recommended

Fantastic!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I was very disappointed after watching this picture. They took a historic case and made a dumbed down, stupid and at times insulting story. On several occasions it tries to shock the audience by the killer being a communist, as if that would be worse than being a serial killer. Remember this is played out in the soviet state, being a communist was a very good thing and even required. The way the story is told is not at all fitting to the surroundings. Not worth watching, go see Citizen X instead.

I have to admit, I've long been hesitant to watch "Evilenko". For one, I rather liked "Citizen X", thinking that very little could be added to the horrid story of Russian serial-killer Andrei Chikatilo. Another factor was that over the past few years we had gotten some very rotten acting by Malcolm McDowell (to mention only the tepid "Halloween"-Remake(s)), which made me believe that the old man had lost the last of his abilities."Evilenko" proved me wrong on both counts.Rather than being another retelling of "The Ripper of Rostov" (like I had come to expect), the story of "Evilenko" is actually only loosely based on the Chikatilo-case.Let's make that clear: McDowell plays a character that, in my opinion, counts amongst the most despicable, repulsive in cinema-history. A dirty old man out of the text-book from hell, without any redeeming qualities. Yet, through the sheer power of McDowells performance, the viewer cannot help but keep his eyes clued to the character of Evilenko – and worst, we're being sucked right into his mind, trying to analyze it, whether we want it or not. Nor does the actor allow us to perceive the character as a pure fiend or monster; he stays human though-out (despite the beast of a human) and that may well be the worst and most brilliant nuance of McDowells play.You may have noticed that this review mainly speaks about the actor McDowell. It could (and even should) be mentioned that the cinematography is splendid, the soundtrack compelling, fitting, the atmosphere is possibly darker and gloomier than "Citizen X", even. That and the actors (including the child-actors) to a large extent are excellent. But in essence the film is carried by Malcolm McDowell and thinking about the many negative reviews I've written about the actor in recent years; well they may not have been incorrect and won't apologize. McDowell has performed rather half a**sed in many inferior pictures, but I was definitely wrong with one thing: he still is a great actor, very well among the most powerful of his generation and I truly would have to pull my hat off, if I was wearing one.Not to call it a perfect movie, it definitely got it's weaknesses – loosing a little steam after the first half, the character which Ronald Pickup is slightly wasted, the revelation about Evilenkos father seems nothing but unnecessary and whether there was a need of Evilenkos "symbolic" powers of hypnotism remains questionable.Not withstanding, it's an excellent film, this much I can guarantee – however, I cannot guarantee that you will like it, be comfortable with it or feel better after having seen it. A horrible film, in the most positive of terms.7/10

I'm rather split between whether I like this movie or not. Sure, I did enjoy it but there are some things that kind of bothered me. Mostly small details that I felt were either completely wrong or just things that I felt that the writer had missed. But of course there where a lot of excellent things that were mentioned and really brought out about Andrei Chikatilo (a name he later took, for you who didn't already know). I liked how they brought out Chikatilos passion for communism. According to what i have read about him he was very patriotic and a communist party member, so therefor you can imagine that he actually was as he was portrayed in the movie when it came to communist politics. There was also the great acting of Malcolm McDowell. The way he portrayed how Chikatilo felt uneasy when he felt his blood lust return and how he became more calm afterward. Accordning to authors of various books on Chikatilo he had told the police after his arrest that it was like a craving he had and it could only be quenched by the blood of his victims. And you could see that under the surface of Chikatilo in the movie when he was out in public. As if he seemed rather anxious and uneasy but was trying to hide it so that nobody would realize it.But there were a lot of minor details that really bothered me. And I know this is just a movie and not really a documentary, but still. Like how he had no children in the movie, but the real life Chikatilo actually had 2. Yes he was impotent when it came to normal sex, but that doesn't make it impossible for them to have children. And then there was the fact that the main reason Chikatilo murdered people was because of sexual satisfaction through sadism. Chikatilo was a grade a sadist that only could achieve an orgasm through the pain of others. That's why he butchered and mutilated all those people. But instead they just skipped that whole part and drew it over as insanity. That was just all wrong. Chikatilo never was insane. (even though he tried for an insanity plea at court by acting as if he had various illnesses such as schizophrenia) He knew perfectly well what he was doing every single time. And what was up with that whole "hypnotist" bit? I mean that's the first time I've heard that about him. Sure he was said to have been very charismatic but I think that was taking it too far.But all in all I think you can enjoy this movie if you're a fan of other serial killer movies like this one (Dahmer, Bundy etc etc). I was a little bit to distracted about details to have enjoyed this to the fullest. And I've heard a lot of talk about this other movie about Andrei "Chikatilo" Romanovic and that it is better, but everyone has different taste so you never know.I give five because of my personal distractions. I'm not saying that it's bad at all. On the contrary, if you like this kind of movie you should definitely see it. If not, watch Hostel instead. It sucks, but at least the production values are good.Sorry for all the rambling. Cheers

Macolm Mcdowell did a great job in this movie as Andrej Romanovic Evilenko. His one of the best actors, but he played only in a few very good movies. In this and in A Clockwork Orange, but that was ages ago. Also Marton Csokas played very good as the police officer. Do not think this movie wasn't good, due to the bad reviews. Watch this movie yourself and you'll see it's very good. There are now like 160 votes on this movie because nobody knows it. IT IS as good as citizen X, Very different story, and a much better plot. The director, David Grieco, did a great job in working out the characters. You know more about the killer and about the police men, then in citizen X. Go to see this movie and you really enjoy it. 8/10