| | Jacob [ JP DeStefano ] and his wife Beatriz [ Sheri Oster ] are living the dream. He a successful writer and she a real estate saleswoman. The two seem to have it all together. Great lives by any standard of measurement. The couple are joined by Beatriz’s father Paul [ John Maciag ] who has recently suffered a loss himself, but this is all only the set dressing for the film. Little by little, starting with Beatriz, things start happening. Supernatural things. Bumps bangs and the usual haunting fare. It’s when John begins acting strange himself, that Beatriz finally has no doubt something strange is happening. In the form of a witch/demon/monster.
Quicker now, John’s visions, or nightmares as Jacob call them, increase and the ill fated Jenny [ Jenna Garcia ] has her own experiences. Still skeptical, but growing into a believer more and more by the minute, Jacob struggles to figure it all out and piece it all together. It’s only at this point does the true story behind Bounded By Evil present itself. It’s not what you think. This isn’t so much a story of a haunting; more like one of residuals and payment for life choices. Writer/Director Eli Gray manages a decent plot twist that turns around the entire film. Pretty cool for a micro budget film. As a micro budget title we don’t get to see any A list actors and you can’t expect an Oscar worthy performance; but that doesn’t make the acting here bad. The way I see it? Bounded By Evil presents itself well enough that you won’t be laughing as the cast have conversations. It’s not perfect though, and some of the dialog was probably recorded after filming and can seem a tad scripted. This is all balanced out by a heavy scoring track that diverts attention to some of the more scripted dialog; and also adds tension to the film. The score is well done and fits making this a very moody film. There is also a grit in this movie that allowed me to get into the story. A real feeling even for those who treat the supernatural as a bogus word. But did I get that creepy, apprehensive feeling when I was watching? Maybe not as much as Eli Gray had hoped but yes. There are some good moments. If I had any real complaints it would be that the twisty plot change wasn’t hinted at more. There are characters that don’t even show up until the end of the film. Characters that are actually important to the story. It would have been nice to have an occasional hint, or once in a while cut to what was actually happening with these other characters. I also didn’t much care for the exorcism scene. I felt it was over dramatic and didn’t really make any sense at all, when I considered what was really happening with Jacob. I did like the breaking point for him though. If ya know what I mean. Bounded By Evil was a moody venture into the supernatural. Falling inline with movies of today, it did have a twist ending that was actually pretty good. It’s amazing what can be done in the independent micro film world now days. Bounded By Evil proves indie doesn’t always mean yucky.
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