Many years ago the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup folks had an awesome ad campaign that went like this:
"Hey. you got your peanut butter in my chocolate!"
"Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!"
"You're both right! It's two great tastes that taste great together!"
The main reason I remember this ancient TV commercial is because I see a lot of horror movies. And I find myself thinking "Hey, you got your Alien in my Silent Hill!" or something similarly silly. I mention all of this nonsense because of a goofy new horror thriller called Evidence, which I'd describe thusly:
"Hey, you got your found footage horror film in my boring cop story!"
"Hey, you got your boring cop story in my..."
You get the point.
Rare is the film that feels more like two small movies wedged together, but that's precisely what Evidence is. Wholly familiar, entirely predictable, yet still oddly watchable, Evidence is about two detectives who spend an evening scanning through a videotape that was found at the location of a horrific mass murder.
Story A: the detectives (Stephen Moyer and Radha Mitchell, both likable but not exactly working hard) scan through the videotapes and rattle off all the in-between exposition we need. It's very basic and rote material, but the actors are solid enough, which helps a lot.
Story B: a "found footage" presentation of (get this) several happy young people on their way to an event before their car breaks down and they start getting picked off in a deserted little town. If you've seen maybe six slasher movies and four found-footage flicks, you've seen everything that Evidence's B-story has to offer. And yet it still has a touch of creepy cleverness here and there.
By now you've realized that Evidence doesn't have an original ion to speak of, but that's not to say you won't find some amusement here. All the stuff you need from both sub-genres (the cop story and the horror flick) are dutifully addressed, and to be fair the third act of Evidence is entertainingly awash in misdirection, red herrings, and weird twists -- but there's just nothing here that'll stick in your memory banks for more than a day or two.
For all its familiarity, Evidence is a solid advancement for director Olatunde Osunsanmi (after The Cavern and The Fourth Kind) and first-time screenwriter John Swetnam deserves some credit for at least combining horror flicks and police procedurals into a diverting little cable flick. Ultimately, Evidence is a passable afternoon time-waster but not much more. Horror fans who also love network detective shows will probably dig it well enough.