This is yet another movie that I caught the last third of when I was a kid. I'm not sure exactly how old I was but it would have to have been when I was around nine or ten. It was on a cable channel (it was USA or Sci-Fi Channel, I can't remember which) and my mom was watching it when she called me. It was at the scene where Evolver traps the little sister of Kyle Baxter in the swimming pool and I watched the rest of the movie to the end. I thought it was pretty cool, even though I only saw the last thirty minutes of it. I didn't see it again for years but I remembered it enough to eventually order the DVD from Amazon (I'd seen the DVD in places like Wal-Mart but hadn't bought it). Reliving it was very nostalgic and while it's no classic, I think it's a fun little B-movie from the 90's.
Kyle Baxter, a whiz at video games, enters a contest to win a home version of a popular virtual reality called Evolver. He hacks into the database of the company manufacturing the game and when it's revealed he came in second place, he secretly changes the results so he comes out as the winner. The game, which comes in the form of a small robot, is delivered to his house. The robot is programmed to win at all costs and leave no survivors. It's supposed to be just a game and everything is fine at first. But soon, Evolver begins to act more and more aggressive and dangerous in the way it plays the game. Kyle eventually discovers that Evolver's original program is that of a military weapon that went awry with deadly consequences. Now the robot has reverted back to its dangerous programing and is determined to eliminate its primary enemy: Kyle himself.
Evolver was written and directed by Mark Rosman. Rosman's best know claim to fame as director is the 1983 slasher flick, The House on Sorority Row. Other than that, he's not that well known and other than some little known movies, (the best known being A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff), he's mainly worked in television on shows like Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, Ghost Whisperer, and Greek. I thought he did a fairly good job in directing this movie. It's not groundbreaking by any means and is mainly a slasher movie only with a toy robot committing the murders but for what it is, it's pretty decent. It's not that tongue-in-cheek either. Rosman writes it fairly straight and often succeeds in making the robot a genuinely menacing presence.
It helps that the movie's mainly teenage cast is a bit above average when compared to most of these teen horror movies. The main character, Kyle Baxter, is played by Ethan Randall. He's a likable lead. He doesn't have much charisma overall but you do care about him. There's a minor subplot about his parents being divorced and it's caused him to shut himself off from most people but he never comes across as a douchebag, which he easily could. He also disapproves of his mother going out most of the time and dating but by the end of the film, they've overcome it and in a way, the horror of Evolver brings the small family closer together. Even though he rigs the contest so he's the one who wins Evolver, he only did it because a friend pressured him into it so he's a decent person. He's also brave enough to face Evolver when the robot threatens his loved ones and he's the one who ultimately destroys him.
Also likable is Cassidy Rae as Jamie Saunders, Kyle's love interest. Their relationship is at first combative since she interfered with a game Kyle is playing at the beginning and ruins his chance at the score that could have legitimately won him the Evolver robot. She comes off as a smart-ass when she mocks him, saying that he can have the robot because she's not into dolls but she does show up at his house to apologize for screwing up his game. They start to become very close and when she learns how distant Kyle is from other people, she tries to break through to him. She can also relate to him because her parents are divorced too. She manages to get through to Kyle and they become a couple. By the end of the film after Evolver has been destroyed, she asks him, "Still like computers?" He says, "People have got their good points too." Like Kyle, she's also brave enough to fight against Evolver and she saves Kyle's sister from the robot just when it's about to kill her. She also helps Kyle fight Evolver during the climax.
One interesting character is Nassira Nicola as Kyle's little sister Ali. Even though she's only like nine years old, she has to cook dinner most of the time because their mother is too busy. First time we see her, Kyle hasn't come down to dinner and she says, "I'm going to kill him." It's almost like she's his wife rather than his sister! She's also a real smart-mouth towards Evolver, which comes back to bite her when the robot turns deadly and almost kills her and later holds her and her mother hostage. I didn't find Ali all that annoying. I must have a high tolerance for kids in movies or something but little kids in horror movies almost never bug me. There is one scene where she's playing with Evolver right after Kyle has found out how dangerous he is and when he tries to warn Ali over the phone, she says, "Got to go now. I'm playing." That did annoy me but mainly because she doesn't know that she's in big trouble and that Evolver could kill her. I guess that means they did something right with her.
Cindy Pickett plays Kyle and Ali's mom Melanie. As I said, she's often not at home and is either working or dating, which Kyle objects to. Melanie does realize that Kyle is not happy about her and their father being divorced and later when Evolver is revealed to be a threat, she admits that she should have noticed that something was wrong but she wasn't around enough to do so. She promises to be around the house for her kids more often. I'm exploring this much deeper than the film itself but there's not much else I can say about Ms. Pickett other than she does a capable job.
Chance Quinn plays Zach, Kyle's best friend. Zach could easily have been an obnoxious character because he's a bit of sleazebag but Quinn makes him funny enough to where you do like him. In the opening, he's actually taking bets on whether or not Kyle will win the game he's playing. He says, "You never know. He may choke." Kyle says, "Thanks a lot, Zach." His response: "Hey, business is business." He's the one who gets Kyle to hack into the company's database and change the scores. I don't know why he was so determined for Kyle to win the Evolver. He's either a really good friend or wanted to play it himself. (I'm guessing the latter.) He also gets the perverted idea of having Evolver record video footage of naked girls in the locker room that he can sell for money later. Yeah, he's a sleaze. His determination to get the footage almost gets him killed when he takes Evolver to his house to extract the memory disc and Evolver attacks him. He's one of the few to survive his run-in with Evolver. He's taken to the hospital after Evolver causes a car to fall him and even though we never see him again, you hear that he's pulling through. Zach was sleazy but likable enough to where you did care about him.
John De Lancie, best known for playing Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation, plays Russell Bennett, Evolver's designer. He knows that the program he worked on for the military, S.W.O.R.D., is potentially dangerous but he wants to prove that it can work by putting it in Evolver. He's a not bad man, however. When he sees initial footage on Evolver's memory of the robot playing rough with Ali, he makes excuses for it, saying she was below the targeted age group, despite the company president's irritation at what he saw. But when Bennett sees the footage of Evolver hunting down and killing a bully named Dwight, he realizes that his invention has become deadly again. Even though he lied to Kyle about Evolver's programming and is still trying to explain himself after Ali is nearly killed by the robot, he does legitimately regret what he's done. Unfortunately, he stupidly boots Evolver back up, which leads to him and another man being killed and Kyle and his family being put in further danger. I never cared for the way he dies, though. After Evolver causes the van they're in to crash, Bennett tries to get out a window but can't. He tries to play it off like he's stuck but you don't see anything he's stuck under and just makes it look like he's too lazy to get out.
Evolver himself is a pretty cool little creation. Because of his small size, you wouldn't think that he'd be that much of a threat but those around him or who encounter him tend to underestimate and don't realize how dangerous he is until it's too late. When that bully Dwight encounters him in the locker room, he dismisses him and at one point, says, "Go ahead. Hurt me." He ends up getting a small metal ball right in the eye, in the leg, and ultimately in the forehead which causes him to fall down the stairs, breaking his neck. Evolver also lives up to his name. Each time he's defeated on a level of gameplay, he goes to the next level, becoming more advanced and harder to defeat. These upgrades include his head extending so he can get a better view of his enemies, his arm-cannon developing more turrets, a laser sight appearing from his arm, etc. Ultimately, he becomes a bulky, heavily armored little killing machine that can fire deadly lasers and move quite fast. The animatronics are quite good as well. They do their job well enough to make you believe that this is a real little robot.
Even though he's a machine, Evolver does have a personality that develops over time. He's voiced, surprisingly, by William H. Macy. Macy manages to bring something to the character that I don't think other actors would have. For one, he changes his voice over the course of the film. When he first speaks, Evolver has a placid, friendly-sounding voice that sounds like what you would expect an emotionless computer programmed to entertain people to sound like. However, as he reverts back to his deadly programming, his voice becomes more and more threatening. He also develops a hatred for Kyle since he keeps beating him and you can hear it in his voice. By the climax when he's evolved into his ultimate form, he's not messing around anymore and takes Melanie and Ali hostage to ensure that Kyle plays the game. Evolver begins making little quips during his attacks, repeating stuff he's heard from other sources and coming up with stuff of his own. When he's about to kill Bennett who tells him he's not his enemy, Evolver programs him as such into his memory and says, "You are now!" Bennett also tries to shut him down with a code that worked before but when he says, "Delete," Evolver responds, "Delete this!" before killing him. He also grows arrogant. When Kyle scores a winning bulls-eye, he says it with surprise and bewilderment. Unable to accept the fact that he's been beaten, he almost blows a fuse yelling, "Evolver can't loose!" and basically short-circuiting. But even after he should admit defeat, he attacks Kyle again, saying, "Evolver NEVER loses." If I have only one major complaint about the movie, it's this last confrontation. You see Evolver boot back up downstairs but the next thing you know, he comes out from behind the door of a room which he couldn't have gotten behind without someone seeing him. I know that's a cliche in horror movies but this one was really glaring to me.
The music in this movie is also well done. It has a cool, cyberpunk sound to it. It's eerie and atmospheric when it has to be and yet can be exciting and frantic during the attack sequences as well as sound warm during Kyle and Jamie's romantic moments. The best part of the score is the eerie main theme that plays during the opening and closing credits. It sets a good mood. Some other threatening pieces of music are when Evolver is secretly sucking power from electric sockets in the house as well as the scene where you see him absorbing power in an electricity station before moving on to confront Kyle for the final battle.
Evolver is a fun 90's B-movie. It may not be a classic but it's a fun watch. At only 91 minutes, it's brief and to the point. The actors do their job well, the animatronics of Evolver are well done, the action sequences are exciting, it plays itself fairly straight, and it's all wrapped up nice at the end. Unfortunately, this is another movie that uses sequel-bait at the end when the camera shows Evolver's still functioning head-piece at the end and through its POV shot, the words KILL NOT CONFIRMED come up. This movie had no chance of having sequel because it went virtually unnoticed at the box-office and few people know about it. Again, it's not Oscar-worthy by any means. But if you're in the mood for a nice, fun, competently made little sci-fi/horror flick, I'd suggest giving it a watch.
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