8. Quite liked the style of this one. Added nice variety and felt quite original with a Tim Burton flare.

I feel like for most this would probably land at a 4 but because I love the concept, am partial to folk horror, appreciated the positives and also have a love for and am forgiving with indi cinema I feel a 5 is appropriate. This is certainly not going to be for everyone. Many people will watch this and slowly become more and more annoyed with the underdeveloped stories. However if you take into account budget, time/length, and the giant scale this project took on across the world... it's pretty cool. I would recommend, but to someone who loves folk tales and has patience lol.

A lot of wasted potential...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 23 November 2019]

Well, for an anthology, then the 2018 "The Field Guide to Evil" wasn't a particular masterpiece. Not even while brandishing eight different stories based on real myths and folklore.

What went wrong here? Well, for starters the fact that most of the stories weren't really all that compelling or interesting. Might be a bit harsh to say, but it is the truth. While the visuals in the various segments definitely are interesting and mostly good, the contents of the stories just mostly fail to capture my interest and it felt mediocre at best. And with such an output, it became somewhat of an ordeal to sit through eight different stories.

Now, don't get me wrong, some of the stories actually are fairly good, but in overall, the anthology just failed to be all that interesting.

I do like the fact that they went around the world to put different folklore and myths from different countries into the anthology, because it definitely added variety.

The acting in the different segments was definitely good enough, just a shame that the actors and actresses didn't have an enticing script to work with in most of the stories, because it made the anthology drag behind and suffer.

If you do make it through this feature length anthology, and I do sincerely applaud you if you can endure that, chances are slim to none that you will ever return to watch "The Field Guide to Evil" a second time.

It felt like you never really got to submerge deep enough into the various tales to fully understand or get into the myth and folklore. The storytelling and narratives just felt way too superficial, given the limitations of time to tell each story.

This anthology definitely had potential, but it just ultimately failed where it mattered the most. As such, my rating for "The Field Guid to Evil" becomes a mere less than mediocre four out of ten stars.

A senseless abomination

[hlias_nastos · 6 April 2019]

After watching this senseless abomination, which its main result was the sick, shocking, disgusting, bloodstained scenes, whose only purpose were to fascinate the viewers who have similar IQ with the one of its creators, I came into two conclusions: First, that this anthology is actually a huge insult to the great traditions of the countries mentioned, (a kind of degrading of these amazing and magical folklore stories) And secondly that surely there is a remarkable channel of communication and cooperation between each idiotic, shallow, without any real talent and without awareness of any kind of work of imaginative literature, foolish filmmaker. I am quite sure though that such a hideous and without substance result, which generally seems to be a"tendency" that appear in most forms of art besides the 7th, won't find any fertile ground for long. Guys, it is OK to produce a correct Cinematography but I think you should open a book once in a while.

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

[theognis-80821 · 7/10 · 7 April 2024]

T. S. Eliot's declaration illuminates the commonalities shared by these eight short horror films, based upon folktales from eight different countries (Austria, Turkey, Poland, United States, Greece, India, Germany, and Hungary). They are usually centered around children, the elderly, the disabled, the deformed and animals. The settings are often natural ones: forests, fields, streams, and ponds. More importantly, they share skillful direction, writing, acting, cinematography and music direction done at a high level. The terror to be found in the banality of everyday life, our remoteness from God and the proximity of the diabolical are shared themes.

Cant use horror correctly

[aucottjohn · 1/10 · 5 February 2020]

So they try to gross you out instead.

I gave up half way through and I NEVER do that.

Please stop trying to pass this dross off as horror.

Making people feel sick isn't scary.

Cinematically well done

[mangoamante · 6/10 · 16 August 2020]

This anthology was cinematically well done. Keep in min it's an anthology of different stories, done by different folks. Some of the stories are more interesting than others but I like that they were built from different folk tales, most of which I hadn't previously heard of.

tedious and unbearable.. if you manage to stay awake

[dyingxmidwestern-1 · 1/10 · 10 April 2019]

Couldn't make it past the second "story"- absolutely banal trash. no real plot and certainly not remotely scary. this should not have been made. it's an overall waste of money and resources. if this constitutes "original horror" no wonder garbage like the pet sematary remake keeps winning over the dullards.

Tasteful and Original

[dwsnee · 8/10 · 3 May 2018]

Cute concept (world folklore anthology); well executed.

This was much more subtle than a lot of mainstream horror which I think will subvert some watchers expectations, either positively or negatively.

I found the opening short examining the socio-religious stigmas surrounding homosexuality to be artful and insightful with a positive empowering message that wasn't crass or overstated.

At least one short examined elder care through the lens of witchcraft. The last short was a delightful dark comedy--Grimm meets Aesop.

It was cool to see something new in horror under the guise of being old.

Liked the Indian and Greek ones the best

[ttamtokyos · 7/10 · 5 May 2021]

Interesting, strange bunch of folk tales, weird as hell and very creepy in some parts. Ashim Ahluwalia and Yannis Veslemes' films stole the show. The others were a bit meh.

Just don't

[pjkaustin · 1/10 · 6 February 2020]

This was the biggest pile of crap I've seen in a long time....crap stories... crap acting...extremely low budget, and where was the horror element. Just please, I implore you to stay far away from this waste of time.