History of Evil is a grab bag of grounded near future paranoia speculative fiction, southern gothic horror, haunted houses, magical realism, male fragility, and, I dunno, evil Lego bricks (sorry, wrong movie). It’s kind of a thematic and plot hodge-podge… though a well made one, at least.

The flick is set in a near future where fascists have taken over North America. Members of a resistance are placed in a safe house on their way to freedom… the safe house is safe because, I dunno, ghosts… locals are afraid of it. Too bad the evil militia didn’t get the spooky memo.

Yeah, take your pick: near future fundamentalist America with gun-totin’ fascists vs. racist ghosts… though also sexist ghosts… but also ghosts that don’t discriminate. Also, I dunno… probably evil cicadas or kudzu too… maybe toss in an evil Piggly Wiggly.

In other words, this flick might be ambitious but its lack of focus is a problem when the film just isn’t sturdy enough to carry all that weight. It’s got weird magical realism moments that tie into male toxicity which doesn’t have much to do with the militias or maybe even the other ghosties. Until maybe the end at which point the real enemy is man but also indiscriminate ghosts?

At least the movie is well made. It looks good, the actors are doing their jobs well, the soundscape and soundtrack are well integrated and create a pretty creepy mood.

The movie is competent and I kind of dig the ambition… if not the result. It’s imperfect with an interesting grab-bag of ideas that don’t come together in the end. A little more focus on either the speculative fiction near-future fascism or a less hazy ghost story would have been a better choice (and given there’s a zillion haunted house movies, leaning into the fascism angle would have been scarier).

Score: 72