Evidence (2013 film)

Evidence

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi
Produced by
Written by John Swetnam
Starring
Music by Atli Örvarsson
Cinematography Lukas Ettlin
Edited by Paul Covington
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • July 19, 2013 (2013-07-19)
Running time
 98 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Evidence is a 2013 crime thriller horror film directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by John Swetnam. The film stars Torrey DeVitto, Caitlin Stasey, Harry Lennix, Svetlana Metkina, Dale Dickey, Radha Mitchell, and Stephen Moyer and was released by Bold Films on July 19, 2013. It follows two detectives on their investigation of a brutal massacre with their only leads being recording devices found at the crime scene.

Plot

The film begins by showing the aftermath of the massacre in Kidwell, Nevada.

Police are first seen going over the crime scene showing the aftermath of everything that had happened; The story then moves to a press conference with reporters asking questions about the massacre to the lead Detective Burquez who states that the police are looking into the matter. After the conference a disheveled Detective Reese asks to be put on the case to which Detective Burquez relents. They move to a situation room with a TV and multiple computers going over information from the case, here we learn there were four video cameras found at the crime scene and two survivors, They load up the first video camera and begin to watch.

We see a woman practicing lines for a play, then the video jumps to a man playing guitar and a surprise party for the woman celebrating getting a part in a play. This is Leann and her friend Rachel behind the camera. The video shows Leann and her boyfriend Tyler at Leann's play where he proposes, she declines and he walks off stage angry. The video shows the girls making a video to Tyler to apologize for the propsal and to continue with a trip that was previously planned. The three are shown getting onto a shuttle bus heading to Las Vegas driven by Ben, along the way we see people being picked up and we meet Vicki, a dancer and Steven, a 16-year-old runaway.

While watching the video the detectives notice another person on the bus, a woman. When zooming in, they notice she is carrying a military duffle bag full of money. Focusing in on the name on the bag, they get the name Fleishman.

While on route to Las Vegas, some of the passengers notice they're not on any main roads, but dirt roads. Rachel asks where they are going when the bus hits something and the bus flips. Outside they realize that what they hit was barbed wire. Ben mentions he saw a truck repair shop a few miles back, and the group begins to walk back to the repair shop. They arrive at the shop where Ben looks around for a phone to call for help, and is able to locate a damaged service phone. He then heads back to the group. Ben asks Rachel if her camera has a light, since the sun will be going down, and Vicki opens a gift box with a small hand held camera also with a light. Ben tells the women to gather everyone together. As Rachel goes looking for Leann in one of the buildings, the lights flicker on and Steven stumbles out of a room covered in blood; chasing after him, the others find Steven and Rachel. Leann believes she sees someone and they all run into one of the buildings.

The video pauses and we watch as the detectives contemplate Steven as the first victim. We also find out about the mystery woman on the bus, Katrina Fleishman. Katrina is the wife of a military man hospitalized with post traumatic stress disorder. Katrina withdrew her husbands savings worth $90,000 in cash and left town.

The detectives begin looking at camera number two from Ben's perspective. He locates a fuse box and is able to get the electricity turned on, the camera then stops and changes. We see the camera adjust to another person in the group. A woman walking towards a bundle of debris is looking for a flare gun, but she is not able to reach it as she is grabbed from behind, and her face is smashed into the debris while she begins to scream and fight. The camera drops as we watch the woman have her arm burned off by a cutting torch and set on fire.

Detective Reese sees a figures reflection in a pane of glass from the debris when the woman is grabbed, they use a computer to focus in on the reflection and a welding mask can be seen. Detective Burquez automatically makes a connection to Katrina Fleishman's husband, a machinist for the military and immediately wants his picture out to the public. Detective Reese continues to watch the remaining video.

Back to camera one; Rachel is heard crying and everyone is moving to one of the empty buildings after Steven's death. Everyone is frightened and begin to fight, when they are able to calm down, they begin to talk about how they can get out of the area. The video jumps to Rachel and Ben trying to go to the bus for tools with the help of Leann and Tyler looking out. Rachel is able to activate the night vision on her camera, and they begin to walk towards the bus. Once at the bus, Ben looks for tools to help fix the phone they found earlier. They search for the tools within the bus and Ben shows Rachel they have a flare gun on the bus. Both are startled when they hear a noise outside and Ben gets out of the bus to confront the killer and is presumably murdered. The killer tries to get to Rachel with his welding tool by going straight through the bus, but Rachel is able to run away and make it back to the repair shop.

Back at the shop, Rachel learns from Vicki that Leann and Tyler went looking for her and have not returned. Katrina tells the other women "he's here" and Rachel is able to grab the camera and look outside. They see a person in a welding mask and watch as he shoots the flare gun at the women, Katrina is hit in the stomach. All the women begin to run and find shelter in a nearby building where they find Leann. Leann explains that Tyler was taken and she doesn't know what happened to him. Rachel uses her camera's night vision and notices the flare gun out in the yard with some debris the women discuss the best way to get the flare gun and Vicki takes the initiative and decides to make a run for the gun. Leann gives Vicki her ring for luck and Vicki leaves to get the gun. They watch as Vicki goes towards the gun but once there they watch as the killer murders Vicki. Leann and Rachel huddle together after watching Vicki die when they hear someone outside the building and Ben stumbles in. Ben was left to die but was able to make it back to the repair shop with the wires needed to fix the phone.

The frame pauses and the technician tells Detective Reese he was able to find footage on Katrina's phone camera, Detective Burquez comes in to explain Katrina's husband has been located and is going to be arrested in a Hollywood hotel, we then see what is on Katrina's camera.

Katrina, looking in the camera, begins talking about how the police will be scrambling over the scene to find out what is happening. She makes a dying request to be with the one she loves Gerry Fleishman, her husband, and asks to be buried in the plot next to his. She goes over some of her husbands mental and physical disabilities after coming back from war, about celebrities being famous for no reason, and she speaks of God; the camera then stalls and flickers to a new image of the killer, we watch as Katrina's neck is sliced and she is killed while her camera records.

The detectives receive a call from a police officer in Hollywood who explains to Detective Burquez that Gerald Fleishman has been dead for approximately a week having shot himself and leaving only a note to Katrina stating she should withdraw their savings and go to Las Vegas to enjoy life. Now without a suspect they attempt to figure out who the killer may be. They continue to watch the video on Katrina's phone and are able to read something the killer wrote on a mirror "Fear me like you fear God." The detectives realize that the crime was planned and staged for them to figure out, that the killer wasn't new to killing and had killed before. They begin to focus on Ben, the bus driver, since the trip was non-stop and Ben had mentioned a stop while driving down the gravel road. The detectives begin watching Rachel's video again.

We see Ben, Leann and Rachel move to another building where Katrina is found dead. They move to a barn where Ben barricades the door, but while the women aren't looking, he disappears. Leann is grabbed and pulled from behind being taken by someone unknown and the camera goes dark as Rachel hides. Rachel turns the night vision on and sees Ben come towards her and fall; she removes the wire from his arm and attempts to re-connect the phone when, from the corner of the room, the killer comes forward and swings the welding torch at her. She is able to block him and fight back, even going so far as to making it out of the barn when the building explodes. Rachel is knocked away by the blast, but the killer comes after her and is able to grab her and, with the cutting torch, lights Rachel on fire.

The video freezes as the detectives watch but no more footage is left from the camera. They have one camera left to watch, Steven's cell phone camera. The technician loads the footage and we see the truck stop.

Steven begins talking to his mom about running away and scanning the scene in front of him, as he turns he sees Leann and Tyler argue in a building about Tyler's proposal and how Leann doesn't want to marry yet. As Leann storms out Tyler sees Steven, becomes angry and walks out the door, the video flickers out.

The detectives turn to the technician who tells them the memory card in the phone has gone missing, Detective Reese notices the news on one of the screens and asks for the volume to be raised. The media has gotten the footage from the crime scene and released it to the public. Now they attempt to figure out how the footage was leaked and Burquez is requested in her superior's office. Officer Jenson comes in with the background requested on the bus driver Ben whose real name is William Gentry, it shows he had been convicted of grand larceny for attempting to rob a bank in the past. Reese has an idea while looking at the case photos and leaves to speak with one of the survivors. We watch through the interrogation room camera as Detective Reese begins speaking to Leann.

Detective Reese begins to explain to Leann that Tyler is in the hospital and doctors are caring for him. They begin to discuss grief and Reese tells Leann his history with grief, how his daughter had been abducted and later found murdered. He explains that a serial killer kills for attention and sport, they like to play god. He begs Leann to try to remember the events from the crime, Reese begins to ask about Ben and Leann explains what happened just after Rachel, Ben and herself entered the barn to fix the damaged phone. She explains being grabbed and later coming to only to watch Rachel fight the killer, how she was able to crawl out of the building before the explosion and saw Steven choking on something and covered in his blood. Detective Reese realizes the time line is mixed up, he tells Leann to go home and rest before leaving for the morgue. At the morgue, Reese asks about the autopsies on the bodies and asks about Steven specifically. Steven was still alive before the building exploded and had been dragged to the building to be burned when it exploded but Leann had mentioned him choking on something. Detective Reese looks at Steven's body and realizes there is something lodged in his throat, and it's the missing memory card. They take the memory card back to the situation room to view the content. Once plugged in they attempt to see what's on Steven's memory card. The memory cards resolution is degraded but while watching the video Reese sees they can pull images from the video, he works to clear the few frames they have and they recover an image of Tyler wearing the welders mask. With concrete evidence against Tyler Detective Burquez releases his identity to the press being named the killer.

In the office Detective Reeses sits while continuing to watch the video from Rachel's camera, here he notices glitches in the video. While Burquez is speaking at the conference the reporters begins receiving messages and Burquez is told of a new development. Reese realizes the videos have been edited and made to look a certain way for the police to view with the edits being released to the media. The video now showing Rachel and Leann planning every step of the massacre and framing Tyler for everything. We watch as both women murder each person and stage fake evidence for what they call their first movie together, the police realize they have been duped by the women and made to see what they wanted them to see. In the last scene both women come on screen and tell the camera and audience "Remember the next time someone's filming you, you could be in the sequel."

Cast

Reception

The film received negative reviews by critics. It currently holds a 6% approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 3/10 and 16 counted reviews.[1] Metacritic came to a Metascore of 14/100, with critics expressing "overwhelming dislike", based on eight ratings.[2]

Variety magazine called it an "aggressively terrible horror quickie" and "proof that the found-footage horror cycle has finally reached its low ebb".[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Evidence (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Evidence Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
  3. ↑ Foundas, Scott (July 25, 2013). "'Evidence' Review: Radha Mitchell Stars in Terrible Horror Quickie". Variety. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
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