When one is dropped into a critical situation, and faced with a life or death choice, you have to act with purpose, and trust no one but yourself. But what happens if your judgement is compromised? Who do you trust when you can’t trust yourself? Face of Evil seeks to answer this question.
Our titular protagonist, Private Jay Williams, returns from a tour in the Middle East to a friend’s home in the states, where a surprise party awaits him. As the festivities get under way we meet Jay’s inner circle. The party is going well when all of a sudden one of the guests is infected with a strange virus and starts attacking everyone, transmitting the virus to each victim. Jay, startled and confused by what’s happening, searches for answers, until he meets up with his ex-sergeant, who reveals a horrifying secret that turns Jay’s world on it’s head. Together they fight for their lives and set out on a mission to find the mysterious Dr. Clark, the man who could be the key to everything.
The first of filmmaker Vito Dinatolo’s original three scripts, this is much more than a shallow gore-fest. Shot brilliantly, Face of Evil is at times colorful and vibrant, and at others stifling and utterly horrifying. The cinematography enhances the plot to a higher level by communicating the deep tension in every scene, weaving between heart stopping thrills, slowly building anxiety, and tense, emotionally charged moments with ease. As thematically complex as it is visually striking, at it’s core, the film’s story is complex and multifaceted. Masquerading as another formulaic survival based horror film, it uses this construct to subtly communicate powerful messages about the effects of war on our veterans, paranoia created by the threat of terrorism, society’s distrust of big government, and most of all fear, and how it changes us. From start to finish, Face of Evil is a powerful and gripping film, that will have you on the edge of your seat, and guessing until the very end.
Vito Dinatolo, the mind responsible for this film, is a writer, director, and producer, as well as editor and occasional actor, whose first film credit dates all the way back to 2004’s Branches. Dinatolo is also the owner of production company V-Movie. Face of Evil premiered at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival on September 22, 2016.
Follow all the latest on the film on their official Facebook Page.