Evilenko

Last updated

Evilenko
Tlareleasingevilenko.jpg
UK DVD cover
Directed by David Grieco
Written byDavid Grieco
Produced byMario Cotone
Starring Malcolm McDowell
Marton Csokas
Ronald Pickup
Frances Barber
John Benfield
Vernon Dobtcheff
CinematographyFabio Zamarion
Edited byFrancesco Bilotti
Massimo Fiocchi
Music by Angelo Badalamenti
Dolores O'Riordan
Production
companies
Pacific Pictures
MiBAC
Distributed byMikado (Italy)
TLA Releasing (UK)
Jinga Films
Release date
  • 16 April 2004 (2004-04-16)(Italy)
Running time
111 minutes [1]
CountryItaly
LanguageEnglish
Budget$9.7 million

Evilenko is a 2004 English-language Italian crime horror thriller film very loosely based on the Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. Written and directed by David Grieco, the film stars Malcolm McDowell, Marton Csokas, and Ronald Pickup.

Contents

Plot

In 1984, in Kyiv, schoolteacher Andrej Romanovich Evilenko is dismissed from his position after attempting to rape a pupil. Driven by his psychopathic urges and embittered by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Evilenko begins to rape, kill, and cannibalise women and children. It is hinted throughout the movie that Evilenko somehow gained the power to hypnotise his victims, which accounts for their lack of resistance and his continuous evasion of the authorities.

Vadim Timurouvic Lesiev, a magistrate and family man, is assigned to catch the serial killer. For years, Evilenko eludes Lesiev and psychiatrist Aron Richter, who is assigned to profile the killer. Richter eventually finds Evilenko with a little girl and manages to break Evilenko's hypnotic hold on her, but is killed by Evilenko in retaliation; although it appears to Evilenko that she is run over by a train, the girl escapes alive.

Almost two years later, Lesiev finally captures Evilenko, who by now has killed 55 people, mostly children and young women. On 22 May 1992, Evilenko goes to court, and on 14 February 1994, he is finally executed. Before his execution, two governments expressed interest in Evilenko's psychic abilities and asked for extradition of Evilenko but were denied.

Cast

Production

The story is a fictionalization of the life and crimes of serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. Large segments of the film were adapted from Grieco's novel entitled The Communist Who Ate Children. The character is renamed Andrei Evilenko in reference to Chikatilo. [2]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Angelo Badalamenti and features two tracks with Dolores O'Riordan, "Angels Go to Heaven" and "No Way Out". It has been released in 2004 on CD digipak by Italian music label Minus Habens Records.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrei Chikatilo</span> Soviet serial killer (1936–1994)

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was a Soviet serial killer nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, the Rostov Ripper, and the Red Ripper who sexually assaulted, murdered, and mutilated at least fifty-two women and children between 1978 and 1990 in the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Uzbek SSR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm McDowell</span> British actor (born 1943)

Malcolm McDowell is an English actor. He is known for portraying Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange (1971) and the title character in the "Mick Travis trilogy" (1968–1982). McDowell is the recipient of an Evening Standard British Film Award, alongside nominations for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

<i>Citizen X</i> 1995 American crime drama television film directed by Chris Gerolmo

Citizen X is a 1995 American television film which covers the efforts of detectives in the Soviet Union to capture an unknown serial killer of women and children in the 1980s, and the bureaucratic obstacles they encounter. The film is based upon the true story of Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted in 1992 of the murder of 52 women and children committed between 1978 and 1990. It stars Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, and Max Von Sydow. The film is based on Robert Cullen's non-fiction book The Killer Department, published in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marton Csokas</span> New Zealand actor (born 1966)

Marton Paul Csokas is a New Zealand actor of film, stage, and television. A graduate of the Toi Whakaari drama school, he has worked extensively in Australia and Hollywood, along with his native country, and often portrays villainous roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Pickup</span> British actor (1940–2021)

Ronald Alfred Pickup was an English actor. He was active in television, film, and theatre, beginning with a 1964 appearance in Doctor Who. Theatre critic Michael Billington described him as "a terrific stage star and an essential member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre company". His major screen roles included the title role in The Life of Verdi and Prince Yakimov in Fortunes of War (1987).

Norman Afzal Simons, known as The Station Strangler, is a South African rapist and suspected serial killer who was convicted in 1995 of the rape and murder of 10-year-old Elroy van Rooyen. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Mukhankin</span> Russian serial killer

Vladimir Anatolyevich Mukhankin is a Russian serial killer, convicted for the murder of 9 people in Rostov Oblast in 1995.

<i>Child 44</i> (film) 2015 film

Child 44 is a 2015 mystery thriller film directed by Daniel Espinosa, written by Richard Price, and based on Tom Rob Smith's 2008 novel of the same name. The film stars an ensemble cast featuring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke, and Vincent Cassel. It was released on 17 April 2015. Both the novel and the film are very loosely based on the case of Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. The film was a box office bomb, grossing just $13 million against its $50 million budget.

Necrophilia is a pathological fascination with dead bodies, which often takes the form of a desire to engage with them in sexual activities, such as intercourse. Though prohibited by the laws of many countries, there have been many reported cases of necrophilia throughout history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Grieco</span>

David Grieco is an Italian director, screenwriter and former actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikhail Popkov</span> Russian serial killer and rapist (born 1964)

Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov is a Russian serial killer, rapist, and necrophile who committed the sexual assault and murder of seventy-eight girls and women between 1992 and 2010 in Angarsk, Irkutsk, in Siberia, and Vladivostok in Far East, although he has confessed to and is suspected of at least eighty-three in total. He is known as "The Werewolf" and the "Angarsk Maniac" for the particularly brutal nature of his crimes; he would extensively mutilate the bodies of his victims and perform sexual acts on them. He is the most prolific serial killer in Russian history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konstantin Cheryomushkin</span> Soviet serial killer and rapist

Konstantin G. Cheryomushkin, known as The Bataysk Maniac and Chikatilo's Double, was a Soviet serial killer. He raped and killed four girls in the satellite town of Bataysk in Rostov-on-Don, Rostov Oblast, Russian SFSR.

Roman Vladimirovich Burtsev, known as The Kamensky Chikatilo, is a Russian serial killer and pedophile. Between 1993 and 1996, he raped and strangled six young children: five girls and one of the victims' brother. He committed all of the crimes in his hometown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikolai Shestakov</span> Soviet serial killer and rapist

Nikolai Porfirievich Shestakov, known as The Luberetsky Maniac, was a Soviet serial killer and rapist, who worked as a truck driver.

Yuri Leonidovich Tsiuman, known as The Black Tights Killer, and The Night Guest, is a Soviet serial killer. All of his victims are reported to have worn pantyhoses. This article of clothing became known as the killer's "calling card."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasily Smirnov (serial killer)</span> Soviet serial killer, rapist and cannibal

Vasily Alexandrovich Smirnov, known as The Gatchina Psychopath, was a Soviet serial killer, rapist, cannibal, brigand, robber, and arsonist.

Yuri Anufrievich Ivanov (Russian: Ю́рий Ану́фриевич Ивано́в; 1956–1989), known as The Ust-Kamenogorsk Maniac, was a Soviet rapist and serial killer. Over the span of 13 years, he raped and killed 16 girls and women.

Andrey Sergeyеvich Yezhov, known as The Kashirsky Maniac, was a Russian serial killer and rapist who was forensically linked to at least nine sexually-motivated attacks against young girls and women in Moscow's Kashirsky and Stupinsky districts from 2010 to 2020, seven of which were fatal. He was arrested and later admitted to the respective crimes, but hanged himself in the detention center before he could be charged.

Andrei Ivanovich Barausov, known as The Lensky Maniac, is a Soviet-Russian serial killer and rapist who murdered at least 7 underage girls in Sakha from 1983 to 1997. Most of these killings remained unsolved until early January 2023, when Barausov, now serving a sentence for serial rape, confessed to them.

References

  1. "EVILENKO (15)". British Board of Film Classification . 23 May 2006. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  2. "crime-mystery.info". Archived from the original on 15 February 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2017.