Posted: 05/27/2003

Evil Never Dies

(2003)

by Yasmin Hunt

A TBS Superstation Original Horror movie, Evil Never Dies will premier Sunday June 1, 8 p.m. (ET/MT)/7 p.m. (CT/PT).

Imagine sitting at a celebratory dinner with your closest friends and your significant other. The love of your life goes into the house to bring out a birthday cake and that the last time you see him/her alive again. An evil serial killer who has been stalking you has entered your house and killed the one person you knew you could trust implicitly. You manage to catch the killer and he was tried and sentenced to death. You watch him as he takes his last breath in the chamber after being injected with that toxic substance. You think he’s gone, but you’re wrong. You think you might be able to pick up the pieces of your shattered life, but you can’t. The rage consumes you, effects your work because Evil Never Dies.

Thus is the life of Mark Ryan played by Thomas Gibson (Darma & Greg, Eyes Wide Shut), a police officer whose wife was murdered at the hands of William Charles Lee (Simon Bossell), a brutal murderer. After being transferred to patrol duty at a prestigious college as punishment for his uncontrollable temper, Ryan discovers that the supposedly executed murder has become part of Professor Arkin’s (John Waters) strange scientific experiment resulting in Lee being brought back to life, his murderous tendencies still very much in tact. Katherine Heigel (Roswell, My Father the Hero) portrays Eve, a teacher’s assistant who unwittingly helps the professor with his secret experimentations.

As the body count rises, Ryan tries to catch Lee in a dangerous cat and mouse game while trying to clear his own name. Lee is framing Ryan for all the killings and there is no reasonable explanation as to how Lee could still be alive. After all,everyone saw him being executed and the professor’s secret experiment was—well—a secret. Ryan must avenge his wife’s death and protect those for whom he cares once and for all.

A TBS Superstation’s Original Horror movie, Evil Never Dies is directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Oz) from a script by Max Enscoe, Annie DeYoung, Farhad Mann and Barry Sandler. It is from a story by Star Price. The Wolper Organization in association with Warner Bros. Television produced Evil Never Dies, with Jeffrey Hayes (Christmas Rush) and Mark Wolper (The Mists of Avalon) serving as executive producer. Evil Never Dies will premier Sunday June 1, 8 p.m. (ET/MT)/7 p.m. (CT/PT).

The main aspect of the movie that attracted the cast and crew to the script was the possibility of medical science regenerating cells and bringing the dead back to life and their consequences. That is the main point that attracted me to the movie. I’d watch it to see if the movie can pull off a believable storyline. After mega hits on the big screen where the dead are always brought back, the question is can a made for TV movie make it as believable and attention grabbing?

Who am I to answer? I’m no screenwriter—yet. But I will tell you that the script could be better. I can also do without the love scene because I still refuse to believe people copulate when they know they are being stalked by a once dead now living mean man. “Ahhh someone’s after us, let’s go have sex!” I supposed Heigel’s character was supposed to breathe life back into Ryan after losing his wife the way he did, but everything happens so quickly, it’s like they’re rushing it. There really was no time for them to meet much less do the horizontal mambo.

In an interview, Thomas Gibson said this of the movie, “It’s a cop thriller with a horror film twist to it. It’s also the kind of movie you sit down with a box of popcorn on a rainy Saturday afternoon and have a great time watching.” To that I say, I agree—it is the kind of movie you sit down with a bowl of popcorn (or in my case s’mores) on a Saturday afternoon. Because you’ll watch this when there is nothing else on the tube—and you just might enjoy Evil Never Dies in all it’s made for TV glory.

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