Wickedly Evil (aka Bad Things in the Middle of Nowhere) (2023) Review
Wickedly Evil (aka Bad Things in the Middle of Nowhere) (2023) Review
Incompetent gangsters, Frankie (Joseph McGucken – THE DOIREANN PROJECT), Dancer (James Farrelly) and Gaz (Darryl Carter) have successfully robbed a notorious Irish crime family, but that’s the last thing that goes right for them… Spotted making a run for it by Clare (Louise Bourke – Who We Love), the mob’s youngest sister, things take a terrifying turn for the worse.
With Clare taken hostage, one of the gang missing and another nursing a gunshot wound, the men have no choice but to lay low in the remote Irish countryside in a safe house, where their problems continue to mount… Their boss, The Chief (Owen Roe – INTERMISSION), is concerned more about the cocaine and the cash than the safety of his crew.
Meanwhile, suspicions begin to brew among the local police, while the well-meaning next-door neighbour, Sadie (Cat L. Walsh), offers leftover lasagne and warnings about a couple that recently vanished in the area…As paranoia takes hold and tensions flare, the situation begins to spiral out of control and the gang soon discovers that evil lurks in the most unexpected places…
WICKEDLY EVIL is an absolute delight from start to finish. It recalled 2008’s British flick THE COTTAGE, with its central storyline of bungling criminals kidnapping the gobby daughter of a kingpin gangster figure whilst something sinister lurking in the shadows of their remote hideout. However, unlike the horrors unveiled in THE COTTAGE co-writer/director Garry Walsh holds off on the big reveal until much later with only the vaguest of clues as to where it may be heading scattered along the way.
En-route to the bloody and climatic reveal there’s plenty of laughs to be had. Dancer, the more erratic and carefree key character in the story could have potentially become annoying but no, actor James Farrelly plays things just the right side of annoying and surprisingly and paradoxically Dancer ends up becoming endearing the stupider he gets. If there is a niggle to be had with WICKEDLY EVIL it’s that the horror elements are so played down that the ending feels like an ill-fit and jarring in contrast to the giggles that preceded it.
TRAILER
Released on digital 13 November 2023
